Burleigh - Its all about Muhammad : a biography of the worlds most notorious prophet

Its All About

Muhammad

Its All About

Muhammad

A Biography of the Worlds

Most Notorious Prophet

F. W. Burleigh

Copyright 2014 F. W. Burleigh

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newpaper, or broadcast.

Publishers Cataloging-in-Publication data

Burleigh, F. W.

Its all about Muhammad : a biography of the worlds
most notorious prophet / by F.W. Burleigh. First
edition.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

LCCN 2014939154

ISBN 978-0-9960469-0-9

1. Muhammad, Prophet, -632Biography. 2. Islam History. I. Title.

BP75.B87 2014 297.6 3092

QBI14-600072

Published in the United States of America by:

Zenga Books

Portland, OR

www.zengabooks.com

Cover illustration licensed from Clipart.com

Manufactured in the United States of America

This work quotes from The Life of Muhammad by al-Waqidi, 2011 Rizwi Faizer. Published by Routledge. Reproduced by permission of Taylor & Francis Books UK.

In memory of

Theo van Gogh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Introduction

I ts All About Muhammad is based almost entirely on the original literature of Islam: the biography by Ibn Ishaq, the history of Tabari, the collections of traditions of Bukhari, Muslim, and Abu Dawud, and the work of Waqidi and his student Ibn Sadcanonical sources one and all. Many other important sources were also referred to, among them the Koran commentary and the biography by the 14th century scholar Ibn Kathir. All these works are amply cited in the chapter notes.

In all, twenty thousand pages of material were given line-byline scrutiny. If readers find the Muhammad of this biography disturbing, it is because what is written about him in the original literature is disturbing. He was beyond all doubt an extremely violent man, and stories about his violence are found throughout the literature. Indeed, more than two-thirds of the canonical biographical materials have to do with the violence he used to spread his religion.

What is interesting is that none of the original writers seem to have been disturbed by this. They were committed believers who swore by the first pillar of Islam, the primary declaration of faith: There is but one God, and Muhammad is his messenger. They were convinced Muhammad could do no wrong since all that he did was in furtherance of Allahs cause, so they faithfully reported all that he did no matter how chilling, no matter how cold-blooded. In so doing, they provided abundant evidence of crimes of murder, mass murder, plunder, enslavement, torture, and more. If these historical records are as authentic as Muslims believe them to be, Muhammad committed almost every crime listed by the International Criminal Court as constituting a crime against humanity.

Muslims are obligated by their faith to follow the diktats of Muhammads Koran. Many of his verses were intended as incitements to commit violence against people who rejected him. Muslims are also obligated to follow his example in all thingshis Sunna. This covers a lot of ground, but it includes the example of his brutality against people who refused to accept him and his religion. Muslims are violent because Muhammad was violent, plainly and simply. This has been so since the beginning of what he created fourteen hundred years ago, and this will continue for as long as what he created is allowed to continue.

Muhammad penchant for violence was abnormal and needs to be explained. This is actually quite simple: He was the product of an epileptic temporal lobe that gave him feelings of communing with the divine joined with a pathological psychology. He believed God commanded him to do whatever he did, no matter how ungodly, and he was obedient to his Lord. The evidence that he suffered from epileptic seizures can be found in the literature: instances of falling to the ground, visions of light that dazzled before him or of objects that remained in front of him no matter which direction he looked; the froth of saliva that spotted his cheeks when he came out of it, and so forth. These are classic symptoms of the falling sickness, as epilepsy has been called. Even his contemporaries thought he was devil possessedthe ancient explanation for epilepsy.

That his epileptic experiences led him to believe God talked to him is one of the important themes of this book. Another is that he was a psychopath, the product of unfortunate early life circumstances that he did not choose, but were imposed on him. His early childhood is explored in the book. He is understandable. He was a victim, but then became a victimizer. There are precise, scientific terms for his psychological complexities, but psychopath is a useful catch-all that does the chore of conveying that there was something dangerously flawed about him. What word but psychopath applies to a man who once directed the beheading of as many as nine hundred men and boysone per minute for a solid fifteen hoursbecause they refused to accept him as their prophet? Hands tied behind their backs, they were dragged to the edge of a trench, and two of Muhammads first cousins chopped their heads off while he sat nearby and watched. He was a cold-blooded killer, cruel and heartless to people who rejected him. In short, a psychopath.

These themes intertwine. They are like conjoined twins that can never be separated. His epileptic experiences brought him to believe God talked to him; the psychopath in him led him to kill people who refused to believe it. The resulting terror he created was the key to his success in imposing his religion, which was the product of his epileptic delusions.

This book contains twenty-five illustrations, all of them scenes inspired by the original literature. Half of them are graphic renditions of atrocities Muhammad committed. Muslims have a ban against depicting their prophet, and it is easy to see why: The truth about him is horrific, and depicting him opens up a Pandoras Box. A lot of headless bodies are stuffed inside that box. If you have no prior knowledge of this subject, it is possible to get a good idea about Muhammad and what he created just by examining these illustrations and reading the captions. Better yet is to read the entire book, including the chapter notes. There is a great benefit in doing so.

A few observations about vocabulary:

Many words that are usually found in writings about Muhammad are omitted in this work. Take the word revelation, for example. The standard wordingeven in books authored by people who should know betteris that God revealed the Koran to Muhammad; he received revelations; God handed down verses to him, and so forth. The use of this word in a book about Muhammad establishes that the author believes or gives credibility to the idea that Muhammad was divinely inspired. This, of course, is nonsense. If there truly were a God capable of coming up with what is in the Koran and transmitting it to a vicious killer like Muhammad, all creation would rise up in rebellion. The phraseology of this book is disciplined: Muhammad was the author the Koran. He came up with verses; he composed verses. The Koran was his handiwork, his composition. These are plain, simple, and true statements, and these are the words used in this book to express the straightforward truth.