Short answer
Yes. A man who says God (﷾) sent him can only be one of three things. He was lying, for money, power or fame. He was mad or deceived, and only believed it. Or he told the truth. The record rules out the first two. His own people called him al-Amin, the trustworthy, before he claimed anything. Even his enemy Abu Sufyan admitted they had never accused him of lying. When the Quraysh offered to make him their richest man and their king if he would stop, he refused. He bore years of persecution, and died with his armour pawned for barley. Nor was he mad. His enemies' own envoy said the words he recited were not poetry, sorcery or soothsaying. And the man they called mad went on to unite most of Arabia under one law. A man fooling himself does not recite verses that correct him in public. What is left is the third answer: he was God's (﷾) last messenger.
Full explanation
Only three possibilities
The Prophet (ﷺ) said that God (﷾) had sent him, and that the Qur'an was God's (﷾) word, not his own. A man who says this can only be one of three things. He was lying, and knew it, perhaps for money, power or fame. Or he was mad or deceived: he truly believed it, but it came from his own mind or from something else. Or he told the truth. The Qur'an itself records the first two charges, and answers them. Each can be tested against the record of his life, one at a time.
“But the misbelievers say: "Naught is this but a lie which he has forged, and others have helped him at it." In truth it is they who have put forward an iniquity and a falsehood. And they say: "Tales of the ancients, which he has caused to be written: and they are dictated before him morning and evening."”
“They say: "O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)!”
“Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed.”
Was he a liar?
Before the revelation, the Prophet (ﷺ) was known in Makkah as al-Amin, the trustworthy. People left their valuables with him. When the clans quarrelled over who should set the Black Stone back in place, they agreed to accept his judgement. When he first called the clans together at the hill of Safa, they told him they had never known him to say anything but the truth. Years later, Abu Sufyan, still his enemy, was questioned by the Byzantine emperor Heraclius. Asked whether they had ever accused Muhammad (ﷺ) of lying before his mission, he said no. Heraclius drew the conclusion: a man who did not lie about people would not lie about God (﷾). The Qur'an tells him to point to the whole lifetime he had spent among them before it came.
Reports that before his mission Muhammad (ﷺ) was known among Quraysh as al-Amin, the trustworthy. When the clans quarrelled over who should set the Black Stone back in place during the rebuilding of the Ka'ba, they agreed to accept the judgement of the first man to enter, and it was he. People of Makkah left their valuables in his keeping, and at the Hijra he had Ali stay behind to return them to their owners.
Ibn Abbas reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) first gathered the clans of Quraysh at the hill of Safa, he asked whether they would believe him if he warned them of cavalry in the valley. They answered yes, because they had never known him to say anything but the truth. He then told them he was a warner of a severe punishment.
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.
“Say: "If Allah had so willed, I should not have rehearsed it to you, nor would He have made it known to you. A whole life-time before this have I tarried amongst you: will ye not then understand?"”
A liar does not make promises that can be checked
A liar avoids promises that his enemies can check. The Qur'an made two. When Persia had crushed the Romans, it said the Romans would win within a few years. From 622, the Roman emperor Heraclius turned the war, and by 627 he had defeated Persia. It also said that the Prophet's (ﷺ) uncle Abu Lahab, one of his fiercest enemies, would burn in the Fire, which meant he would die an unbeliever. Abu Lahab lived for years after it was recited. He had only to say he was a Muslim, even falsely, to cast doubt on it. He never did, and he died soon after the battle of Badr, still an enemy of Islam. The page "What prophecies in the Qur'an came true?" sets out both.
“The Roman Empire has been defeated- In a land close by; but they, (even) after (this) defeat of theirs, will soon be victorious- Within a few years. With Allah is the Decision, in the past and in the Future: on that Day shall the Believers rejoice-”
A history of the Roman (Byzantine) emperor Heraclius. It records the Persian conquests of Roman lands, including Jerusalem in 614, and Heraclius' counter-campaigns from 622, which ended with his victory near Nineveh in 627 and the Persian surrender of the conquered lands.
