The Prophet and the Archangel Gabriel
Hans Küng in Der Islam (2004) summarizes the major achievements of Muhammad in four categories:
(1) Unifying the Arabs. This was both a political and religious accomplishment. But at this stage Islam was understood as God's revelation to the Arabs. This concept was to influence later Muslim policy on tolerating other religions in lands rule by Muslims.
(2) Consolidating the Muslim community. The five pillars of Islam provided a common reference point for all Muslims everywhere: the profession that God is one God and Muhammad is his Prophet; ritual prayer; charity; fasting; and, the hajj to Mecca.
(3) Conflicts with Christian and Jews. Despite the tolerant attitude toward Jews and Christians as "people of the book" recommended in the Qur'ān, Mushammad during his lifetime came into conflict with both Christian and Jewish groups. So a definite element of hostility was there, as well.
(4) Expansion of the Islamic confederation. Muhammad created an unprecedented level of cooperation among the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, one that would soon enable them to challenge the mighty Byzantine and Sassanian (Persian) empires. And in the context of these expansion, Christian and Jewish groups were made subordinate to the political power of Muslims, though they remained as distinct communities with their own religion.
And Küng makes a further summary of the results of the foregoing:
- The religious/political one-man rule of Muhammad is later used to legitimize the absolutist centralism of the Arab-Muslim Islamic empire.
- In such an Arab-Islamic empire, Jews and Christians are certainly tolerated, but only with starkly reduced rights, as "protected minorities."
Reformist Islamic scholar Mohammed Arkoun wrote in his 1994 book Rethinking Islam: Common Questions, Uncommon Answers, reflecting on the Prophet's life achievements:
People sometimes ask: "What did Muhammad want?" We have to ponder the pertinence of the question. Volition presupposes reflection, deliberation, strategy, and tactics aimed at reaching the targeted objective. Having assumed a position of responsibility for the community of believers, the Prophet had to think about means of protecting it so that the Message could reach the hearts of actual and potential believers and he could create the political and social conditions for a durable expansion of the new religion. But Muhammad exercised this volition in the psychological context of waīy - inspiration, eruption, revelation - all the while maintaining the place of the "I" in the communication space of Qur'anic discourse (I/We -- you -- they/you).
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