Short answer
No. The life of the Prophet Muhammad (ﷺ) rules it out. Once he began to preach, he met years of abuse, a boycott, exile and war. His earliest biography records that the leaders of Mecca offered him money, leadership and kingship if he would stop. He refused. Even as ruler of most of Arabia, he slept on a mat of palm leaves. He died with his armour held by a Jewish man as security for barley, and his family inherited nothing. His wives were offered a divorce with a gift, and all chose poverty with him. For twenty-five years he had one wife, Khadijah, who was older than him. When he led the prayer sitting, he told his followers not to stand, as subjects stand before kings. A man who wanted power would not live like this. Islam's answer is that he was a sincere messenger of God (﷾).
Full explanation
What preaching cost him
The Prophet (ﷺ) gave up an honoured place in Mecca for years of abuse. Camel entrails (the insides of a slaughtered camel) were dumped on his back as he prayed. A man tried to throttle him at the Ka'ba, the sacred house in Mecca. His clan was boycotted for two or three years. The chiefs of Ta'if, a town near Mecca, then rejected him. The Angel of the Mountains offered to bring two mountains down on those who had rejected him. He refused, and said he hoped their descendants would worship God (﷾) alone.
Abdullah ibn Mas'ud reports that while the Prophet (ﷺ) was praying at the Ka'ba, Abu Jahl and his companions had the entrails of a slaughtered camel brought and laid on his back as he prostrated, and they laughed at him. Ibn Mas'ud watched, unable to help.
Abdullah ibn Amr, asked about the worst thing the idolaters did to the Prophet (ﷺ), said that while he prayed by the Ka'ba, Uqba ibn Abi Mu'ayt wound a cloth round his neck and throttled him violently, until Abu Bakr pushed him away, asking whether they would kill a man for saying his Lord is Allah.
Reports how the Quraysh persecuted the Prophet's (ﷺ) followers in Mecca, including how Umayya ibn Khalaf laid Bilal on his back in the midday heat with a great rock on his chest; and how the Quraysh wrote an agreement to boycott the clans of Hashim and al-Muttalib, which lasted two or three years.
Aisha asked the Prophet (ﷺ) whether he had known a day harder than Uhud. He named the day he presented his call to Ibn Abd Yalil, a chief of Ta'if, and was turned away. As he left in sorrow, Gabriel came with the Angel of the Mountains, who offered to let the two great mountains fall on those who had rejected him. The Prophet refused and said he hoped that their descendants would worship Allah alone.
The offer he turned down
Ibn Ishaq wrote the earliest full biography of the Prophet (ﷺ) that survives. He reports that the Quraysh, the ruling tribe of Mecca, sent Utba ibn Rabi'a to him. This was early in his mission, before Islam had any prospect of success. Utba offered money, leadership and kingship if he would stop calling people to God (﷾) alone. The Prophet (ﷺ) answered by reciting the opening of Surat Fussilat. That passage calls him "a man like you". His enemies also wanted him to soften his message, and asked him to bring a different Qur'an. The Qur'an records both requests and his refusal.
Reports that the Quraysh sent Utba ibn Rabi'a to the Prophet (ﷺ) with an offer: if he wanted money, they would make him the richest of them; if he wanted honour, they would make him their chief; if he wanted kingship, they would make him their king; if he was afflicted by a spirit, they would pay for a cure. The Prophet heard him out, then recited the opening of Surat Fussilat. Utba went back and told the Quraysh he had heard words unlike poetry, sorcery or soothsaying, and advised them to leave him alone.
“Ha Mim: A Revelation from (Allah), Most Gracious, Most Merciful;- A Book, whereof the verses are explained in detail;- a Qur'an in Arabic, for people who understand;- Giving good news and admonition: yet most of them turn away, and so they hear not. They say: "Our hearts are under veils, (concealed) from that to which thou dost invite us, and in our ears in a deafness, and between us and thee is a screen: so do thou (what thou wilt); for us, we shall do (what we will!)" Say thou: "I am but a man like you: It is revealed to me by Inspiration, that your Allah is one Allah: so stand true to Him, and ask for His Forgiveness." And woe to those who join gods with Allah,-”
“Their desire is that thou shouldst be pliant: so would they be pliant.”
“But when Our Clear Signs are rehearsed unto them, those who rest not their hope on their meeting with Us, Say: "Bring us a reading other than this, or change this," Say: "It is not for me, of my own accord, to change it: I follow naught but what is revealed unto me: if I were to disobey my Lord, I should myself fear the penalty of a Great Day (to come)."”
How the ruler of Arabia lived
The Prophet (ﷺ) ruled most of Arabia by the end of his life, and he lived as he had lived before. Umar, one of his closest companions, found him lying on a bare mat of palm leaves, its marks pressed into his side. Umar wept at the thought of Caesar and Khosrau, the emperors of Rome and Persia, in their palaces. Two months could pass with no fire lit to cook in his houses. His family never ate their fill of barley bread two days running. His mattress was leather stuffed with palm fibre. He never saw bread of fine flour after he became a prophet.