“Perish the hands of the Father of Flame! Perish he! No profit to him from all his wealth, and all his gains! Burnt soon will he be in a Fire of Blazing Flame!”
Reports that Abu Lahab stayed behind in Mecca when the Quraysh marched to Badr, and that he died soon after the battle, still an enemy of the Prophet (ﷺ) and of Islam.
Did he do it for gain?
He did not need money or standing. Before his mission he had married Khadija, a respected merchant woman of Makkah whose trade he had carried, and his people trusted and honoured him. And if he made it up for money, power or fame, he was offered all three, and turned them down. The Quraysh sent Utba ibn Rabi'a to him 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 to be a king, they would make him their king. He heard Utba out, then recited the Qur'an to him. Even if all he wanted was to lead and reform Arabia, that offer gave him the power to do it. The only condition was that he stop calling people to worship God (﷾) alone, and that he would not do. Nor does a man who only wants a following tell the Jews and Christians around him, whose support he could have won, that their scriptures were changed, that Jesus was not crucified, and that God (﷾) is not one of three. Instead, his message brought him years of persecution. His clan was boycotted. He lost his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, and the chiefs of Ta'if drove him out. An angel offered to bring the mountains down on those who had rejected him. He said instead that he hoped their descendants would worship Allah (﷾) alone. He ended as the ruler of Arabia, yet he died with his armour pledged to a Jewish man for barley, and left no money. He would not keep even one night a piece of gold meant for charity. Two months could pass with no fire lit to cook in his houses, and his family lived on dates and water. A stranger who came to the mosque had to ask which of the men sitting there was Muhammad (ﷺ). And he set no one above the law: he said that if his own daughter Fatima stole, the punishment would fall on her too.
Records that Muhammad (ﷺ) was born in Makkah in the Year of the Elephant, which Muslim tradition places at about 570 CE; that his father Abdullah died before he was born and his mother Amina when he was six; that he was raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then by his uncle Abu Talib; that he traded for Khadija, a respected merchant woman of Makkah, and married her when he was twenty-five.
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.
Records the persecution of the Muslims in Makkah: Quraysh's boycott of the Prophet's (ﷺ) clan, the deaths of his wife Khadija and his uncle and protector Abu Talib close together, and his journey to Ta'if, where the chiefs rejected him and set the town's rabble on him as he left.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Anas ibn Malik reports that while the Companions were sitting with the Prophet (ﷺ) in the mosque, a man rode in on a camel and asked which of them was Muhammad. The Prophet was sitting among them, leaning on his arm, and they pointed him out. The man then questioned him about whether God had sent him to all mankind, and about the prayers, the fast and the charity.
Aisha reports that Quraysh were troubled over a woman of the noble Makhzum clan who had stolen, and asked Usama ibn Zayd to plead for her. The Prophet (ﷺ) asked whether he was interceding about one of the punishments God had set. Then he preached that the nations before them were destroyed because they let a noble thief go and punished a weak one, and swore that if Fatima, his own daughter, stole, he would cut off her hand.
“Then woe to those who write the Book with their own hands, and then say:"This is from Allah," to traffic with it for miserable price!- Woe to them for what their hands do write, and for the gain they make thereby.”
“That they said (in boast), "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah";- but they killed him not, nor crucified him, but so it was made to appear to them, and those who differ therein are full of doubts, with no (certain) knowledge, but only conjecture to follow, for of a surety they killed him not:-”
“They do blaspheme who say: Allah is one of three in a Trinity: for there is no god except One Allah. If they desist not from their word (of blasphemy), verily a grievous penalty will befall the blasphemers among them.”
Was he mad?
His enemies did call him mad. The Qur'an records them saying: "truly thou art mad (or possessed)!" And it answers: "Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed." The record agrees. Before his mission, his people chose him to settle the quarrel over the Black Stone. The Quraysh even offered to pay for a cure, in case a spirit had taken hold of him. But when their envoy Utba heard him recite, he went back and told them he had heard words unlike poetry, sorcery or soothsaying, and advised them to leave him alone. The man they called mad went on to end the blood feuds of Arabia, and to give its tribes one law. Madness does not do that.
“They say: "O thou to whom the Message is being revealed! truly thou art mad (or possessed)!”
“Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed.”
Reports that before his mission Muhammad (ﷺ) was known among Quraysh as al-Amin, the trustworthy. When the clans quarrelled over who should set the Black Stone back in place during the rebuilding of the Ka'ba, they agreed to accept the judgement of the first man to enter, and it was he. People of Makkah left their valuables in his keeping, and at the Hijra he had Ali stay behind to return them to their owners.
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.
Jabir ibn Abdullah's long account of the Prophet (ﷺ)'s Farewell Pilgrimage. In his sermon at Arafat the Prophet declared that the lives and property of the people are sacred, that everything of the Days of Ignorance is abolished, and that the blood-revenges of that time are abolished, starting with a claim of his own family.
Was he deceived? The Book corrects him
Some say he was honest but deceived, and that the voice he heard came from his own mind. But a man who mistakes his own thoughts for God's (﷾) word does not recite verses that blame him. The Qur'an rebukes the Prophet (ﷺ) in words he had to recite aloud to the people he led. It blames him for frowning at a blind man. It blames him for forbidding himself something lawful to please his wives. It tells him that the decision over certain men was not his. And it tells him to say that he does not know the unseen. When the sun was eclipsed on the day his son Ibrahim died, people said it was for Ibrahim. He told them that eclipses happen for no one's death or birth. A man inventing a religion, or fooling himself, would have taken that sign. Others say he was simply a good and wise man, like teachers in other faiths who lived simple lives. But the Buddha, for one, said the verses that came to him were not given from above. The Prophet (ﷺ) said, again and again, that God (﷾) spoke to him. A good man does not say that if it is not so. So this answer leads back to the three: he was lying, he was deceived, or he told the truth.
“(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.”
“Not for thee, (but for Allah), is the decision: Whether He turn in mercy to them, or punish them; for they are indeed wrong-doers.”
“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.
“And then these verses, which were neither supernaturally inspired, nor learned before in the past, occurred to me:”
What he said about himself
The Prophet (ﷺ) was told to say that he had no power to bring good or harm, even to himself. He was told to say that he did not know the unseen, and that he was a man to whom revelation came. He forbade his followers to praise him the way Christians praised Jesus. When he died, his close companion Abu Bakr calmed the grieving city by reciting that Muhammad (ﷺ) is only a messenger. His followers mourned him as a man, because he had taught them that only God (﷾) never dies.
“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."”
“Say: "I am but a man like yourselves, (but) the inspiration has come to me, that your Allah is one Allah: whoever expects to meet his Lord, let him work righteousness, and, in the worship of his Lord, admit no one as partner.”
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.
Aisha reports that when the Prophet (ﷺ) died, Umar insisted he was not dead. Abu Bakr came, kissed the Prophet's face, then told the people that whoever worshipped Muhammad should know Muhammad was dead, and whoever worshipped Allah should know Allah is alive and never dies. He recited 39:30 and 3:144, that Muhammad is no more than a messenger, and the people wept.
“Muhammad is no more than a messenger: many Were the messenger that passed away before him. If he died or were slain, will ye then Turn back on your heels? If any did turn back on his heels, not the least harm will he do to Allah; but Allah (on the other hand) will swiftly reward those who (serve Him) with gratitude.”
What he changed in Arabia
The message the Prophet (ﷺ) brought condemned burying baby girls alive. At the Farewell Pilgrimage, his last pilgrimage, he ended the blood feuds of the Days of Ignorance, the Muslim name for Arabia before Islam. The Qur'an put a law of equal punishment in their place, and let the victim's family choose to forgive or to take compensation instead. Wine and gambling were forbidden step by step. When the final ban came, the wine was poured out until it ran in the streets of Madinah. Women were given a fixed share of inheritance, and the right to keep what they earned. When a father married off his daughter against her will, the Prophet (ﷺ) declared the marriage invalid. And freeing a slave became a way to make up for sins, such as killing a believer by mistake.
“When the female (infant), buried alive, is questioned - For what crime she was killed;”
Jabir ibn Abdullah's long account of the Prophet (ﷺ)'s Farewell Pilgrimage. In his sermon at Arafat the Prophet declared that the lives and property of the people are sacred, that everything of the Days of Ignorance is abolished, and that the blood-revenges of that time are abolished, starting with a claim of his own family.
“O ye who believe! the law of equality is prescribed to you in cases of murder: the free for the free, the slave for the slave, the woman for the woman. But if any remission is made by the brother of the slain, then grant any reasonable demand, and compensate him with handsome gratitude, this is a concession and a Mercy from your Lord. After this whoever exceeds the limits shall be in grave penalty. In the Law of Equality there is (saving of) Life to you, o ye men of understanding; that ye may restrain yourselves.”
“They ask thee concerning wine and gambling. Say: "In them is great sin, and some profit, for men; but the sin is greater than the profit." They ask thee how much they are to spend; Say: "What is beyond your needs." Thus doth Allah Make clear to you His Signs: In order that ye may consider-”
“O ye who believe! Approach not prayers with a mind befogged, until ye can understand all that ye say,- nor in a state of ceremonial impurity (Except when travelling on the road), until after washing your whole body. If ye are ill, or on a journey, or one of you cometh from offices of nature, or ye have been in contact with women, and ye find no water, then take for yourselves clean sand or earth, and rub therewith your faces and hands. For Allah doth blot out sins and forgive again and again.”
“O ye who believe! Intoxicants and gambling, (dedication of) stones, and (divination by) arrows, are an abomination,- of Satan's handwork: eschew such (abomination), that ye may prosper.”
Anas reports that he was serving drinks at the house of Abu Talha when the Prophet (ﷺ) had it announced that alcoholic drink was forbidden. Abu Talha told him to go out and pour the wine away, and it flowed in the streets of Madinah.
“From what is left by parents and those nearest related there is a share for men and a share for women, whether the property be small or large,-a determinate share.”
“And in no wise covet those things in which Allah Hath bestowed His gifts More freely on some of you than on others: To men is allotted what they earn, and to women what they earn: But ask Allah of His bounty. For Allah hath full knowledge of all things.”
Khansa bint Khidam, who had been married before, reports that her father married her off against her wishes, so she went to the Prophet (ﷺ), and he declared the marriage invalid.
“Never should a believer kill a believer; but (If it so happens) by mistake, (Compensation is due): If one (so) kills a believer, it is ordained that he should free a believing slave, and pay compensation to the deceased's family, unless they remit it freely. If the deceased belonged to a people at war with you, and he was a believer, the freeing of a believing slave (Is enough). If he belonged to a people with whom ye have treaty of Mutual alliance, compensation should be paid to his family, and a believing slave be freed. For those who find this beyond their means, (is prescribed) a fast for two months running: by way of repentance to Allah: for Allah hath all knowledge and all wisdom.”
“But those who divorce their wives by Zihar, then wish to go back on the words they uttered,- (It is ordained that such a one) should free a slave before they touch each other: Thus are ye admonished to perform: and Allah is well-acquainted with (all) that ye do.”
A Western historian's verdict
W. Montgomery Watt, a Christian historian of Islam at Edinburgh, studied the Prophet's (ﷺ) life closely. He concluded that three things point to his honesty: the persecution he was willing to bear, the character of the men who followed him, and how much he achieved.
