Lecture on Biography of Muhammad and the Nature of Faith

Introduction

• Biographical Writing as Exploration: Writing a biography is like exploring foreign territory.
• Personal Context: The speaker, an agnostic Jew, explores the life of Muhammad.

Muhammad's First Revelation

• Historical Context: Occurred in 610 CE on a mountain near Mecca.
• Mystical Moment: Key to Islam, defies empirical analysis.
• Muhammad's Initial Reaction: Fear and doubt, not joy or conviction.
  • Thought it might have been a hallucination or possession by a jinn.
  • Considered suicide due to overwhelming fear.

The Role of Doubt in Faith

• Contrast to Fundamentalism: Fundamentalists reject doubt, demand perfection.
• Historical Accounts: Earliest biographies of Muhammad include his doubt.
• Doubt as Integral to Faith: As per Graham Greene, doubt is the heart of the matter.
  • Absence of doubt leads to dogmatism, not true faith.
  • Fundamentalism is an absence of faith, just certainty.

Extremism and Misinterpretation

• Current Misuse of Religion: Fundamentalists distort faith.
  • Judaism, Christianity, and Islam claimed by extremists.
  • Extremists form a cult-like entity, separate from true religious faith.

Real Faith vs. Fanaticism

• Nature of Real Faith: Involves struggle and questioning.
  • Coexists with doubt and sometimes defies it.

Faith in Humanity and Peace

• Personal Stance on Peace: Speaker has faith in Middle Eastern peace despite doubts.
• Despair as Self-Fulfilling: Rejects nihilism of despair, insists on faith in future.

Hypothetical Perspective of Muhammad

• Opposition to Extremists: Muhammad would oppose current militant fundamentalists.
  • Against gender repression, sectarianism, and terrorism.
  • Belief in saving lives and making peace.

Conclusion

• Humanity's Faith: Driven by faith in future and in each other.
  • Faith is inherently human, despite doubts and challenges.