Umar found the Prophet (ﷺ) lying on a mat of palm leaves with nothing between him and it, a leather pillow stuffed with palm fibre under his head. Seeing the marks of the mat on his side, Umar wept, saying that Caesar and Khosrau lived in luxury while he lived in want. The Prophet asked whether he was not content that they should have this world and the believers the Hereafter.
Aisha told her nephew Urwa that three new moons could pass, two months, without a fire being lit to cook in the Prophet's (ﷺ) houses. They lived on dates and water, and some milk that Ansari neighbours sent them.
Aisha reports that the family of Muhammad (ﷺ) never ate their fill of barley bread two days running until the Prophet died.
Aisha reports that the Prophet's (ﷺ) mattress was a leather case stuffed with palm fibre.
Sahl ibn Sa'd reports that from the time Allah sent the Prophet (ﷺ) as a messenger until He took him, the Prophet never saw bread of fine white flour, or even a sieve; they ate barley, blowing away the husks.
What he left behind
When the Prophet (ﷺ) died, his armour was held by a Jewish man as security for barley. He left no money. He left only his white mule, his weapons and a piece of land he had already given in charity. He taught that what prophets leave is charity, not an inheritance, so his family received nothing. He once hurried home from prayer to give away a piece of gold meant for charity. He did not want it to stay a night in his house.
Aisha reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) died, his armour was held by a Jewish man as security for thirty measures of barley.
Amr ibn al-Harith reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) died he left no money, no slave and nothing else, except his white mule, his weapons and a piece of land he had given in charity.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) said that the property of the prophets is not inherited: whatever they leave is to be given in charity.
Uqba ibn al-Harith reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) hurried home straight after the afternoon prayer. He explained that he had left a piece of gold from the charity in his house and did not want it to stay there overnight, so he had it given out.
He refused a king's honours
The Prophet (ﷺ) served his family at home. He visited the sick, including a Jewish boy who had served him. He carried earth with his companions when they dug the trench round Medina. Once his followers stood behind him as he prayed sitting. He told them to sit, and said they had nearly copied the Persians and Romans, who stand before their kings. He also forbade them to over-praise him as Christians had praised Jesus.
Al-Aswad asked Aisha what the Prophet (ﷺ) used to do at home. She said he busied himself serving his family, and when the time for prayer came he went out to pray.
Anas reports that a Jewish boy who used to serve the Prophet (ﷺ) fell ill, and the Prophet went to visit him. He sat by his head and invited him to Islam; the boy looked at his father, who told him to obey, and he accepted.
Al-Bara reports that on the day of the Confederates he saw the Prophet (ﷺ) carrying earth, the dust covering his belly, as the trench was dug.
Jabir reports that the Prophet (ﷺ), when ill, led the prayer sitting, and the people behind him stood. He signalled them to sit, and afterwards told them they had nearly done what the Persians and Romans do, who stand before their kings while the kings sit, and that they must not do it.
Umar reports that he heard the Prophet (ﷺ) say: do not over-praise me as the Christians over-praised the son of Mary; I am only a servant, so call me the servant of Allah and His Messenger.
| A power-seeker would want | What the record shows |
|---|---|
| Rich food | Two months could pass with no fire lit to cook in the Prophet's (ﷺ) houses. He never saw bread of fine flour after he became a prophet. |
| Wealth to leave | He left no money: only his white mule, his weapons and a piece of land he had already given in charity. His family inherited nothing. |
| Servants at home | He served his family at home. He visited the sick, even a Jewish boy who had served him. |
| The honours of a king | When he prayed sitting, he told his followers to sit too, not to stand as the Persians and Romans stood before their kings. |
| Money and a crown | Ibn Ishaq reports that the leaders of Mecca offered him money, leadership and kingship if he would stop preaching. He answered by reciting the Qur'an. |
| Revenge | After the chiefs of Ta'if rejected him, he was offered the destruction of those who had rejected him. He refused, and hoped their descendants would worship God (﷾) alone. |
A man who wanted power would not live like this.
His wives chose poverty too
The Qur'an told the Prophet (ﷺ) to offer his wives a choice. They could have the comforts of this world and a kind release. Or they could have Allah (﷾), His Messenger and the Hereafter, the life after death. Aisha, his wife, answered first and chose to stay, and every other wife did the same. A man who invented a religion for pleasure would not ask his household to choose hardship. Nor did he live for women in his youth. By the biographers' count he married Khadijah at twenty-five. She was a widow fifteen years older than him. He took no other wife in the twenty-five years until she died. After her he married Sawdah, a widow. Aisha was the only one of his wives who had not been married before. His later marriages came when he was about fifty or older. Every wife after Aisha was a widow or a divorced woman. The reasons for each marriage are given on the page "Why did the Prophet (ﷺ) marry so many wives, and more than four?"
“O Prophet! Say to thy Consorts: "If it be that ye desire the life of this World, and its glitter,- then come! I will provide for your enjoyment and set you free in a handsome manner. But if ye seek Allah and His Messenger, and the Home of the Hereafter, verily Allah has prepared for the well-doers amongst you a great reward.”
