The first to criticize the Islamic prophet Muhammad were his non-Muslim Arab contemporaries, who decried him for preaching monotheism, and the Jewish tribes of Arabia, for what they claimed were unwarranted appropriation of Biblical narratives and figures and vituperation of the Jewish faith. For these reasons, medieval Jewish writers commonly referred to him by the derogatory nickname ha-Meshuggah (, "the Madman" or "the Possessed").Ibn Warraq, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, p. 255.Andrew G. Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, p. 21.
During the Middle Ages, variousJohn of Damascus, De Haeresibus. See Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 94, 1864, cols 763–73. An English translation by the Reverend John W. Voorhis appeared in The Moslem World, October 1954, pp. 392–98. Western and Byzantine Christian polemicists considered Muhammad to be a false prophet, the Antichrist, a heretic, Satan possessed by demons, a sexual deviant, a polygamist, and a charlatan. Thomas Aquinas criticized Muhammad's handling of doctrinal matters and promises of what Aquinas described as "carnal pleasure" in the afterlife.
Modern criticism by some Western scholars has raised questions about Muhammad’s prophetic claims, personal conduct, marriages, slave ownership, and mental state. Criticism has also focused on his treatment of enemy captives, particularly the case of mass killing of men of the Banu Qurayza tribe in Medina. Muslim scholars often respond by emphasizing the historical context of 7th-century Arabia and Muhammad’s role in promoting justice and social reform. Some historians say the punishment of the Banu Qurayza reflected the norms of the time and was ordered by Sa'd ibn Mu'adh, though others question Muhammad’s role or the scale of the event.
Points of contention
Muhammad's marriages
One of the popular historical criticisms of Muhammad in the West has been his polygynous marriages.Fazlur Rahman, Islam, p. 28"Before leaving the subject of marriages, it may be proper to take notice of some peculiar privileges in relation thereto, which, as is asserted, were granted by God to Muhammad, to the exclusion of all other Muslims. One of them was, that he might lawfully marry as many wives and have as many concubines as he pleased, without being confined to any particular number; a privilege which, he asserted, had been granted to the prophets before him. Another was, that he might alter the turns of his wives, and favour such of them as he thought fit, without being tied to that order and equality which others are obliged to observe. A third privilege was, that no man might marry any of his wives, either such as he should divorce during his lifetime, or such as he should leave widows at his death." Wollaston, A.N. (1905). The Sword of Islam (p. 327). New York: E.P. Dutton and Company.See for example William Muir, who says "Shortly after the death of Khadîja, the Prophet married again; but it was not till the mature age of fifty-four that he made the dangerous trial of polygamy, by taking Ayesha, yet a child, as the rival of Sauda. Once the natural limits of restraint were overpassed, Mahomet fell an easy prey to his strong passion for the sex. In his fifty-sixth year he married Haphsa; and the following year, in two succeeding months, Zeinab bint Khozeima, and Omm Salma. But his desires were not to be satisfied by the range of a harem already greater than was permitted to any of his followers; rather, as age advanced, they were stimulated to seek for new and varied indulgence. A few months after his nuptials with Zeinab and Omm Salma, the charms of a second Zeinab were by accident discovered too fully before the Prophet's admiring gaze. She was the wife of Zeid, his adopted son and bosom friend; but he was unable to smother the flame she had kindled in his breast; and, by divine command she was taken to his bed. In the same year he married a seventh wife, and also a concubine. And at last, when he was full threescore years of age, no fewer than three new wives, besides Mary the Coptic slave, were within the space of seven months added to his already well filled harem. The bare recital of these facts may justify the saying of Ibn Abbâs,—"Verily the chiefest among the Moslems (meaning Mahomet) was the foremost of them in his passion for women;"—a fatal example imitated too readily by his followers, who adopt the Prince of Medîna, rather than the Prophet of Mecca, for their pattern." Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet (Vol. 4, pp. 309–11). London: Smith, Elder and Co. According to American historian John Esposito, the Semitic cultures in general permitted polygamy (for example, the practice could be found in biblical and postbiblical Judaism); it was particularly a common practice among Arabs, especially among nobles and leaders.John Esposito, Islam the Straight Path, Oxford University Press, pp. 17–18
Muslims have often pointed out that Muhammad married Khadija bint Khuwaylid (a widow whose age is estimated to have been 40), when he was 25 years old, and remained monogamous to her for more than 24 years until she died. Norman Geisler frames Muhammad's marriages as a question of moral inconsistency, since Muhammad was unwilling to abide by the revealed limit of four wives that he enjoined on other men."Muhammad received a revelation from God that a man should have no more than four wives at once, yet he had many more. A Muslim defender of Muhammad, writing in The Prophet of Islam as the Ideal Husband, admitted that he had fifteen wives. Yet he tells others they may have only four. How can someone be a perfect moral example and not live by one of the basic laws he laid down for others as from God?" Geisler, N.L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Article on Muhammad, Character of. Quran 33:50 states that the limit of four wives did not apply to Muhammad.
Muslims have generally responded that the marriages of Muhammad were not conducted to satisfy worldly desires or lusts, but rather they were done for a higher purpose and due to God's command. Medieval Sufi, Ibn Arabi, sees Muhammad's relationships with his wives as a proof of his superiority amongst men. John Esposito explains that polygamy served several purposes, such as strengthening political alliances among Arab chiefs and providing protection through marriage to the widows of companions who had died in combat.
Aisha
In classical sources, Aisha was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad,Watt, Aisha, Encyclopaedia of Islam.D. A. Spellberg, Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: the Legacy of A'isha bint Abi Bakr, Columbia University Press, 1994, p. 40.Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Harper San Francisco, 1992, p. 145. with the marriage being consummated when she reached the age of nine or ten years old. Some modern sources, however, state her age to be twelve or older. Christian polemicists and orientalists attacked what they deemed to be Muhammad's deviant sexuality, for having married an underage girl; early twentieth-century criticisms came from the likes of Harvey Newcomb and David Samuel Margoliouth while others were mild, choosing to explain how the "heat of tropics" made "girls of Arabia" mature at an early age. While most Muslims defended the traditionally accepted age of Aisha with vigor emphasizing cultural relativism, the political dimensions of the marriage, Aisha's "exceptional qualities" etc., some modern scholars chose to re-calculate the age and fix it at late adolescence as a tool of social reform in their homelands or to appeal to different audiences. In the late twentieth century, opponents of Islam have used Aisha's age at marriage to criticize Muhammad and to explain the great prevalence of child marriage in Muslim societies.
From mid-20th century, amidst growing concerns of Islamic extremism, as Muslim societies and Islam itself came under renewed scrutiny, pointed criticisms of Aisha's young age at marriage began to be abundant; this has since prompted some Muslim scholars to attempt to contextualize the traditionally accepted age of Aisha with renewed vigor emphasizing on anachronism and the political dimensions of the marriage, often at the expense of historical accuracy. Since the late-twentieth century, polemicists have used Aisha's age to accuse Muhammad of pedophilia and to explain a reported higher prevalence of child marriage in Muslim societies.
Zaynab bint Jahsh