CORPUS CHRISTI, TX (Catholic Online) - The truth of Muhammad's claim to be a prophet or a messenger for God, and, what is more, the perfect man, al-insan al-kamil, the hasua hasana, is belied by his inability to climb out of the conventions of the culture in which he found himself.   

Muhammad and his followers have put Muhammad on a pedestal, and then they prohibit any judgment of him.  And yet by putting him on a pedestal as a perfect man, they invite judgment.  Even Jesus invited such a judgment regarding himself: "Who do men say that I am?"  "Who do you say that I am?" (Luke 9:18, 20) 

If we are to judge Muhammad, his alleged revelations, and his moral teachings then we are going to need a standard other than Muhammad with which to judge him.  We cannot allow Muhammad to be the judge of his own cause. 

We cannot adopt the circular reasoning of the Muslims which goes something like this: Muhammad is a self-acclaimed prophet and self-acclaimed perfect man.  Yet no one judges Muhammad but Muhammad and what Muhammad revealed Allah said about him.  The upshot is that there is no judgment.  It is like asking the question, "Who do I say that I am?" That is a vicious circle and no reasonable judgment. 

Some of this closed-loop case is a vicious defense mechanism, a sort of defensive fortification calculated to protect Islam from the criticism of the light of reason, including the natural law and the voice of conscience.  The moment that the natural moral law, which is the law of God found within the heart of man, is invoked and Muhammad contrasted to it, Muhammad falls short. 

We have seen in prior articles in this series how Muhammad's life with respect to polygamy, concubinage, the assassination of political and religious rivals, his torture of enemies, and genocide of rival tribes falls short of what the natural moral law would require.  To err (in doctrine and in morals) is human, Alexander Pope states, but to err (either in doctrine or in morals) is not the characteristic of a prophet, a mouthpiece of God, and certainly not one who is claimed to be the epitome, the paragon of human virtue, al-insan al-kamil.

In this article we will focus on another area of Muhammad which is inconsistent with natural law, specifically, his role in encouraging and leading raids against the caravans of the Meccans after he assumed political power in the neighboring town of Yathrib (later named Medina).

It seems clear that, in fleeing Mecca to Medina, Muhammad intended to raid the caravans of his former townsmen as a means for sustaining his fledgling Muslim band.  These raids are, from a moral point of view, nothing less than acts of brigandage or theft.  Frequently, they resulted in deaths, what we would characterize as felony murder. 

This aspect of Muhammad's life was so preeminent that the earliest biographical materials of Muhammad are called al-maghazi, that is, the "expeditions" or "campaigns," not Gospels.  An early biographer of Muhammad named al-Waqidi identified seventy-four such campaigns during the life of Muhammad at Medina.  It is impossible to believe that seventy-four battles and raids were defensive.  Since Muhammad lived ten years in Medina, this is an average of 7.4 raids a year.

Though Muslims argue to the contrary, it appears without question that most if not all of these campaigns were aggressive and were a central feature of the Islam and the subject of "revelations" of the Qur'an.  As is typical with Muhammad's "revelations," they seem to be rather opportune and convenient, and always seem to accord with the temporal or even sensual needs of Muhammad.

It certainly gives the impression that Muhammad is both self-revealing and self-justifying: "Permission to fight is given to those (i.e. believers against disbelievers), who are fighting them, (and) because they (believers) have been wronged, and surely, Allah is Able to give them (believers) victory." Qur'an (Al-Haj) 22:39.

Allah's gracious permission to engage in brigandage was, after the Battle of Badr, strengthened to an affirmative duty to engage in brigandage, rapine, and rape:  "And fight in the Way of Allâh and know that Allâh is All-Hearer, All-Knower." Qur'an (Al-Baqarah), 2:244.

Soon, it was not only an occasional affirmative duty, but something that ...