A Critical Response to “Understanding Islam: Origins, Beliefs, and Core Practices”

The article titled “Understanding Islam: Origins, Beliefs, and Core Practices” presents a polished and systematized overview of Islam according to its internal theology and traditional narrative. While its tone is informative and its structure coherent, it assumes the historical and theological validity of Islam’s claims without scrutiny. This response critically examines the core assertions of the article from a historical, textual, and logical standpoint, guided by verifiable data and evidence.

1. Islam’s Origin Story: Historical Record vs. Faith Narrative

The Claim:

Islam began in 7th-century Arabia with Muhammad’s reception of divine revelation in Mecca, as a continuation of earlier Abrahamic monotheism.

The Critical Problem:

This claim assumes that Islam’s origin story is historically verifiable, but historical evidence for it is lacking. There are no contemporary external sources from the early 7th century that document a man named Muhammad founding a religion called Islam in Mecca. The earliest non-Islamic references to Muhammad appear decades after his supposed death and are ambiguous in terminology, often describing a military leader rather than a religious prophet.

Moreover, the Quran itself never names Mecca as the city of origin using unambiguous language. The term Bakkah in Qur’an 3:96 is cited, but its identification with modern Mecca is a much later development and not grounded in archaeological or contemporaneous textual evidence.

2. The Ka‘bah, Abraham, and Ishmael: A Retroactive Myth?

The Claim:

The Ka‘bah in Mecca was originally built by Abraham and Ishmael as a monotheistic shrine.

The Critical Problem:

There is no historical or archaeological evidence linking Abraham or Ishmael to Mecca. The Hebrew Bible, which provides detailed itineraries of Abraham’s movements, never places him near Arabia. Ishmael is associated with the region south of Canaan, but not with Mecca. Even early Jewish, Christian, and Arabian sources are silent about any Abrahamic shrine in Mecca.

Islam’s narrative appears to retroactively insert Abraham into Meccan geography to confer religious legitimacy on the city and its sanctuary.

3. Muhammad’s Biography: Reliable History or Hagiography?

The Claim:

Muhammad’s life is well-documented, including his moral character, marriage to Khadijah, first revelation, and persecution.

The Critical Problem:

The biography of Muhammad (Sīrah) and Hadith collections were compiled over 100–200 years after his death, with no contemporary evidence to validate them. The earliest full biography (Ibn Ishaq’s Sīrah) was edited by Ibn Hisham and survives only in a recension from the 9th century CE. These sources are theological hagiographies—not objective histories—written by believers to promote religious doctrine.

Hadith methodology, while internally rigorous, still rests on unverifiable chains of narration (isnād) and oral transmission, which are highly vulnerable to fabrication, political motivations, and theological interpolation.

4. The Qur’an: Preserved Word or Evolved Text?

The Claim:

The Qur’an is the unchanged, literal word of God, revealed over 23 years and preserved perfectly.

The Critical Problem:

The Qur’an's preservation claim is undermined by the textual and historical evidence of variant readings (qirāʾāt), missing verses, abrogated content, and differing codices. Early codices by companions like Ibn Mas‘ud and Ubayy ibn Ka‘b reportedly differed from the ʿUthmānic codex standardized after political disputes (see Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī 6:61:510).

Moreover, Qur’an 2:106 and 16:101 acknowledge the practice of abrogation (naskh), which contradicts the idea of an unchanging, eternal text.

5. The Articles of Faith: Theological Assertions, Not Verifiable Truths

The Claim:

Islam is built on six articles of faith—belief in God, angels, scriptures, prophets, judgment, and divine decree.

The Critical Problem:

These doctrines are self-referential and internally asserted by Islamic texts. They cannot be independently verified or tested. For instance:

  • Belief in angels or divine decree is metaphysical and unfalsifiable.

  • Claims about previous scriptures being “corrupted” lack substantiating evidence. The Qur’an never specifies textual corruption; it accuses misinterpretation (taḥrīf al-maʿnā), not alteration (taḥrīf al-naṣṣ). Later Muslim theology retrofitted this into a claim of textual distortion.

6. The Five Pillars: Socioreligious System, Not Proof of Divine Origin

The Claim:

The Five Pillars define Islamic worship and cultivate a God-centered life.

The Critical Problem:

While these practices are central to Islam, their existence proves only the consistency of a ritual system—not the truth of its divine origin. Many religions have structured rituals and moral frameworks. The authenticity of a belief system must be evaluated on the basis of evidence, not the piety or discipline of its adherents.

Furthermore, the Qur’an-alone perspective shows that not all Five Pillars are rooted uniformly in the Qur’an:

  • The detailed five-daily prayer ritual is derived from Hadith, not the Qur’an.

  • The specifics of Ḥajj and Zakāh administration vary and lack uniformity even within Islamic jurisprudence.

7. Shariah Law: Divine Justice or Human Construction?

The Claim:

Sharīʿah is a divine legal system derived from Qur’an and Hadith.

