robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

latter's “godlessness and opposition to religion.” The Abbasids, led by the general Abu Muslim—who,
Goldziher writes, was “the man with the ‘cudgel for the unbelievers’”—rose up against the Umayyads
primarily to establish “the pillar of din [religion].” 67
On the other hand, it may be that the charges of impiety leveled at the Umayyads were simply Abbasid
polemic, intended to discredit their great rivals. After all, it is exceedingly strange that the Umayyads,
who took over the caliphate in 661, following the murder of Ali, would have been so notorious for their
irreligion. They ostensibly took power less than three decades after the death of the prophet of Islam, and
among them were supposedly many who knew Muhammad personally and loved him above all creatures.
Muawiya, the first Umayyad caliph, was a cousin of the caliph Uthman, who is credited with
standardizing the text of the Qur'an. Is it really plausible that the Umayyads would have essentially
discarded Muhammad's religion so soon after he gave it to them? Why did the Islamic community so
quickly fall into the hands of rulers who cared little for its central organizing principle and reason for
being?
This could have been simply due to the vicissitudes of a violent age, and of a religion that sanctioned
that violence. Muawiya, after all, was the son of Abu Sufyan, the Quraysh chieftain who (according to
Islamic tradition) fought several battles against Muhammad and converted to Islam only reluctantly once
defeated. In a meeting with the vanquished general, Muhammad asked, “Woe to you, Abu Sufyan, isn't it
time that you recognize that I am God's apostle?” Abu Sufyan answered, “As to that I still have some
doubt.” Muhammad's companion Ibn Abbas, forefather of the Abbasids, would have none of that. He said
to Abu Sufyan: “Submit and testify that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is the apostle of
God before you lose your head.” Abu Sufyan duly obeyed. 68
In light of all this, it is not outrageous to wonder about Muawiya's commitment to Islam. Then again,
there are hadiths saying that he actually became very devout and even served as a scribe to Muhammad.
The hadith about Abu Sufyan could be the product of Abbasid polemic.
Even if Muawiya was not devout, it is difficult to imagine that he would have passed on his irreligion
to his successors, ruling as they did for a hundred years over Muslims who, according to the standard
account, were inspired by the words of the Qur'an and the example of Muhammad. Perhaps what Islamic
tradition characterizes as Umayyad irreligion could simply reflect a time (the early Umayyad period)
when the words and deeds of Muhammad, and the text of the Qur'an, had not yet been fixed.
The unreliability of the Hadith makes it impossible to know for certain anything about Muhammad.
Further doubts arise because, as we shall soon see, there is scant evidence establishing Mecca as the
center for trade and pilgrimage that it was reputed to be in Muhammad's time. But in the eighth century, the
first biography of the prophet of Islam appeared. And that book, combined with the beginning of the
collection of the scattered and chaotic hadiths, heralded a momentous event: The mysterious and shadowy
figure of the prophet of Islam began to move ever more confidently into “the full light of history.”