Mohammad is mainly recognized by most to be the founder of the religion of Islam, and is considered by Muslims to be a prophet, that he was a messenger from God just like the other prophets such as Noah, Moses, Enoch. He was born in the city of Mecca (Saudi Arabia), but he became an orphan and was raised by his uncle, a man named Abu Talib. At one point he worked as a merchant, and at another point as a shepherd and he got married at the age of 25 to an older woman. During his whole life it is said that he had thirteen wives / concubines. But he was unhappy with his life in Mecca and went away and became a hermit in a cave in the surrounding mountains. At the age of 40 he received his first vision from God, which is communicated to him through the angel Gabrielle, and three years later he started preaching about these visions to the public.
At the time the the Arabs believed in many gods, and Mohammad was teaching that there is only one God, the Living Everlasting God. Nevertheless, he gained some supporters, but mainly hostility from Meccan tribes which forced him to escape persecution and flee to Abyssinia (Medina/Yathrib). In Medina, Mohammad managed to unite the tribes, and in 622 with over 10,000 followers he returned to conquer Mecca, several years later in 630 he succeeded. In 632 after his first and final pilgrimage, he fell ill and died.
The revelations that he received during his lifetime became the verses of the Quran, and were combined into a single book after his death. These verses are considered to be the Word of God by Muslims. Although Mohammad is believed to be the author of the Quran, he is only mentioned in it by name four times, which has meant that sources for information about his life have to be found elsewhere.
The earliest surviving biography of his life by Ibn Ishaq was written 150 years after Mohammad's death. Although scholars generally believe the early biographies to be accurate, it is not ascertainable. In early days, both Christians and Jews saw Mohammad as a false prophet, saying that prophets do not arrive with swords and chariots. And Mohammad after all, was involved in several battles during his lifetime.
It is however recorded that when Mohammad was twelve that he was travelling in a caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk called Bahira, and that the monk gave Mohammad a copy of the Old testament and put forward the idea that he should become a prophet to the Arabs.
It is this record that confuses me most, was Mohammad converted to a Christian as a child? With biographies of his life only being written about him hundreds of years after his actual existence, how do we know the he wished to create a belief that was separate to Christianity. Apparently it is also recorded that when they took Mecca, that he instructed all his soldiers not to destroy any images of Jesus or Mary. In fact Mary is mentioned more often in the Quran than in the Bible!
My point is that, we cannot know for sure where his beliefs came from for sure, and maybe we will never know, but the idea that Mohammad was converted to Christianity is intriguing to say the least. Yet those texts given to him by the monk became part of the Quran, recording the existence of Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham and more.
