Where did the Qur’an Come From and How Many Wives did Muhammad Have?

Shariah law allows a man to be married to 4 wives and Muhammad had exemptions and at least 12 wives and perhaps as many as 18.  Not sure how many sex slaves Muhammad had, but he had many from the wars waged.

Listen to the program HERE ( OR DOWLOAD THE MP3 HERE) and below are the “show notes” from this program, so their are typos, etc. 

Answers To Your Questions

Today I want to answer some of your questions. I have received these questions through email or voice mail from the listeners to our radio broadcasts.

How many wives did Muhammad have?

Shariah law allows a man to be married to 4 wives. He doesn’t have to have 4 wives, but he cannot have more. The Prophet had exemptions from these limitations. There is not a clear number telling us how many wives Muhammad had. It is clear that he had at least 12 wives, but some suggest he may have had as many as 18. In addition to this he had a high number of concubines, or sex slaves. We don’t know how many, but there are places where it is stated that he had over 6,000 slaves. Many of these would have been men and boys, but a great number of them would have been women.

There is a whole chapter in the Qur’an that deals with how you divide up the war booty. The Prophet received 1/5th of the war booty. The rest was divided among the other jihadis who fought with him. They, then had to pay 1/5th of what they received to the Prophet. For example, if there were 50 women who were taken captive, Muhammad would get 10 of them, plus 5% of the rest.

Men would be given the option of becoming Muslim or being executed. A child under the age of 14 would be taken as a slave, as would the women. The women’s marriages were immediately annulled, whether or not the husband became a Muslim. It is illegal for a Muslim to have sex with another man’s wive, unless that marriage has been annulled. Once the woman is his slave, a Muslim can have sex with her.

We are not sure how many sex slaves Muhammad had, but he had many.

Where did the Qur’an come from?

It may surprise you to know that Muhammad did not write the words that became Qur’an. Muhammad was known as the unlettered prophet because he could neither read nor write. This didn’t mean he was stupid or dumb. The people of Arabia in his day didn’t have books so there was no need to know how to read or write. The Arabic alphabet was not yet developed. What little writhing that was done, was written in a form of Phoenician text. It only had consonants, and did not yet have vowels.

Because of Muhammad’s first wife, who was quite wealthy, he was able to hire a scribe. As a result, Muhammad didn’t write down the Qur’an. It wasn’t until 20 years after Muhammad’s death, that they began the work of writing the Qur’an.

The reason it was not written is because “qura” means the reciting. The Qur’an was not supposed to be written, it was to be recited. Many of the early caliphs resisted the writing of the Qur’an because Muhammad had never ordered it to be written down. Those who did so were call the qura. During Uthman’s reign there was a battle where 40 qura were killed.There was fear that they might lose the Qur’an, and Uthman ordered for it to be written down.

The Qur’an has 114 chapters. The larger chapters are in the front, and the smaller ones in the back. There is no chronological order to the Qur’an. There is very little narrative in the Qur’an except when they are telling stories from the Old Testament. It is a very difficult book to read.

The only way to understand the Qur’an is to put the life of Muhammad along side it. It is only by looking at how Muhammad practiced it, that you can understand what is meant.

What is the difference between the Sunni and the Shi’ite Muslims?

They are the two major groups within Islam, and there is still a lot of fighting between them. The difference goes back to the early caliphs, or successors of Muhammad. The Shi’ite Muslims make of about 12 to 14 percent of the Muslims in the world. Most of them live in Iran, some are in Yemen, Lebanon, and Syria. Shi’ite Muslims believe that the caliph must be a blood descendant of Muhammad.

The Mullahs in Iran that wear the black turbans are those that claim to be descendants of Muhammad. They could be the rightful caliph.

The Sunni Muslims believe that it is not a royal line, and whoever Allah wills can be caliph. Their position is the more accurate interpretation because Muhammad never gave any instructions on this issue.

It is very clear that Muhammad turned to his best friend, Abu Bakr, when he was not able to lead. When Muhammad died, it was determined that Abu should be his successor.

After Bakr, there was Umar, then came Uthman. The Shi’ites had enough of what they considered illegitimate caliphs and assassinated Uthman. They made Muhammad’s nephew and son-in-law, Ali who was married to Fatima, the caliph. Ali was the 4th caliph, but in the eyes of the Shi’ites, he was the first legitimate caliph. It wasn’t too long before the Sunni assassinated Ali. This is why there is the great division between the two groups.

There are some Hadith that the Sunnis hold to that the Shi’ites don’t. There are a few other minor differences between the Sunni and the Shi’ites, but this is the major difference.

Why do you hate Muslims?

This question makes me laugh a little. I don’t hate Muslims. If you want to know the truth, I love Muslims. I love Muslims enough to tell them the truth. Just because I speak against Islam, doesn’t mean that I hate Muslims.

My problem is not with Muslims, and neither should yours be. My problem is with Islam. Muslims do what they do because of Islam. Islam has blinded their eyes to the truth. Islam tells Muslims that Jesus was just a man, that He wasn’t God in the flesh. Islam tells Muslims that Jesus was not crucified and , therefore, you don’t have the blood atonement for man’s sin. It teaches that Jesus didn’t rise from the grave.

