Who is Muhammad?   This piece is not meant to insult the people or the founder of the Islamic faith but is intended to cast light upon the evidence surrounding his actual existence.  In doing some research on the topic, it is surprising to see the lack of investigation into the issue and the lack of information concerning the historical fact of Muhammad’s life. In his book, A History of the Arab People’ A. Hourani tells us that the first recorded words of Muhammad’s life came 100 years after the man’s death.  This is not good for such works will always be held under a cloud of suspicion even if accurate.  In contrast we find the Gospels and the rest of the books of the New Testament written within 100 years of Christ’s death, and when the majority of eye-witnesses were still alive. If there was to be any conspiracy, it would have been found out long before the 1st century closed.  With Muhammad we cannot be sure what his life was like or if he actually existed as an individual let alone a composite of individuals.  There is too much doubt that lingers with each retelling of His biography. The article “Did Muhammad Exist’ by Chadd de la Casses compares the very strict criteria used to combat the Bible and Jesus’ life with that used to investigate alternative religion’s founders: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/387247/did_muhammad_really_exist.html In this article he reviews the differences and points out that there is very little secular record of his actual existence.  He, like Hourani, points out  that the first actual book was written in A.D. 750 by Muhammad Ibn Ishaq Ibn Yasser simply titled ‘Life’.  It is fair to say that by that time poetic license could replace historical fact as there were no eye-witnesses left to refute what was written. By placing the alternative religion’s religious writings under the same scrutiny the Bible is placed under we find that their ‘evidence’ falls apart and that the historical record is non-existent.  The same happens when you place the Book of Mormon under an archaeological review. According to the same article, even the existence of Mecca at Muhammad’s time is under suspicion as there is no archaeological evidence to support its pre-eminence at the time of Muhammad.  Though to be fair, physical evidence is hard to find for many cities and events of the past. The following website, http://bibleprobe.com/muhammad.htm, provides a little more detail concerning the literary record of the life of Muhammad and again we see works written long after the fact when details would be clouded or forgotten, re-arranged and so on. This website isn’t bad and provides a lot of information from ex-muslims which helps us to understand the problem surrounding the person known as Muhammad. Here are a few ords it writes about Muhammad: “As you will see below, Muhammad posed as an apostle of God.  Yet his life is filled with lustfulness (12 marriages and sex with a child, slaves and concubines), rapes, warfare, conquests, and unmerciful butcheries.  The infinitely good, just and all holy God simply cannot tolerate anything in the least unjust or sinful.  What Muhammad produced in the Qur'an is simply a book of gibberish consisting of later evil verses abrogating (superseding) earlier peaceful verses. These verses in Arabic poetically "tickle" the ears of Arab listeners.   Islam is a caustic blend of paganism and twisted Bible stories. Muhammad, its lone "prophet", who made no prophecies, conceived his religion to satiate his lust for power, sex, and money" There can be no doubt his life is shrouded in mystery, legend and deceit and we may never know more about him other than he was a man who made claims and was able to get subsequent nations to adopt his teachings without out question That website has this to say about the Koran which disputes the claim that the Muslim scriptures were already written as a complete book in the time of Muhammad: “The Jewish and Christian Bibles were written by "inspired men of God" who immediately committed God's Word to writing.  Islam doesn't even have either an original or inspired Qur'an. The Muslim Qur'an was made up supposedly from "memory" from those who supposedly committed the words of Muhammad to memory, and from a few scraps found under a bed.  This was originally begun about 15-20 years after Muhammad died at his wife Ayish's home in Medina, and he was lowered into a hole in the ground, where he remains.  The compilation was not finished until at least 150 years after Muhammad's death.  This "hearsay" argument seriously brings the credibility of the Qur'an into question.  But, that's only the beginning.  All the errors, including simple mathematical and historical errors you will see in the Qur'an below renders it impossible to be a divine revelation” Such a history denies the many claims Muhammad made about the Koran and shows how little he had in character. Who is Muhammad?  We don’t really know, for the modern Muslim he is a spiritual figure deserving respect and worship yet to everyone else he is just another man who was successful in deceiving intelligent people. As with many aspects of the Roman Catholic Church, it is highly possible that men of ill repute saw an opportunity to enslave a large body of people for their own purposes.  Whatever the reason believers should know that there is no truth in Islam or its history.   ***for further research, type in the search box the words ‘archaeological evidence for Muhammad’ or something similar and you will be able to read the investigations for youselves.