Aisha reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) was commanded to give his wives the choice in Qur'an 33:28-29, he began with her and told her not to answer before consulting her parents. She said she had no need to consult them: she chose Allah, His Messenger and the Home of the Hereafter. All the Prophet's other wives then did the same.
Aisha reports that the Prophet (ﷺ) did not marry any other woman until Khadijah died.
Lists the Prophet's (ﷺ) wives in order. Khadijah was the first: he married her before prophethood, when he was twenty-five and she was forty, and married no one else until she died. Sawdah followed in Mecca soon after Khadijah's death, then Aisha. The rest he married after the Hijra: Hafsah, Zaynab bint Khuzaymah (who died about two months after the marriage), Umm Salamah, Zaynab bint Jahsh, Juwayriyah, Umm Habibah and Safiyyah. Umm Habibah, daughter of Abu Sufyan, was widowed in Abyssinia and married to the Prophet there by the Negus. Maymunah, married in the seventh year after the Hijra, was the last.
Aisha asked the Prophet (ﷺ), as a parable, whether he would graze his camel on a tree already eaten from or on one untouched, and he chose the untouched one. The narrator explains that she meant the Prophet had married no virgin besides her.
A book that gives him nothing
The Qur'an the Prophet (ﷺ) recited corrects him in public. It corrects him for frowning at a blind man, and for forbidding himself something lawful to please his wives. It has him say he has no power over good or harm, even for himself. The sun eclipsed on the day his son died, and people said it was for his son. He told them eclipses happen for no one's death. His own enemy Abu Sufyan admitted he had never been known to lie.
“(The Prophet) frowned and turned away, Because there came to him the blind man (interrupting). But what could tell thee but that perchance he might grow (in spiritual understanding)?- Or that he might receive admonition, and the teaching might profit him? As to one who regards Himself as self-sufficient, To him dost thou attend; Though it is no blame to thee if he grow not (in spiritual understanding). But as to him who came to thee striving earnestly, And with fear (in his heart), Of him wast thou unmindful.”
“O Prophet! Why holdest thou to be forbidden that which Allah has made lawful to thee? Thou seekest to please thy consorts. But Allah is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
“Say: "I have no power over any good or harm to myself except as Allah willeth. If I had knowledge of the unseen, I should have multiplied all good, and no evil should have touched me: I am but a warner, and a bringer of glad tidings to those who have faith."”
Al-Mughira ibn Shu'ba reports that the sun eclipsed on the day the Prophet's (ﷺ) son Ibrahim died, and people said it had eclipsed because of Ibrahim's death. The Prophet said that the sun and the moon do not eclipse for the death or the birth of anyone, and told them to pray and call on Allah when they see an eclipse.
Abu Sufyan, at the time still an enemy of the Prophet (ﷺ), was questioned by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Asked whether they had ever accused Muhammad of lying before he claimed prophethood, he answered no. Heraclius concluded that a man who did not lie about people would not lie about God.
Perspectives
The sceptic's motive: power, wealth and wives
Many sceptics say Muhammad (ﷺ) gained power, followers and several wives from his claim. So, they say, he had every reason to invent it.
Critics say Muhammad (ﷺ) gained power and several wives from his claim. So, they say, he had a motive to invent it.
Rebuttal
The Quraysh offered him wealth, leadership and kingship to stop preaching, and he refused. While ruling most of Arabia he slept on a bare mat, and he died with his armour held as security for barley. Every wife after Aisha was a widow or a divorced woman, and every marriage after Khadijah came when he was about fifty or older. And the Qur'an he recited rebukes him in public, which a self-serving author does not write.
The Islamic perspective
The Prophet (ﷺ) gained nothing of this world from his message, and he gave up much. He kept only a year's food for his family, and spent the rest of what came to him as ruler on the community. He died with his armour in pawn. His conduct before and after success is the evidence that he was sincere. His sincerity and the Book he brought show that he was what he said he was: a messenger of God (﷾).
Ibn Ishaq reports that the Quraysh offered him wealth, leadership and kingship to stop preaching, and that he refused.
He was abused, assaulted and boycotted in Mecca, and kept preaching.
While ruling most of Arabia he lived in poverty and slept on a bare mat. His houses could go two months with no fire lit to cook.
He died with his armour held as security for barley, left no money, and his family inherited nothing from him.
He refused the honours of a king. When he led the prayer sitting, he told his followers to sit, rather than stand as the Persians and Romans stood before their kings. He also forbade them to over-praise him.
His wives were offered a divorce with a gift, and all chose to stay with him in poverty.
Every wife after Aisha was a widow or a divorced woman. And every marriage after Khadijah came when he was about fifty or older.
The Qur'an he recited rebukes him and denies him any power of his own. That is not what a self-serving author writes.
Muhammad (ﷺ) was a messenger of God (﷾), and the Qur'an is God's (﷾) word, not his.