If Jesus isn’t God, if He didn’t die on the cross, and if He didn’t rise from the grave, you don’t have the Gospel. Islam is sending Muslims to Hell, and I love Muslims enough to tell them the truth so they won’t have to go there.

I don’t hate Muslims. I have a problem with Islam, and I will speak the truth, but I will speak it with love.

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Why does Obama say ISIL, instead of ISIS?

The reason is quite simple; he is insulting Israel.

If you look at the Arabic, the acrostic is DASH. John Kerry has been using this term a lot lately.

The letters translate in to English as ISIS. The reason for this form is that the Islamic State is located in Syria and parts of Iraq.

ISIL means the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. Levant is an old European term for that region. Levant means the rising, or the east. The sun would rise from the east, over the Mediterranean before it rose in Europe. It is important to know that present day Israel is in the area called the Levant.

When Obama says ISIL, he includes Israel in the Islamic State. This is a definite slap in the face to Israel.

As Christians, we should not insult Israel, and we should not use this term. We should use the correct term, which is ISIS.

Why do women convert to Islam?

This is a very difficult question to answer, but I will do my best. It doesn’t make sense to me that women would convert to Islam considering the way Islam treats women. I can only make some suppositions from my observations.

The first thing is see is that some of these women are being duped. They are being charmed by some Muslims who have moved into their neighborhoods. Some of these men are looking to get a green card, looking to marry so they can secure their visas and their stay in America.

I don’t really begrudge some of these Muslims trying to get out of their Islamic culture because Islam is oppressive. Some of them just want a better life. Who, in their right mind, would want to live under Islamic rule? There is no freedom and your prospects for a better life are minimal at best. Some of these Muslim men are looking to marry a western woman to gain an anchor in the West.

About eight out of ten of the Muslims coming to the West are not really practicing their religion. The problem is that Islam has apostasy laws. Anyone who leaves Islam (apostatizes) becomes subject to the death penalty. Many of the Muslims who come here are agnostics at best. They will never deny Islam because of the apostasy laws, which say they are to be killed. Any Muslim has the right to take the life of someone who as left the faith. According to Shariah law, they do not commit a crime when they kill an apostate. The paradox is that they come here to get away from Islam and have no intention of practicing the faith, yet they will not renounce Islam because of the threat of death.

Some of these women may be marrying these Muslim men, and becoming Muslims in the process. In Muslim countries you have the religious leaders  pushing for everyone to get in line. there is the government pushing everyone to submit to Islam. There is also the pressure of family.

Some of those Muslims who have come here to get away from Islam, have come with their families. They only have one of the things pushing them to remain in Islam, their family. Even though their family may not be practicing their faith either, the  pressure of family is very strong, so they won’t leave Islam.

They want some structure to their faith so they buy into the reformed movement. The reformers treat their religion like a buffet, they pick and choose which parts they want to follow, and reject the rest. What they choose, they declare to be the true Islam, and say the rest was for the 7th century, and not for today.

So, one reason that some women may be converting to Islam to follow their husband’s faith.

I had a young girl in my youth department when I was a missionary in England who, because of a rebellious attitude, became Muslim. Some people get into Islam because it is a badge of rebellion. I think this is why she did it.

She started dating a Muslim man, and she is still with him. They have two children, and I don’t even think they are married.

If someone’s heart is full of rebellion, Islam has a natural pull on them. I believe this is one of the main reasons some young women find themselves in Islam.

About 8 to 10 years ago I read an article that said some 100,000 British people had converted to Islam. The majority of them were women.

I am only making suppositions, but this is my answer to the question.

As I travel to churches, I often hear from someone whose daughter has married a Muslim. They say they fear that the Muslim will take her to visit his family in Iran, or some other Muslim country, and she will never be allowed to return to our country.

I will ask the following questions:

• Has there been evidence of abuse? They often say no, but we suspect that it is there.
• My next question is, do they have a child? If the answer is no, usually the abuse won’t have started yet. The abuse usually begins after they have a child because the marriage is more solid and the man has leverage to force the woman to stay with him. We need to remember that in Islam, the child always belongs to the man. The woman has no rights over the child. Maybe you have seen the movie, “Not Without My Daughter.” It is based on a true story of a Muslim man from Iran, who had married a girl from Michigan. They had a daughter, and in 1984, he wanted to take his wife and daughter to Iran and visit his family. Once they got there, the mother and daughter were held against their wills. They finally escaped and came back home to America. The girl has grown up and has written a book explaining in great detail how they were rescued, and how they escaped.

I am always concerned when I hear about women who are married to a Muslim and they take them overseas. I always ask, will we ever see them again

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How did Muhammad die?

He didn’t die of old age, he was poisoned. In the Middle East it is a shame for a man to die at the hand of a woman. Well, Muhammad died at the hand of a woman. It was not only at the hand of a woman, it was at the hand of a Jewess. This is one of the reasons that Muslims hate Jews as much as they do.

