The Muslim profession of faith affirms that "there is no god but God, and Muhammad is the messenger of God". Only the first affirmation conveys a substantive message; the second half merely ientifies the bearer. In the sense, the burden of Muhammad's preaching was simply monotheism. Such in insistence was not superfluous in the sventh century. In Arabia, where an olda-fashioned polytheism still flourished, it drammatically accelerated the penetration of the peninsula by monotheist influence. Outside Arabia went on to conquer. Although authentic pagan were now in short supply, Zoroastrian and Christians were not immune to the challenge of a strict monotheism. The Zoroastrians worshipped not only the good god of their dualist cosmology, but sundry other deities as well; and while it may be true tht the three persons of the Christian Trinity add up to one God without companions, the arithmetic is elusive, and not only to the theologically untrained. Only the Jewish case does the monotheist polemic of Islam seem somewhat contrived. Muhammad, then, had a point. But this point was no more than the perennial message of monotheism, and as such it neither was, nor was intended to be, distinctive. It was what Muhammad made of his ancient verity that mattered; and in his day this meant what he made of it for the Arabs.
Casalino Pierluigi, on June 20th 2014
Casalino Pierluigi, on June 20th 2014