Comparision Between Two Historical Approaches of Early Islam

The two articles not only refer to the experiences of the same individual, they focus on different periods in the lifetime of the individual in question. The Muhammad’s Early Life and Prophetic Call article seeks to give a detailed account of the various events in Muhammad’s life that have had a far-reaching impact on the establishment and the growth of Islam. On the other hand, Muhammad and the Early Conquests sought to give a general overview of the Islam beginning from Muhammad to its subsequent spread to among the Persians and the Egyptians.
Main arguments of the article
Muhammad’s Early Life and Prophetic Call shows Muhammad’s ancestry. It has been suggested that Muhammad ancestors were important to the politics of Mecca. It calls into question the influence that these ancestors possessed given the unsympathetic treatment the other influential lineages have been treated. The author found that there was not much fabrication of facts in the Muhammad’s lineage influence over Mecca . The article on Muhammad and the Early Conquests also agrees with this premise arguing that it was the clan’s influence in Mecca that ensured that Muhammad was not assassinated by the many enemies he made in Mecca while spreading his new religion.
Muhammad’s Early Life and Prophetic Call shows Muhammad growing up and the misfortunes that befell him at a young age when he lost both his mother and grandfather in succession. It shows Muhammad as a vulnerable individual and shows the grace of God upon him which helps him survive. According to the article, Muhammad survived these misfortunes through the help of the “wet-nurse” and his uncle Abu Talib.
The author also shows that there is a probability that some of the information in the Quran and hadiths maybe inaccurate albeit not by far. The author notes that the ages of the authors is exaggerated Khadijah’s, Muhammad’s wife, age given that she bore him seven children as mentioned in the sources used . Moreover, Muhammad’s implies that Muhammad mistook angel Gabriel for God himself. The article concludes that there are numerous controversies which surround the call of Muhammad. The author holds that the Quran is based on Mohammad personality other than his conscious mind.
In Muhammad and the Early Conquests, Glubb gives a secular analysis of Muhammad’s call and early work in relation to spreading Islam. Glubb shows the difficulties that early Muslim converts went through as they were mocked and Muhammad would have been a victim of an assassination had it not been the fear of his clan . They were forced to run away to Medina leaving everything they owned behind them. The paper shows although Muhammad’s clan was influential, it did not yield enough power to protect him from all the threats the new religion posed to his life. The article focuses on Islam after Muhammad and the methods used to spread Islam throughout the Middle East.
Sources used
The difference in the sources the authors’ uses to compose the two letters exemplifies the difference in perspective between the two authors. Muhammad’s Early Life and Prophetic Call uses the Quran and hadith as some of the sources of information . The article makes reference to the Quran, especially in relation to things that Muhammad said and was documented in the holy book. In article makes reference to the two visions that Muhammad during his calling to serve God. The article alludes to the Muhammad’s vision of Gabriel, which he misinterpreted to be the vision of God Himself.
For instance, Muhammad made reference to how it was narrated to him that the palaces of Syria lit up by a light from his mother when she was pregnant with him. He also narrated how he was suckled among the clan of Sa’d b. Bakr; and how two men in white clothes had split his body open and took a black clot from his heart and threw it away. This information was passed from Muhammad to one of his companions who later narrated the story to others and so the information was passed from generation to the other . The author also uses accounts from the Islamic traditions, practices that have been passed from one generation to the other in the years .
In Muhammad and the Early Conquests, the author uses information that is generally regarded as the accurate within the Islam circles. He uses the information that each Muslim regards as the truth without undertaking a critical analysis of the source of this information.
Methodology
The author of Muhammad’s Early Life and Prophetic Call uses the traditional critical approach. It emphasizes the importance of hadith to complement the information derived from the Quran. It appreciates the fact that not all information in these ancient Arab communities was documented with a good portion of it passed on in the form of oral narratives or hadith. The author uses a number of hadith that were supposedly narrated to them by Muhammad to his followers during his time popularizing Islam.
It uses information drawn from the Quran and also traditions passed across the generations. The Hadith are used extensively as they form an important part of the source of information for this article. The author makes a deliberate attempt to determine the accuracy of the information or accounts narrated in both the Quran and the Hadiths. For instance, he questions the possibility that it was really Gabriel that Muhammad encountered during his vision since this information was contradicting with the information in other sources. In addition, the author also questions the accuracy of the information the Quran and hadiths provide on Muhammad’s wife’s age.
In Muhammad and the Early Conquests, the author employees a skeptical approach in gathering the information and facts used in the article. It makes no reference of the materials that have been used in developing the paper. The author in this article is not skeptical over the information he uses in writing the paper. The approach is based on the belief that it is difficult to separate the truth or original information from the accounts the society holds on the matter.
Interpretation
It is clear that information on Islam has not been fabricated since different research methods yield the same information. The two articles reveal a high correlation in the information gathered from use of the skeptical approach and the traditional critical approach. There is only a small difference in the details provided acquired from the two approach. This difference is attributable to the method of transmission used in passing this information from one generation to the other.