Spencer also compares the accounts presented in the Quran with those in the apocrypha and other non-canonical works, including the Talmud and the Syriac Infancy Gospel. Spencer starts looking at the Quran he notes many of its narratives resemble the Bible's, such as its human origin myth of Adam and Eve. His arguments are based on, what he believed to be, the similarities between Islam and these religions, including their monotheistic conceptions of God and listing of prophetic figures. Spencer then describes the pivotal role of Muhammad's later-wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid, who would be the first one to convert to Islam this took place after he reportedly received his first visitation by the archangel Gabriel in the cave of Jabal al-Nour.Ĭhapter four contains Spencer's theories that Muhammad borrowed teachings from other religions, mainly Christianity and Judaism. Spencer writes of Muhammad's early life, including his birth traditionally believed to be taking place in Mecca on April 20, 570.

He begins with describing Muhammad's tribe, the Quraysh, the situation of the pre-Islamic Arabia, and the religions that were predominantly practiced there, with the Quraysh's was paganism. Spencer's biography of Muhammad starts in chapter three.

The prophetic biography, the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad comes the last in Spencer's investigation. Although presents great details about his life, Spencer observes that it is nearly impossible to know which parts of it that are true or not. Next, he goes on to write about the hadiths, a record of the words and actions Muhammad transmitted through chains of narrators. He starts with the Quran, the religious text of Islam he notes that it contains little details about Muhammad, and often the stories are told indirectly or incompletely. Depictions of Muhammad receiving his first revelation from GabrielĬhapter two presents Spencer's assessment of the earliest sources for Muhammad.

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