Muhammad and the believers: at the origins of Islam

TLDR

The origins of Islam have been increasingly contested, with traditional views of a distinct prophetic religion challenged by critical historians since the 1970s. The book aims to present a lucid and original vision of Islam’s early evolution. Donner reconstructs Islam’s early evolution through a critical analysis of Muslim sources. He finds that Islam originated as a “Believers’ movement” of strict monotheism that initially included Christians and Jews, and that the distinct Muslim identity emerged only a century later when the movement defined belief in the Qur’an as the sole criterion for belonging.

Abstract

The origins of Islam have been the subject of increasing controversy in recent years. The traditional view, which presents Islam as a self-consciously distinct religion tied to the life and revelations of the prophet in western Arabia, has since the 1970s been challenged by historians engaged in critical study of the Muslim sources. In Muhammad and the the eminent historian Fred Donner offers a lucid and original vision of how Islam first evolved. He argues that the origins of Islam lie in what we may call the 'Believers' movement' begun by the prophet - a movement of religious reform emphasizing strict monotheism and righteous behavior in conformity with God's revealed law. The Believers' movement thus included righteous Christians and Jews in its early years, because like the Qur'anic Believers, Christians and Jews were monotheists and agreed to live righteously in obedience to their revealed law. The conviction that Muslims constituted a separate religious community, utterly distinct from Christians and Jews, emerged a century later, when the leaders of the Believers' movement decided that only those who saw the Qur'an as the final revelation of the One God and as the final prophet, qualified as Believers. This separated them decisively from monotheists who adhered to the Gospels or Torah.