The Critical Problem:

Sharīʿah evolved over centuries and is far from uniform. Schools of jurisprudence (madhāhib) often disagree on major issues. What is presented as divine law is, in reality, an amalgamation of theological interpretations, cultural practices, and political necessities.

Moreover, some of its mandates—such as corporal punishments, gender laws, and apostasy rulings—raise serious human rights concerns when judged against universal ethical principles and modern standards of justice.

8. Sunni vs. Shia: Disunity From the Start

The Claim:

Sunni and Shia share core beliefs and diverge primarily in leadership succession.

The Critical Problem:

The division is not superficial. Shia doctrines concerning imamate, divine guidance, and historical grievances introduce fundamentally different views of authority, revelation, and history. The early Islamic community fractured within decades, casting doubt on the idea that Islam began with an unbroken, unified consensus.

9. Islam and Modernity: Adaptable Religion or Doctrinal Rigidity?

The Claim:

Islam engages with modern challenges, including gender equality, freedom, and pluralism.

The Critical Problem:

Many classical Islamic teachings—especially on blasphemy, apostasy, women’s testimony, slavery, and hudūd punishments—stand in stark tension with modern human rights. While some reformers attempt to reinterpret scripture, their views are often rejected by mainstream scholars and traditional jurisprudence.

Islam’s reliance on immutable texts and a heavily legalistic tradition makes true theological reform deeply constrained.

Conclusion: Understanding vs. Accepting

The article “Understanding Islam” offers an internal view of the faith, but conflates theological assertion with historical reality. A genuine understanding of Islam requires more than hearing its self-narrative—it demands critical engagement with its origins, claims, and impact.

Islam may be internally coherent to its followers, but coherence does not equal truth. Without verifiable historical evidence, clear logical consistency, or independent corroboration, its grand narrative remains unproven.

Reader’s Note:

This critique aims to examine Islam’s claims based on logic, evidence, and historical analysis—not to attack individuals. If any assertion here misrepresents Islamic teachings, please respond with specific references from the Qur’an, early sources, or established scholarship. Civil, source-based dialogue is welcome.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Problematic Elevation of Hadith Over the Qur’an: A Critical Polemic Response to “Why Do Islamic Scholars Sometimes Prioritize Hadith Over Qur’anic Verses?” Introduction: The Qur’an or the Hadith — Which Truly Commands Authority? Islamic scholarship claims the Qur’an is the ultimate, unaltered word of God. Yet, the very same scholars often insist that hadith—the human-recorded sayings and actions of Muhammad—sometimes override or clarify the Qur’an itself. This contradictory stance raises serious questions about textual integrity, theological consistency, and the real source of Islamic law and morality. If the Qur’an is “the Book about which there is no doubt” (Qur’an 2:2), why do we find thousands of rulings and laws being sourced primarily from hadith, often at the expense of clear Qur’anic principles? This post critically examines the logic, consequences, and hidden assumptions behind this practice. 1. The Qur’an’s Primacy Is Undermined by Overreliance on Hadith While t...
Read more
The Line of Prophets – A Continuation of the Message Isa (Jesus) – The Honored Messiah and Servant of Allah In the Islamic tradition, few prophets occupy as revered and central a place as ʿĪsā ibn Maryam (Jesus, son of Mary) . He is one of the five Ulū al-ʿAzm — the elite messengers distinguished for their endurance and unwavering resolve — along with Nūḥ, Ibrāhīm, Mūsā, and Muḥammad (peace be upon them all). His life, miracles, and eschatological role are discussed across over ninety verses in fifteen different surahs of the Qur’an, and he is referred to by name twenty-five times. Islam presents ʿĪsā not as divine, nor as the Son of God, but as a messenger of Allah , a spirit from Him (rūḥ minhu) , and His word cast upon Mary (kalimatuhu alqāhā ilā Maryam) . He was sent specifically to Banī Isrāʾīl (the Children of Israel) to revive the message of pure tawḥīd (monotheism), to confirm the Torah, and to deliver the Injīl , a scripture filled with light and guidance. A Miraculo...
Read more
  Before Islam: Decoding the Earliest Sources on Muhammad’s Movement Islamic tradition paints a vivid picture: in 610 CE, Muhammad received divine revelations in a Meccan cave, birthing Islam—a fully formed monotheistic faith with scripture, rituals, and law. Yet, the earliest non-Muslim records—Syriac, Greek, and Armenian chronicles from the 7th century—tell a starkly different story. They mention no “Islam,” no “Qur’an,” and no prophet preaching a new creed. Instead, Muhammad’s followers appear as “Hagarenes,” “Ishmaelites,” or “Saracens”—vague monotheists or tribal raiders acting under divine sanction. This evidence challenges the claim of a coherent religion descending from heaven, suggesting a fluid insurgency later mythologized into divine revelation by Abbasid scholars. This post dives into these sources, their context, and their implications, testing Islam’s narrative against the Qur’an’s own standards—proof ( Surah 2:111 ) and consistency ( Surah 4:82 ). The Islamic Narrat...
Read more