by Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n
Middle East Quarterly<\/p>\n
Review of\u00a0Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam across the Centuries<\/em>\u00a0by Tarif Khalidi (New York: Doubleday, 2009. Pp. 327).<\/strong><\/p>\n True to its title, this study by a professor of Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut chronicles the myriad images of Muhammad throughout the ages, from the eighth-century biography by Ibn Ishaq to twentieth-century polemics and apologetics. Unfortunately, the book omits the more troubling images, the ones echoed in the behaviors of today’s more troubling Muslims. Such an approach has an ancient pedigree: Writing some 1,200 years ago, Ibn Hisham, editor of the earliest biography of Muhammad, admitted honestly that he omitted “things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which would distress certain people.” Khalidi follows the same pattern \u2014 though without Hisham’s candid disclaimer.<\/p>\n It is not that Khalidi does not acknowledge that negative images exist; he just shies from recounting the most notorious. Thus, while the reader will encounter Muhammad the commander, the lawgiver, the ethicist, even the Sufi mystic, images of Muhammad as war-monger, highway-bandit, misogynist, and assassin are lacking.<\/p>\n For example, the worst image Khalidi presents of Muhammad involves his killing an enemy combatant even though the latter begged for clemency. One would have thought Muhammad’s assassination of poets by deceit and other means \u2014 including one old woman, Umm Qirfa, whose body was rent in half[1] \u2014 calls for equal mention. Objectively speaking, such less than inspiring images deserve more prominence. After all, when pious believers pass down anecdotes that may reflect negatively on their prophet, it seems only reasonable to treat these, especially in comparison to the numerous praiseworthy images, as important factors of the Muhammad persona.<\/p>\n Ultimately, however, the book is useful in that it implicitly demonstrates how the concept of\u00a0sunna<\/em>\u00a0(a model of Muslim behavior based on the sayings, customs, and actions of Muhammad) is impractical. For when one compares the many pictures of the prophet, discrepancies abound: Muhammad loves peace, except when he wages war; he hates poetry, but also enjoys it; he bans the killing of women and children, except when they get in the way; he condemns foul speech, but tells his enemies to “bite their father’s penis.”<\/p>\n Sunna<\/em>, then, becomes a divine sanction for any given Muslim to follow his proclivities\u2014provided an applicable image of Muhammad can be found. And, as Khalidi’s book shows, images of the prophet appear endless.<\/p>\n [1] I. Ishaq and A. Guillaume,\u00a0The Life of Muhammad<\/em>\u00a0(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 665. \u00a92010 Raymond Ibrahim<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Raymond Ibrahim Middle East Quarterly Review of\u00a0Images of Muhammad: Narratives of the Prophet in Islam across the Centuries\u00a0by Tarif Khalidi (New York: Doubleday, 2009. Pp. 327).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[227,470],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-ga","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1542,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/new-fatwa-calls-on-men-to-drink-womens-breast-milk\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":0},"title":"New Fatwa Calls on Men to Drink Women’s Breast-Milk","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Last month, I wrote a\u00a0PJM article\u00a0dealing with some of Islam's \"problematic\" practices, specifically those attributable to the Muslim prophet Muhammad. One of these \u2014 the Muslim phenomenon of \"adult-breastfeeding,\" or\u00a0rida' al-kabir\u00a0\u2014 is making headlines again, precisely three years to the day since it\u00a0last created controversy\u00a0in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5347,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islams-war-doctrines-ignored\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":1},"title":"Islam’s War Doctrines Ignored","author":"victorhanson","date":"June 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim MESH (Middle East Strategy at Harvard) At the recent inaugural conference for the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA), presenter Ltc. Joseph Myers made an interesting point that deserves further elaboration: that, though military studies have traditionally valued and absorbed the texts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5475,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/islamic-apologetics\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":2},"title":"Islamic Apologetics","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Ignore history and focus on platitudes of peace and love? by Raymond Ibrahim National Review Online Islamic apologist extraordinaire Karen Armstrong is at it again.\u00a0 In an article entitled \u201cBalancing the Prophet\u201d published by the Financial Times, the self-proclaimed \u201cfreelance monotheist\u201d engages in what can only be considered second-rate sophistry.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3086,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/was-osama-bin-laden-the-chicken-or-the-egg\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":3},"title":"Was Osama Bin Laden the Chicken or the Egg?","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media To posit the significance of Osama bin Laden's demise, we must first decide which came first \u2014 the chicken or the egg? Quaint as it is, this question is fundamentally an inquiry into the nature of cause and effect. In our context, did Osama bin\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":915,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/the-historical-reality-of-the-muslim-conquests\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":4},"title":"The Historical Reality of the Muslim Conquests","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim Jihad Watch Because it is now almost axiomatic for American school textbooks to whitewash all things Islamic (see\u00a0here\u00a0for example), it may be instructive to examine one of those aspects that are regularly distorted: the Muslim conquests. Few events of history are so well documented and attested to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Islam"","block_context":{"text":"Islam","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/islam\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2548,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/how-islamic-absurdities-prove-islamic-violence\/","url_meta":{"origin":1002,"position":5},"title":"How Islamic Absurdities Prove Islamic Violence","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 10, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim FrontPageMagazine.com The other day I saw a\u00a0video of a sheikh\u00a0warning Muslims against disregarding Muhammad's\u00a0sunna, or the rules and customs the prophet prescribed for Muslims. 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\nRaymond Ibrahim<\/a>\u00a0is associate director of the Middle East Forum, author of\u00a0The Al Qaeda Reader<\/a><\/em>, and guest lecturer at the National Defense Intelligence College.<\/p>\n