There are a number of battles in the Qur’an. Muhammad was involved in 66 military campaigns. He was the aggressor in all but 2 of them. The biggest battle was the Battle of the Ditch. This battle took place in Medina. The people of Arabia had enough of this tyrant who kept robbing their caravans. They came to do away with him at Medina. Muhammad dug a ditch, but one side was vulnerable so he made a league with the last Jewish tribe in the area. There had been 3 tribes there, but he had killed or banished the others out of Arabia.

Muhammad won the battle. The way the text reads, Muhammad was taking off his helmet and sword, and the spirit through whom he received is “revelation” came to him and said, why are you putting down your sword, you need to deal with the treachery of those Jews. He laid siege against them, and after about a week, he made a peace agreement with them. He told them he would let them live, but they had to leave Arabia.

The Jewish men came out first, and Muhammad reminded his men that war is deceit. It is acceptable for a Muslim to lie to unbelievers. When the Jewish men came out, he beheaded 600 to 900 of them, and their bodies are buried in the market place of Medina.

Muhammad gets 1/5th of the bounty of war, so he picked 1/5th of the women. One of the women he chose was Rahana, a Jewess. Remember, her husband had just been assassinated by Muhammad, and he now owns her. The story seems to say he ends up marrying her. The story is not very clear, but this is what seemed to happen. She ends up poisoning him. She said that if he really was a prophet he would have known that it was poison and he would not have eaten it. She lost her head over it. I do think she felt vindicated for killing the man who killed her husband.

The poison made Muhammad sick, and it took months for him to die. The last major chapter of the Qur’an, chapter nine, was given at this time. Remember, the chapters in the Qur’an are in order of length, not in the order in which they were received.

In this chapter, Muhammad doesn’t give the great solution for salvation. He does not tell them how to evangelize non-Muslims. When Jesus as about to leave this earth, He gave us the Great Commission as His last message to His followers. Muhammad gave the great financial solution for Islam. Islam had stolen everything of value in Arabia, there was nothing left to pillage. They had already targeted the Jews, so now he tells them to go after the Christians.

Earlier in the Qur’an, he had said that Christians were closest to their faith. In Chapter 9 he declares Christians polytheists for worshiping three gods. He said they worshiped God the Father, God the Son, and Mary. Notice, the third person was not the Holy Spirit, it was Mary. It seems that Muhammad didn’t understand Christianity very well.

Since Christians were considered polytheists, and not worshipers of one God, Muslims are to fight them until they come under submission to Allah and pay the Jizya, which could be up to 50% of what they own, and 50% of what they earn. This was the financial solution for Islam.

What is the best version of the Qur’an?

It depends on how you look at it. If you are looking at what the Muslims consider the best translation, they will tell you that the only real Qur’an is the Arabic. I always ask those who say this, can’t your god communicate in any language but Arabic?

I know of at least 12 different translations of the Qur’an. The gold standard, the one with the approval of Saudi Arabia, is the  Usef Ali version. He is an Arab who learned English and translated the Qur’an into English.

The best reading Qur’an is the Pictal. Pictal was English born, and converted to Islam. Since English was his native language, his translation is the easiest to read. If you are working with Muslims, I would recommend you use the Usef Ali translation.

Is Obama a Muslim?

It is my opinion that he is a confused man. He thinks he is both a Muslim and a Christian. His pastor, Jeremiah Wright, was a preacher of Black Liberation Theology, which is not much different from what Louis Farrakhan preaches to Muslims. The difference is that one uses Allah, and the other uses Jehovah.

Jeremiah Wright answers the question as well as anyone I know. He was interviewed by Ed Kline. Remember, Jeremiah Wright kind of disappeared after Obama threw him under the buss in 2008. He revealed to Ed Kline that Obama paid him off. Ed Kline is a well known journalist, who was the foreign editor of News Week Magazine and the editor and chief to the New York Times Magazine. He was not a a conservative. He had a 2 hour interview with Jeremiah Wright when he was writing his book “The Amature,” which was an exposé on Obama.

When the book came out, Kline was interviewed by Sean Hannity, and I want to give you part of the transcript of this interview:

The Reverend Wright told me that Obama came to him saying, I need some spiritual advice, I don’t know who I am.  The Reverend Wright said, we know your Islamic background, and you have that, and what you need now is some coaching on Christianity.

I asked the Reverend Wright, did you convert him from being a Muslim to being a Christian? He said, I don’t know if I could go that far, but I can tell you that I made it comfortable for him to accept Christianity without having to renounce his Islamic background.

So, Obama was told by his pastor that he could become a Christian without leaving Islam. This is the same thing some of the missionaries involved in the Insider Movement are telling Muslims. They say just add Jesus to your faith. Muslims see Jesus as a prophet, the Insider Movement tells them to just add Him as their Saviour, without rejecting Islam.

As I said, I think Obama thinks he is both Muslim and Christian. One thing is sure, his policy has always favored Muslims.

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