HISTORICAL DATA ABOUT MUHAMMAD

* Mohammed is estimated by scholars to have had somewhere
between 15-25 wives. All agree that he had 9 wives at the time of his death
(5 more than the Quran permits for other Muslims)!

* He died at age 63 in the home of Aisha, his favorite wife,
and was buried on the spot where he died in Medina.

* Earlier, he fell in love with Zeinab, his cousin, and wife
of his adopted son Zeid. He then received a "revelation" from Allah that it
was permissible to marry the wife of an adopted son. Zeid divorced Zeinab
so that Mohammed could marry her.

Sources: Ernest Kellett, A Short History of Religions. New York: Books for
Libraries Press, 1971, P. 343, and Washington Irving, Life of Mahomet. New
York: Dutton & Sons, 1911, p. 231.

* On his deathbed, Mohammed said: "Do not fear those who
disbelieve, fear me" and called for the conquest of Christianity.

Source, Essad Bey, Mohammed. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1936, p.
330.

Marriage to Six-Year Old

In 624 Abu Bakr (Muhammad’s daily companion and one of his first believers and successor of Muhammad) gave Muhammad his daughter Aisha when she was six years old, although the actual marriage was not consummated until she was nine. This fact is uncontested by all Muslim scholars and chroniclers without exception). At the time of their marriage Muhammad was 54 years old (the age of her grandfather) – a difference of 45 years in their ages.

Aisha herself testified to these facts:

“The messenger of God betrothed me when I was six years old and then married me when I was nine years old.”

Source: Sahih Muslim (by Imam al-Mawawy), vol. 3, p. 577.

Islamic law has codified this principle of non-consent for under-age women based on Muhammad’s precedent:

“A father may give consent to have his young virgin daughter married without obtaining her permission, for she does not have a choice, exactly as Abu Bakr El Sadiq did to his daughter Aisha, when she was six years old. He married her to the prophet Muhammad without her permission.”

Source: Ibn Hazam (acknowledged by all Muslims as one of the greatest scholars on Islamic Law) in his al-Muhalla (“The Sweetened”). Vol. 6, part 9, pp. 458-460.

Abd El Schafi, author of Behind the Veil stated in response: “These are cruel, hard words and iniquitous Islamic principles which the free human conscience utterly rejects and detests because it is related to the most important subject in the girl’s life, that is, her body and her future” (p. 83).

Polygamy, Concubines, and Mistresses in Islam

“No one is allowed to wed more than four women, but he is permitted however, in addition to them, to buy (women), as many as he wants.”

Source: Ibn Hazam, vol. 6, part 9, pp. 441, 467.

However, exceptions were made for the Prophet and his successors:

Muhammad had 11 wives and an Egyptian concubine
Umar Ibn al-Khattab had 7 wives plus 2 maid-salves

Uthman Ibn Affan had 8 wives

Ali Ibn Abi Talib (cousin of Muhammad) married 10 women plus 10 concubines and maid-slaves for a total of 29

Al-Hasan Ibn Ali (grandson of Muhammad and called by the Prophet “the master of the youth of Paradise”) married 70 women (and was said to sometimes divorce two women in a day!).

Sources: Biographies such as Ibn Kathir’s, Bidaya and the Nihaya, vol. 7 & 8, and Suyuti’s, Chonicles of the Caliphs.

Marriage to wives of men killed by Muslims, including the murder of Jews

It was standard practice, and made legal by Muhammad, to take as a “wife” in addition to captives, the wives of men killed in battle (or executed). On one occasion when Muhammad launched an attack on a Jewish tribe he personally witnessed their beheading and then took some of their widows to bed. Semitic scholar and historian A.B. Davidson (a professor at New College, Edinburgh) recorded one such instance:

“On one day he caused 800 Jews to be beheaded in cold blood, himself standing by and watching the butchery; and in the evening, to efface the unpleasant impression from his mind, and give a more happy turn to his ideas, he took home the wife of one of the murdered chiefs, and added her to his harem.”

Source: A.B. Davidson, Biblical and Literary Essays, ed. J.A. Peterson (London: Hodder & Stroughton, 1902), p. 228.

Sexual License in Islam – The Temporary Contractual Marriage

According to all Muslim scholars (especially in Sahih Muslim) the temporary, contractual marriage was made lawful by Muhammad simply to satisfy the sexual passions of his soldiers. The “marriage” only had to last 3 days, after which the woman could be deserted and left without any rights. Only the fact that it is temporary a “marriage” separates it from outright fornication and adultery (forbidden in Islam), but there is practically no difference. It was practiced during the beginning of the Islamic era (during the caliphates of Abu Bakr and Ibn Abu ‘Umar) and is continued in practice today by over 100 million Shi’ite Muslims worldwide.

Concerning this practice the following Islamic authority states:

“While in the army, Allah’s Apostle came to us and said, ‘You have been allowed to have Muta (“pleasure”), so do it.’ If a man and a woman agree to marry temporarily, their marriage should last for three nights …”

Source: Sahih al-Bukbari, part 7, p. 37.

BRIEF MUSLIM HISTORY

A.D. 610: Mohammed claims to be God's prophet and founds the religion of
Islam based on his claim to receive a new revelation of Scripture which he called
the Quran.

622: Mohammed fled persecution by fellow Arabs in Mecca and went to
Medina. His flight is known as the Hijira ("migration"). He won over the
people of Medina, raised an army and returned to Mecca in 630, killing 600
of the 900 men of his Qurash (Arab) tribe.

