Was Muhammed mislead or deceived?

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I wonder often about how Muhammed was deceived. I say deceived because I am certain that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Aside from my own belief, we have the testimony of so many witnesses to the faith – living and those who have departed as St. Paul refers to them “a great cloud of witnesses”.

I started to do some research about my question. My original thought was that perhaps Muhammed was into some sort of idolatry when he went into that cave and thus had opened the door to deception from the evil one. Perhaps he went about seeking God through occult means. This is my conclusion so far. Then there is the other conclusion that he had issues. I just cannot understand otherwise how someone who truly sought God with his whole heart could be led so far astray.

I’ll leave it at that and ask for your thoughts on the subject. :egyptian:
 
I found this link in Wikipedia which gives some history – I am pretty familiar with this story but it was good to read it. I want to find more information on Muhammed though. If anyone has any other trustworthy sources, I would appreciate it. :thankyou:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad#Pre-Islamic_Arabia
 
He was an opportunist and political leader.

Therefore he was a liar.
 
Obviously from a “Christian” perspective, Muhammed’s beliefs and ideas concerning God and Christ were wrong.

I do not believe he set out to deceive anyone. He had a deeply moving religious experience and he tried to frame that experience in the belief and theology of the day he was familiar with.

He was influenced by Christian sects concerning some of his ideas about Jesus and Mary…the Qur’an “takes for granted” peoples knowledge of OT characters. He drew heavily upon Judaism and Christianity to “flesh out” his theology.

I do believe he had a religious experience…but then I believe the same about Mary Baker Eddy and Joseph Smith…who’s theology took them away from “orthodoxy”…their experiences “translated” into an “alternate” understanding of God…I think they are wrong…but that doesn’t make them liars or charlatans…it makes their experience with God different than mine…
 
I think he was honest accounting for his experience, but my best guess is that his mind and culture led him astray. After reading the Quran, my conclusion is that it’s the same as the Old Testament prophets, who knew only one part of God. So to me, Islam is the same as modern Judaism.
 
Feram_Crucis said:
I think he was honest accounting for his experience, but my best guess is that his mind and culture led him astray. After reading the Quran, my conclusion is that it’s the same as the Old Testament prophets, who knew only one part of God. So to me, Islam is the same as modern Judaism.
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Friend, I do agree with you.
 
Feram_Crucis said:
I think he was honest accounting for his experience, but my best guess is that his mind and culture led him astray. After reading the Quran, my conclusion is that it’s the same as the Old Testament prophets, who knew only one part of God. So to me, Islam is the same as modern Judaism.
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The problem isnt the quran its the hadiths that are a problem. Without the hadiths that quran can not be interpretted.
 
I sometimes think of that, maybe he was both mislead and deceived.

But I think the main point here is his 4 caliphs after him, whether they discovered that and decided to continue misleading and deceiving others in order to gain political power, one example would be when Umar burnt all copies of Quran and kept only his version.
 
Sam_777 said:
I sometimes think of that, maybe he was both mislead and deceived.

But I think the main point here is his 4 caliphs after him, whether they discovered that and decided to continue misleading and deceiving others in order to gain political power, one example would be when Umar burnt all copies of Quran and kept only his version.
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I like the part about the goat eating the quran also :))
 
During the time of Muhammed, the Arabian Peninsula was a lawless land. Roaming around that time were preachers and Jews, scattering stories about Jesus and Judaism. Muhammed was an illiterate boy who happened to be always on the caravan of merchant that goes from place to place. He grew up in this kind of livelihood and heard lots of stories, especially Bible stories. Because he was illiterate, he memorized rather than read.

During his adult life, he was more interested on religion and at the same time realizing the situation of the land which was still a no mans land with no government and law. Because of his wealth from his first marriage to a wealthy merchant, he became very prominent and obsessed to lead. With no luck in leadership personality, he ventured into a religious cult inventing stories. He was rejected in earlier stage but later became famous because of his invented stories, especially with the encounter and revelation from God.

Being Arab, one has to be proud to have an Arab original story of revelation and that what made the story of Muhammed became very popular and gained following. Besides, the motivation were to hate Christians and Jews. We all know that Christians and Jews are foreigners therefore it was easy for Arabs to cast them out. Especially that Christians and Jews dominated most of the religious stories at that time and having successful businesses all over the land.

While Muhammed can not write, he dictated his revelations to his followers. That is why there are no records of his revelations. It was through the memories of many of his crew that the revelations are kept therefore several different kinds to stories came out until they were sorted according to the closest reliable version. Most of the passages in the Quran can be found in the Bible. They are copycat stories which obviously some are told different, and sometimes like a folk lore.

For me, Muhammed was either misled or deceived. He was just lucky to get successful in his quest for glory for his country and people. His biggest mistake is because he made a very poor religion. And the biggest mistake is that because the Quran is the contradiction to the Holy Bible.
 
Sam_777 said:
I sometimes think of that, maybe he was both mislead and deceived.

But I think the main point here is his 4 caliphs after him, whether they discovered that and decided to continue misleading and deceiving others in order to gain political power, one example would be when Umar burnt all copies of Quran and kept only his version.
Click to expand...
This is somewhat along with my thinking as well. There are too many dubious reports about his true behavior. However, Im more to blaming the Devil himself…taking scripture using humans to deceive and complicate Truths.