A biography by a Christian historian of Islam at the University of Edinburgh. Watt argues that Muhammad's (ﷺ) readiness to suffer persecution for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him, and the greatness of what he achieved all argue for his fundamental integrity.
The answer that is left
So the record answers each charge. He was not a liar: friends and enemies alike knew him as truthful, and he turned down wealth and kingship. He was not mad: his people trusted his judgement, his enemies' envoy could not call what he recited poetry, sorcery or soothsaying, and he united a people under one law. And he was not fooling himself: the Book he brought corrects him. What is left is the answer the Qur'an gives. He does not speak from his own desire. It is revelation sent down to him.
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.
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.
“(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.”
“Nor does he say (aught) of (his own) Desire. It is no less than inspiration sent down to him:”
The three answers, tested
- A liar? His own people called him al-Amin, the trustworthy, and even his enemy Abu Sufyan said they had never accused him of lying.
- A liar would avoid promises that can be checked. The Qur'an said the defeated Romans would win within a few years, and that Abu Lahab would die an unbeliever. Both came true.
- For gain? The Quraysh offered him wealth, leadership and kingship to stop. He refused, and died with his armour pledged for barley.
- Mad? His people chose him to judge their quarrels, and his enemies' envoy said what he recited was not poetry, sorcery or soothsaying.
- Deceived? The Qur'an he recited corrects him in public, and he refused to let an eclipse be credited to his son's death.
- What is left is the answer he gave himself: he was a messenger of God (﷾).
The poison objection
Qur'an 69:44-47 — Surat al-Haqqa (The Reality), verses 44-47
“And if the messenger were to invent any sayings in Our name, We should certainly seize him by his right hand, And We should certainly then cut off the artery of his heart: Nor could any of you withhold him (from Our wrath).”
Cited for
Some critics say this verse condemns Muhammad (ﷺ) himself. In his last illness he said he felt as if his aorta (the great artery of the heart) was being cut, from the poison he had eaten at Khaybar. So, they say, God cut off his life artery, as the verse says He would do to a forger.
The response
The verse is a condition. If the messenger invented sayings in God's (﷾) name, God (﷾) would seize him and cut him off, and the lie would go no further. That is not what happened. The poison was given about four years before his death. In those years the Qur'an kept being revealed, and Makkah and most of Arabia accepted Islam. At the Farewell Pilgrimage the Qur'an declared the religion complete. The woman who poisoned him said she had meant to kill him. He answered that Allah (﷾) would never give her the power to do it. Nor did He: he lived four more years and finished his mission. He died in his last illness in Aisha's house. It was the Muslims themselves who recorded his words about the pain, in their most trusted books. Because he still felt that poison, Muslim scholars count his death a martyr's death, an honour and not a punishment.
Where it lands — The verse describes a forger cut off before his work is done. The Prophet (ﷺ) finished his mission first, so the verse does not fit him.
Deuteronomy 18:20 — Torah, Devarim, chapter 18, verse 20
“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.”
Cited for
The Law says a prophet who speaks what God did not command shall die, and Muhammad (ﷺ) died of poison.
The response
Moses also died, according to the word of the LORD, and no one calls him false. The verse is a sentence of death. The Mishnah, an early collection of Jewish law, lists the false prophet among those a court puts to death. No court condemned the Prophet (ﷺ). He died at home about four years later, in his last illness, with his work done. Jesus himself says that true prophets were killed (Matthew 23:37). And the test Moses gives is whether the prophet's word comes to pass.
Where it lands — Dying is not the test the Law gives; a failed prophecy is.
Perspectives
He made it up
Critics say Muhammad (ﷺ) made up the Qur'an himself, or with help, and claimed it came from God. His opponents in Makkah said so first. Many add that he did it for wealth and power.
His opponents in Makkah said the Qur'an was a lie he had forged with others' help. They said a man was teaching him.