630: Muslim conquest of Mecca and the Arabian Peninsula. This conquest
(called jihad) later spread to the Middle East, North Africa, Iran and
Turkey.

632: Mohammed died in Medina of a fever at age 63. His tomb is there to
this day.

638: Muslim conquest of Jerusalem (6 years after Mohammed's death)

691: Dome of the Rock built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Al Aksa
Mosque also built at that time.

MUSLIM TERMS

Allah: Arabic name for God. Originally derived from near Eastern
moon god (thus, crescent moon symbolism in Islamic art).

Al Quds: Arabic name for Jerusalem, means "the holy".

Al Aqsa: Means "the farther." Moslems use this term for the "farther
mosque" (or "distant place') which is unnamed in the Quran. Later Moslems applied
it to Jerusalem as the place of Mohammed's ascension into heaven.
Palestinian terrorists today call themselves the "Al Aqsa Brigade."

Source, Randall Price (Ph.D., University of Texas), Unholy War. Harvest
House Publishers, 2001

Behind The Scenes at The Southern Baptist Convention,
St. Louis, Missouri

By Jerry Falwell

This week’s annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention was met with some unexpected fireworks after my friend Dr. Jerry Vines, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., declared that Muhammad was a “demon-possessed pedophile” and that Islam teaches the destruction of all non-Muslims.

If you want to raise the ire of the mainstream press and the swarm of politically-correct organizations in this nation, just criticize Islam (as Dr. Vines learned).

Dr. Vines’ statements were made in reference to the new book, “Unveiling Islam: An Insider’s Look at Muslim Life and Beliefs” (Kregel Publications). It is written by scholars Ergun and Emir Caner, brothers raised as Muslims who are today dynamic and outspoken Christians. Ergun is assistant professor of theology and church history at Criswell College in Dallas, while Emir is assistant professor of church history and Anabaptist studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

Dr. Vines also quoted from the Hadith, a respected source for Islamic teaching among Muslim clerics and followers worldwide. Upon examination, the Hadith verifies that Muhammad did marry the nine-year-old daughter of a friend. The girl, named Aisha, became known as the “mother of believers.”

“It’s simply a matter of quoting [Islamic] sources,” said Emir Caner. “If we are wrong in our understanding of the Islamic scriptures, we would be happy to be corrected.”
The specific Hadith citation concerning Muhammad’s relationship with the young girl is in volume 7, book 6, number 64 and 65, said Ergun Caner. (Both Emir and Ergun Caner were Sunni Muslims who became Christians in 1982.)

“The comments in question cannot be considered bigotry when they come from Islamic writings,” Ergun said during a press conference hosted by Baptist Press in St. Louis.

A lengthy passage from the Hadith, volume 1, book 1, chapter 1, shows that Muhammad himself believed he was under demonic influence, but it notes that Muhammad’s wife is the one who deemed his experience as “divine,” said Ergun.

Concerning terrorism and Islamic jihad, Emir noted differential interpretations by Muslims themselves. Some, he said, see jihad as a “spiritual war,” while others see it as meaning “physical,” he said.

“Some Muslims want to allegorize their own scriptures because they don’t want to defend jihad,” Emir said. “But if you take the Koran at its word, or Muhammad at his word, then you’ll find physical jihad.” In fact, he noted, the highest level of Muslim heaven — which has 70 perpetual virgins on couches — is reserved for Muslims who “shed their blood” (Hadith 135). Islam’s inclination toward violence, he added, also is reflected in the Koran: “Slay the enemy where you find him (Surah 9.92).

Dr. Vines was simply pointing out these distinctions. Since the media so often treats the Muslim religion with utter reverence — something we Baptists are unfamiliar with — he felt it was important that SBC members understand these distinctions. If those in the media were doing their jobs, Dr. Vines would have never felt it necessary to point out these disquieting elements of an enigmatic religion.

Ergun Caner observed an element of hypocrisy in the quest to portray Islam as a peaceful religion: “A so-called Christian who bombs an abortion clinic or shoots an abortionist and says God told him to do it does that act against the Bible,” he said. “But the Muslim who commits acts of violence in jihad does so with the approval of Muhammad. … When September 11 happened, we were all shocked. But where was the international outrage when jihad killed three million people (Christian people, I might add) in Sudan?”

A major element in the SBC — under the leadership of newly-elected president, Dr. Jack Graham — will be that of “Empowering Kingdom Growth.” This major ministry initiative encourages SBC members to humbly seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. This means we will accelerate our efforts to take the Gospel to all people — including Muslims. We do not do this as a form of “hate,” as some charge. We do this because we want others to know the peace that comes solely through a relationship with Jesus Christ — “For He Himself is our peace…” (Ephesians 2:14).

Among other actions, SBC messengers also called for churches and civil authorities to hold accountable clergy members guilty of sexual abuse. Another resolution calls for President Bush to place a “high priority” on enacting a ban on partial-birth abortion. And the SBC’s North American Mission Board challenged members to consider their personal role in the “Go” part of the Great Commission by personally participating in mission trips during 2003.

The Southern Baptist Convention is a denomination of 16 million people who are serious about their calling to be representatives of Jesus Christ. While we do not receive the kind and gentle treatment that most other socially-acceptable denominations enjoy, we are committed to boldly speaking Truth in love to the peoples of this world.

And I am gratified to have a part in this great effort.