MJ
 
Anybody who knows the details, please correct me because I admit to being only peripherally familiar with Islam. But didn’t Mohammed claim to have been taken up to heaven from that spot in Jerusalem (the former location of the Jewish temple Holy of Holies and current site of the Dome of the Rock) in a manner similar to Elijah? Didn’t he explicitly claim that this was a REAL physical occurence, not a dream of vision?

If I understand this correctly, then it is simply not possible that Mohammed was a sincere and earnest, but misguided man honestly seeking God. I can see only three possible outcomes:
  1. He really is who he says he is, the last and greatest prophet of God (Allah).
  2. He was mentally ill and really did believe that all that happened even though it did not.
  3. He was a masterful liar and opportunist seeking power, glory and prestige for himself.
#2 seems highly improbably as I have a hard time believing a mentally ill man could acheive the leadership feats he later did.

#1 cannot be reconciled with the reality of Jesus as Messiah and Son of God (rising from the dead is a pretty good trick, eh?), so #1 cannot be true.

Reluctantly, I must conclude that #3 is the most likely scenario. Which, by the way, means nothing about the sincerity of about a billion muslims in the world. I expect that they generally sincerely believe that Mo was the prophet he claimed to be. Which leaves us in the tricky spot of figuring out how to reach them. Simply stating #3 outright doesn’t seem like a very productive approach does it? (Not to mention the risk to your neck in saying so…) Probably best that we simply make it clear that we don’t agree without being “in their face” about it.
 
Personally i beleive Muhammad was decieved. Primarily this is due to his story of his “revelation” which involved very unangelic behavior on the part of an angel contrary to depictions of angelic appearances in the bible.

To me this implies he was decieved (even the devil can appear as an angel of light) even though there is some good in Islam. Because even though he clearly had faith in his experience the said experience doesn;t neccesarily have to be from the holiest source and considering the Qurans own account and the fruits of Islam throughout history, it seems likely that Muhammads “revelation” came from a source quite a bit less holy than muslims believe.
 
Sam_777 said:
I sometimes think of that, maybe he was both mislead and deceived.

But I think the main point here is his 4 caliphs after him, whether they discovered that and decided to continue misleading and deceiving others in order to gain political power, one example would be when Umar burnt all copies of Quran and kept only his version.
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I will ned to investigate this theory – I have never heard it. It sounds interesting though. Thank you for your (name removed by moderator)ut.
 
Here’s an interesting quote from Catholicos Timothy I (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_I_%28Nestorian_Patriarch%29) about Mohammed:

“Muhammad is worthy of all praise, by all reasonable people…He walked in the path of the prophets, and trod in the track of the lovers of God. All the prophets taught the doctrine of one God, and since Muhammad taught the doctrine of the unity of God, he walked, therefore, in the path of the prophets. Further, all the prophets drove men away from bad works, and brought them nearer to good works, and since Muhammad drove his people away from bad works and brought them nearer to the good ones, he walked, therefore, in the path of the prophets. Again, all the prophets separated men from idolatry and polytheism, and attached them to God and to His worship, and since Muhammad separated his people from idolatry and polytheism, and attached them to the worship and the knowledge of one God, beside whom there is no other God, it is obvious that he walked in the path of the prophets. Finally Muhammad taught about God, His Word and His Spirit, and since all the prophets had prophesied about God, His Word and His Spirit, Muhammad walked, therefore, in the path of all the prophets” (Apology of Timothy, 61).
 
rikkk1958 said:
During the time of Muhammed, the Arabian Peninsula was a lawless land. Roaming around that time were preachers and Jews, scattering stories about Jesus and Judaism. Muhammed was an illiterate boy who happened to be always on the caravan of merchant that goes from place to place. He grew up in this kind of livelihood and heard lots of stories, especially Bible stories. Because he was illiterate, he memorized rather than read.

During his adult life, he was more interested on religion and at the same time realizing the situation of the land which was still a no mans land with no government and law. Because of his wealth from his first marriage to a wealthy merchant, he became very prominent and obsessed to lead. With no luck in leadership personality, he ventured into a religious cult inventing stories. He was rejected in earlier stage but later became famous because of his invented stories, especially with the encounter and revelation from God.

Being Arab, one has to be proud to have an Arab original story of revelation and that what made the story of Muhammed became very popular and gained following. Besides, the motivation were to hate Christians and Jews. We all know that Christians and Jews are foreigners therefore it was easy for Arabs to cast them out. Especially that Christians and Jews dominated most of the religious stories at that time and having successful businesses all over the land.

While Muhammed can not write, he dictated his revelations to his followers. That is why there are no records of his revelations. It was through the memories of many of his crew that the revelations are kept therefore several different kinds to stories came out until they were sorted according to the closest reliable version. Most of the passages in the Quran can be found in the Bible. They are copycat stories which obviously some are told different, and sometimes like a folk lore.

Please state your reliable source of this information. This is very important to me. And thank you very much for your (name removed by moderator)ut. :thankyou:

For me, Muhammed was either misled or deceived. He was just lucky to get successful in his quest for glory for his country and people. His biggest mistake is because he made a very poor religion. And the biggest mistake is that because the Quran is the contradiction to the Holy Bible.
Click to expand...
 
MartinJordan said:
This is somewhat along with my thinking as well. There are too many dubious reports about his true behavior. However, Im more to blaming the Devil himself…taking scripture using humans to deceive and complicate Truths.

MJ
Click to expand...
Without a doubt. :amen:
 
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