Rebuttal
The same people had called him al-Amin, the trustworthy. Abu Sufyan, still his enemy, admitted they had never accused him of lying before his mission. Heraclius drew the point: a man who would not lie about people would not lie about God (﷾). And the man they named as his teacher spoke a foreign tongue, while the Qur'an is clear Arabic (16:103).
The Quraysh themselves suspected that he wanted money, honour or kingship, and many critics today say the same.
Rebuttal
The Quraysh tested that suspicion. They offered to make him the richest of them, their chief and their king, if he would stop. He refused, and recited the Qur'an instead. Then came years of boycott, persecution and exile. And when he did rule Arabia, he died with his armour pawned for barley, and left no money.
He was mad, or possessed
Some say Muhammad (ﷺ) was mad, or under the power of a spirit, and that what he heard did not come from God. His enemies in Makkah said this too.
His own people said he was mad, or possessed, and the Quraysh offered to pay for a cure.
Rebuttal
The Qur'an answers them: "Thou art not, by the Grace of thy Lord, mad or possessed." And the record agrees. His people had chosen him to judge the quarrel over the Black Stone. Utba, sent by his enemies, said the words he recited were not poetry, sorcery or soothsaying. And the man they called mad ended the blood feuds of Arabia, and gave its tribes one law.
Sincere, but not sent
Many historians without a religion accept that Muhammad (ﷺ) was sincere, as W. Montgomery Watt argued. But they hold that being sincere does not show that God spoke to him.
Muhammad (ﷺ) sincerely believed in his mission, but a sincere man can be mistaken.
Rebuttal
True, sincerity alone is not proof. But a sincere man who is mistaken has nothing outside his own mind to show for it, and the Prophet (ﷺ) had much. When Persia had crushed the Romans, the Qur'an foretold that the Romans would win "Within a few years", and they did. It said his uncle Abu Lahab would burn in the Fire, that is, die an unbeliever. Abu Lahab lived for years after, and only had to say he was a Muslim, even falsely, to cast doubt on it. He never did. By God's (﷾) leave, and before witnesses, the moon was split when the people of Makkah asked for a sign. At al-Hudaybiyah, water flowed from between his fingers for some fifteen hundred men. The Book he brought, though he could not read, calls the mountains pegs, and mountains turned out to have deep roots. It repeats none of the confident errors of his age, such as a two-horned womb or lightning as burning vapour. Nor does it repeat the Bible's, though critics say he copied from it: it never sets the earth on pillars, or has plants made before the sun. Taken together, no seventh-century Arab who could not read could have known all this, and kept clear of every error around him. And a man fooling himself does not recite, in public, verses that tell him off, or refuse the honour of an eclipse on the day his son died. Nor does he bring a book that its first hearers could not match.
A Western historian of Islam
Close study of the Prophet's (ﷺ) life led a leading Western historian of early Islam to affirm his sincerity.
W. Montgomery Watt argued that three things point to his honesty: he was ready to suffer for his beliefs, his followers were men of good character, and he achieved so much.
The Islamic perspective
Muhammad (ﷺ) was the messenger of God (﷾) and the last of the prophets. The record rules out the other two answers. He was not a liar, and not a seeker of gain. He was not mad, and not deceived. He was what he said he was.
His own people, even the enemies who later fought him, trusted his word before his mission, and admitted it afterwards.
The Quraysh offered him wealth, leadership and kingship to stop, and he refused.
He gained no wealth from his mission. He died with his armour pawned for barley, and left no money.
His enemies' own envoy said the words he recited were not poetry, sorcery or soothsaying.
The Qur'an rebukes him in verses he recited in public.
He refused to let people credit an eclipse to the death of his son.
He claimed to be only a man and a messenger, and forbade exaggerated praise of himself.
A man who makes up a religion usually gains from it, and a madman does not unite a people under one law. This man refused wealth and kingship, his people trusted his judgement, and he brought a Book that corrects him. So the best explanation is that his claim was true.
Muhammad (ﷺ) is the Messenger of Allah (﷾) and the Seal of the Prophets.