As if what happened in the Arabia in the seventh century and spread to most of the known world in the next three centuries was a phantom, Wall Street Journal reports some strange developments in Germany:
MÜNSTER, Germany — Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and Germany’s first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the Muslim holy month, doesn’t like to shake hands with Muslim women and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says, guides his life.
So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet Muhammad probably never existed.
Read a translated excerpt from “Islamic Theology Without the Historic Muhammad — Comments on the Challenges of the Historical-Critical Method for Islamic Thinking” by Professor Kalisch.
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Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn’t portray the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center to more-secure premises.
“We had no idea he would have ideas like this,” says Thomas Bauer, a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that appointed Prof. Kalisch. “I’m a more orthodox Muslim than he is, and I’m not a Muslim.”
When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways can mingle — and counter the influence of radical preachers in Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of Germany’s oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.
Read more about the Wall Street Journal news:
To me such conspiracies, suddenly arising out of thin air are fulfillment of the first part of the verse of the Holy Quran that is the title of this news item. The verse along with the one that follows it are:
They desire to extinguish the light of Allah with the breath of their mouths, but Allah will perfect His light, even if the disbelievers hate it. He it is Who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the Religion of truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all religions, even if those who associate partners with God hate it. (Al Quran 61:9-10)
As we witness the first part of these prophecies coming true in what Sven Kalisch is hatching, we can feel assured that we will soon be witnessing the subsequent developments outlined in the above verses as well.
Kalisch’s theory represents an extreme reaction, an inability to recognize the natural need of Christianity to evolve into Islam, demonstrating Islamophobia and a reluctance to give Islam the due that it deserves.
Here is a collection of my articles about the Holy Prophet Muhammad, may peace be on him:
http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/the-holy-prophet-muhammad-and-the-holy/1qhnnhcumbuyp/283
To read an article, Muhammad: the Light for the Dark Ages of Europe!:
The top picture in this post is of Mosque of Medina that was first built by the Holy Prophet Muhammad and the second picture in the post is of the cave of Hira, near Mecca, where he received his first revelation!
Categories: CHRISTIANITY, Europe, Germany, Islam, Islamophobia
“And they planned, and Allah also planned; and Allah is the Best of planners.” (Al Quran 3:55)
Sammi Jones comments in Wall Street Journal under this news item:
“The Quran says that froth vanishes and disappears but the good knowledge which benefits poeple will be eternal, your assumption is frothy (professor) and it will vanish and be forgotten, while Muhammad’s prophecy will be eternal!”
Here is the verse he refers to:
Allah sends down water from the sky, so that valleys flow according to their measure, and the flood bears on its surface swelling foam. And from that which they heat in the fire, seeking to make ornaments or utensils, comes out a foam similar to it. Thus does Allah illustrate truth and falsehood. Now, as to the foam, it goes away as rubbish, but as to that which benefits men, it stays on the earth. Thus does Allah set forth parables. (Al Quran 13:18)
Unbelievable.. not even any of the usual enemies of Islam has come up with such a strange idea.
The appointment of Mohammad (peace be on him) as a Prophet is an absolutely logical sequence to the appointment of all earlier Prophets. If there were Prophets from the beginning of time up to Jesus, why should these revelations stop?
This is hilarious! Professor may be in Buddhist mode of Emptiness.
Whatever is his mindset, his choice of inclination towards non existence of the Holy Prophet (His remarks “I believe neither his existence nor his non-existence can be proven. I, however, lean towards the non-existence but I don’t think it can be proven”) will earn him enough name and fame in this world.
Absolutely crazy and totally un-academic. The life of the Holy Prophet (peace be on him) is so closely documented and narrated. And not only his life but also the life of all his companions, and the history of the following dynasties. Just because Europe was in the ‘dark middle ages’ at that time and no proper records were kept of the happenings in Europe during the same period does not mean that the Arabs did not keep good records.
The text of the Holy Quran has been very accurately preserved and many Orientalists have been witness of this. Additionally, there is a common sense principle that whatever the Holy Quran says about contemporary issues should logically be taken on face value, otherwise it would have completely lost face in the eyes of its first adherents.
See a Google knol with its several comments, Compilation of the Holy Quran into a text:
http://knol.google.com/k/zia-shah/compilation-of-the-holy-quran-into-a/1qhnnhcumbuyp/54#