I am not going to bother with isolating the exact quote, its quoted in 110, but Mmc stated that one could be a Muslim without belonging to the Islamic faith. That is, of course, nonsense and betrays a deep ignorance of the subject matter we are discussing.
Oh Really......that is nonesense eh. Truly where did you learn your history?
Muhammad as a Normal Man (570-610)
Muhammad's birth is said to have been in the "year of the Elephant", which one believes is pointing to the invasion from Yemen, where an elephant was brought along in order to smash the Ka'ba, an event which is dated to 570 AD (where Muhammad's recorded age at certain times, have been used as the main source for the estimation).
Muhammad's family belonged to the clan of Hashim, a branch of the Quraysh tribe. While the Quraysh was dominating Mecca, the Hashimis had little but religious prestige connected to the, at that time pagan, shrine of Ka'ba.
As Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died before the birth of his son, and his mother, Amina, when he was 6, Muhammad was in the care of his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib for two years, and then with his uncle Abu Talib, until he reached mature age.
Muhammad is, by Muslim theologists, not believed to have received any education, and in young age he started working with the caravans. It was while working as a trader, that Muhammad came to know the widow (and divorcee) Khadija, who was the owner of a caravan company where Muhammad was employed. At the age of 25 Muhammad married Khadija, then 40. Even if Khadija had children from both of her former marriages, she got 7 children with Muhammad. Khadija died in 619, and soon Muhammad remarried.
Unlike in his marriage with Khadija, he chose to have several wives, 9 is reported. Some of these wives were ways of knotting closer relations with powerful people in the society, and some were widows without economical support.
Muhammad also enjoyed the protection of his uncle and earlier guardian, Abu Talib.
But Abu Talib and Khadija both died in 619, and from this time on, Muhammad's position was under strong threat. The process of converting was slow in the early years, and he was strongly opposed by other Meccans, who accused him of little respect for the religion of the forefathers, which had some resemblance with Islam, but was a polytheistic religion. It's narrated that once there was an ayat where three former Meccan goddesses, Al-Lat, Al-'Uzza and Manat, were mentioned as intermediaries, in surah 53.
19 Have you though of Al-Lat and Al-'Uzza,
20 and Manat, the third of the?
21 These are intermediaries exalted whose intercession is to be hoped for.
22 Such as they do not forget
But these supposed ayats are not in our present Koran, where this text now is found: 21 Is it the male for you, and female for him?
22 That would have been a crooked division!
There are two interpretations of this: Many Muslim scholars doubt the sources. Some others, among them Western scholars, believe that the first version was an attempt to convince the Meccans to join Islam until surah 17 when these verses were corrected and removed.
But the historical fact is that surah 53 was revealed in the 5th year of Prophethood, while surah 17 was revealed in the 11th year of Prophethood and during these 6 years the Meccan leaders, instead of being followers of Islam, they continued to persecute Muslims.
No matter how one interprets this, all scholars seem to agree that the difficult conditions of the first few Muslims are reflected in this story.
Madina and the Rise to Power (622-630)
Many of the inhabitants of Yathrib converted to Islam, but among the large Jewish community that lived here, only few converted. A large part of the converts are called hypocrites, by the first Muslim sources. After only two years, Muhammad's relationship with them had begun to deteriorate, and the remaining Jewish believers were later expelled for co-operating with Muhammad's enemies.
Muhammad enforced his position in the region, and in particular in Yathrib, through successful military campaigns, like the one at Badr in 624, and the defense battles in Uhud (where the Muslims faced a slight defeat) in 625 and Ditsh in 627. Neighboring tribes started to enter into agreements with Muhammad, and in 628, after Muhammad tried to perform the pilgrimage, Hajj he concluded a treaty with the Meccans, that allowed the Muslims to enter Mecca the following year for performing. In 630 Muhammad managed to take control over Mecca without any resistance. A general amnesty was granted to all Qurayshis, Muhammad's former enemies, even if they did not convert to Islam.
The Prophet Muhammed - All About Turkey
Mohammed while in Turkey.
I think you were saying something about showing us your Profound Deep Ignorance of the matter. Wouldn't you say? :2razz: