Who Wrote the Story of Muhammad? A Critical Historical Investigation

 Who wrote the story of Muhammad? A critical Historical Investigation

Chapter 1: Introduction to the critique

Okay, terrific. Hello. All right, you can get me. This is what we're doing this afternoon is you're one of the first to hear this new material. They heard it in London this last week for the first time and then you're so really the second people to hear it. And it's the material that I think is going to destroy Islam. This is what we call the the Achilles heel  of Islam because it is the historical critique that no Muslim has yet engaged with. They can't engage with this and you'll see why as we go through it. Now, is this something that you can use? Yes and no. I know they're starting to use it now in London. They've been already using it in America. We're using it in Nigeria. My students are using it in Ethiopia. Some are using it in India.

I'm not asking you to use this material.

This is more for your information to show you where the battle lines are and also to show you just how weak Islam is and how hopeless it is historically. So sit back. You're not going to , don't feel you have to take notes. We will put the PowerPoint is on the computer and anybody that wants it, I see a few of the USB drives are here. I will slap over this to you at the end of the talk.

If there's something you don't understand, you can either since we're a small group, you can ask me right away or you can wait till the end for the Q&A. But feel free to lift up your hand.

Just say, "Jay, I have a problem with that. I'm not sure where you're going. What's the ramifications? Help me with this." So, let's go ahead and get right into it and let's open up the PowerPoint.

Now, I'm going to have to stand here because I cannot see what's written on that little screen back there. So, I will be looking at what you're looking at. 

'A HISTORICAL CRITIQUE OF ISLAM'

Assessing the newest research on the historical Problems with Islam's Origin. By Dr. Jay Smith. August 2022

And this way, we'll be able to walk through. And what we're looking at is the historical problem with Islam's origins. 

How it all began. Who is the man? What was the book he received? And where did he live? 

So, to do that, we're going to investigate four areas. 

Chapter 2: Defining the four study areas

The first area is the sources itself. Where do the Muslims get their material from? How did they find out about Muhammad?

Where is he written up about? Where is his story? Where is the story of how Islam began? What about the Quran itself? We're going to move then into Mecca. That's the place. Now, you might say, why are you starting with the place? Shouldn't you start with the man himself? 

Understandably, I'm purposely starting with the place because the place, once you shut down the place, you shut down Muhammad in the book. If the place did not exist, then we're not talking about the same Muhammad. All right? If the place did not exist, then we're not talking about the same book, the Quran. So, that's why I'm going to start with the place itself. And then we're going to move into early Islam itself. That's Muhammad. We're going to look at his beginnings. We're going to ask the question, who was he or who was this person or was there even a person named Muhammad? 

And then of course the fourth one will go and we'll end off with the Quran as a crowning achievement. 

4 areas we will investigate ....

[1] THE PROBLEM WITH THE SOURCES

[2] THE PROBLEM WITH MECCA

[3] THE PROBLEM WITH EARLY ISLAM

[4] THE PROBLEM WITH THE QUR'AN 

Now to understand what we're in confronting, we need to ask the Muslims what they're saying. And they have a set of traditions that support everything they believe. We call it the standard Islamic narratives. It got a kind of tongue and cheek because obviously it's what we're confronting.

The Standard Islamic Narratives (SIN)

The Islamic Traditions for radicals - nominals - liberals 

We're going to confront SIN. We love confronting SIN, don't we? Well, we want to confront the standard Islamic narrative, which is the traditions from which all Muslims must follow. The Islamic traditions, it doesn't matter whether you are radical, nominal or liberal. They all follow these traditions except possibly the liberals.

And they believe the standard Islamic narrative. Whenever you see SIN there, that's standard Islamic narrative.

That's their story. That's what they believe. They believe that it has Islam has been around for 1400 years started by this man Muhammad the greatest, the finest, the seal of all prophets born in Mecca, in 570 AD and then died in Medina in 632.

So you can see this is the beginning the end of the sixth century up until into the 7th century and he is the one that  models Islam for everyone. What he does, they do. What he says, they say. And that's why he is the paradigm for all of Islam and he is the one that received the Quran. So since he received the Quran that is where his importance is. The Quran itself is his revelation sent down between 610 and 632. So that is 20-year period. 

S I N Traditional Claims

For the last 1400 years ...

๏ Muhammad was the last and greatest prophet , who was born in Mecca in 570  AD and died in Medina on 632 AD.

๏ He modelled 'Islam' for the world.

๏ He received the Qur'an.

๏ The Qur'an , his revelation , was sent down only to him between 610 and 632 AD .

๏ It is the final, the greatest, and the only perfectly preserved revelation .

๏ It corrects all previous revelations. 

๏ Islam is the final religion based on Muhammad's life and sayings (Sunnah) , and on the Qur'an teachings.

Now this is what they say. This is not what I say. Okay? You see the distinction. I want to make sure. I want to make sure you understand what they say first. And every Muslim you  talk to, this is their story. There's the man Muhammad. There's the book, the Quran. The Quran is the greatest, the final, and the seal of all revelation. And it corrects everything that comes before, especially the Old and New Testament because we supposedly have corrupted our scriptures. So Islam is the final religion based on Muhammad's life and sayings and on the Quran's teachings.

CONCLUSION?

Thus, Islam is completely dependent on :

๏ THE QUR'AN = 'The Book'

๏ MUHAMMAD = 'The Man'

๏ MECCA = 'The Place'

๏ Since these 3 areas are foundational to Islam , we should investigate them 

๏ At the time they all existed (i.e. the early 7th century)

๏ In the place they existed (i.e. the Hijaz = Central Arabia)

 Now conclusion, Islam is therefore depend on the book, the man, and the place. Really that's as simple as you can get in order to know Islam. In order to understand Islam, all you need to know is three things, that there's a book called the Quran. there's a man called Muhammad, and there's a place called Mecca. This that's it. The book, the man, the place. To be fair, isn't that the same with us?

We (Christians) also have a book, a man, in a well not so much a place. But we certainly have a book and a man, don't we? To understand Christianity, you better know the Bible.

That's our book. And the Bible is all about the man, Jesus Christ. So, you can see we start the same paradigm. That's  why we're so similar to them. And that's why we understand them better than anybody else, which means we have much more of an importance to then confront them on these three areas because they are foundational. You take out any one off those three and Islam falls. You take out the book, there's no Islam. You take out Muhammad, there's no Islam. And you take out Mecca, there's no Muhammad or the book. So that's why every Muslim is dependent on those three. And that's why we're going to engage with them today.

 So what we want to do, we want to investigate the time they all existed. We want to investigate the seventh century because that's where the book, the man, and the place existed. The book was created in the seventh century. The man lived in the century seventh century who received the book and the place Mecca is where he lived. So therefore all three are in the seventh century and that's why we want to go to that time and that place. And that place is Mecca and Medina, two cities in the center of  Arabia over on the west side in the middle of a desert. In the middle of a desert hold on to that. That's very important. So we want to go to that century and that place. So let's start and let's start then with the sources. A good place to start because you want to know how is it Muhammad came about?

Where is it the Muslims get their material from? You've got to go back to their sources. So  the problem with sourcing.

Chapter 3: The problem with sources

Where did it all come from? And this is something that Muslims have not ever responded to.

Some of this you probably already know because when I was here last time, Graham, didn't I talk about this? I think so. Jonathan, did I talk about the sources? Maybe not. If not, this is new.

If not, let's see. So, let's look at this map. This map is really what I'm talking about. So, I'm going to be talking about the Does this work? Yeah, it does work. It doesn't show up there, though. Oh, there you can see it. See there little red line? That's the area I want to talk. So, I want to talk about  Muhammad Empire, which is that brown area right there. I want to talk about that to begin with, but then we're going to move into the orange area, which is the Rashidood period. That area here. This is where the first rightly guided kadiffs. These are the four kings, the kadiffs that come after   Muhammad. That's Abu Bakr, Umar, Utman, and Ali. Don't worry about the names. They're just there to impress you. But certainly, they are the ones that take over this area of the world, which is orange. And then we're going to move   into what we call the Umayyad dynasty, which is the first Muslim dynasty that existed from 661 up until 749. That's the purple area. So, look at the brown, the orange, and the purple area. And that's what we're going to talk about today. Just keep that in your mind because I'm going to keep referring to it. And that is obviously this part up here is all the fertile crescent. The orange and the purple area is the fertile crescent. But everything that Muslims claim happened is down here.

Down here where my pointer is. Can you see Medina and Mecca? That's where everything they claim happened.

Let's see if that is the case. To do that, we need to start with the timeline of Islam's emergence. Now, this is what they say. This is not what I say, but this is what you've heard. This is what everybody has heard. This is the only narrative that's out there. And they would say that Muhammad was born in 570. That the Qur'an that he was given started to be revealed in 610. In 621, he was woken up in the middle of the night, told to go on the back of a winged horse called the Buraq flies up to Jerusalem from Mecca. And from Jerusalem, he goes up to the seventh heaven where he meets Allah who tells him to pray 50 times a day.

He comes back to the fifth heaven and he bumps into Moses. Moses asks him, "How many times did he ask you to pray?" 

He said, "50 times." Moses, "That's way too many. Go back and see if you can get it down." 

So he bounces back up to the seventh heaven. Ask God to bring it down. And he bounces back and forth between the fifth and the seventh.  heaven. Bring it down to 45, down to 40, down to 35, down to 20, 15, down to five prayers. 

Once he gets it to five prayers, Moses said, "Okay, that's enough. Now go back down to earth." 

So the five prayers that Muslims pray every day comes from that story in Surah 6:21according to the traditions. And it was Moses who decides how many prayers.

Isn't that interesting? Fascinating. So that happens in 621. 

In 622, then he leaves Mecca, moves up to Medina, and that's called the Hijrah. That means the Exodus. So that happens right after the Mirage.

And when you look at the Qur'an, if you take the Qur'an and just split it in half, this second part of the Qur'an, this goes from right this way to left, it goes this direction because it follows the Arabic.

This part was revealed to him in Mecca.

This part was revealed in Medina, the city he moves to. Two different cities, two different parts of the Qur'an. That precedes that though it goes backwards.

Same goes this way. Right side to left side. Just turn it upside down. you get the right sequence. So he goes to Medina, moves there in 622 AD, and then in 630 he comes back to Mecca, conquers Mecca because he'd been thrown out of Mecca, conquers it without firing a shot, and then he dies in 632. How does he die? Possibly by poisoning according to the standard Islamic narrative. What we do know is that the Qur'an was not written down when he died.

It had not yet been written down. Memorized, yes, but not written down.

Abu Bakri takes over and he lasts for two years before he dies. Then you have Umar takes over. He expands the boundaries of Islam from Tripoli in the west all the way to Afghanistan in the east. That whole swath of land that I showed you on  that map, that whole orange area, the brown in the orange area, that was now under their control by the time of Umar comes to power. Huge swath of land. That includes all the way up to Turkey and includes all the way down to the southern part Yemen and Oman today. So he takes over, expands the borders, Umman comes to power, Umar is killed, Umman comes to power and during the time of Umman, the Qur'an is put together, is compiled in its present form. So this Qur'an I have in my hand was compiled by in 652 and then he is killed. Ali comes to power, he is killed by Mua who then introduces the Umayyah dynasty. That is how Islam began. There's the timeline.

Chapter 4: Analyzing the historical gap

Now Islam therefore was fully formed in the Hij by 661. Have you heard any other story?

Anybody? No.

This is the only story you're ever going to hear. This is the standard Islamic narrative. It's what I've always heard.

It's what I grew up with when I did my Masters, when I did my doctorate. It's the only story I was ever given. It's the only story in any of your  universities or your Bible schools or your seminaries and every mudrasa. This is the one story you have heard. No, I haven't given you everything. I've just given you the skeleton. But this is what we've always believed. 

Now, here's the questions. 

How do we know all of the above? 

Where does the story come from?

Where would you like it to have come from?

Well, let's ask about the Bible and Jesus Christ, our book, and our man. Where does our story come from?

Eyewitnesses, right? Matthew and John. They were eyewitnesses to what Jesus said and what he did.

Luke and Mark got it from the eyewitnesses. That's pretty good, right?

So, you want somebody who was actually there, who was watching all this happen, right? You would want eyewitnesses to know who Muhammad was, who Abu Bakr was, who had seen Abu Bakr, who had seen Umat, who had seen Uman, and had seen Ali.

Certainly, someone who had been there in that 40-year period from 624 to 661, the golden pure of Islam, then when it all began, someone should have been there to have seen it, right? You'd be happy with that, wouldn't you?

And every Muslim you talk to , assumes that that is correct.

Every Muslim I've talked to, it doesn't matter who they are. Even the scholarly Muslim, when I ask who wrote that up, they say the companions of the prophet.

And what are their names? Oh, their names are Ibisham, their name is Albb is, their names are Alkari, Sahim Muslim, Ibn D. They name off a whole slew of names. And these are the names they're taught. But they all assume that these people lived when Muhammad lived.

But you'd like to know when these men lived, right? So let's look at another timeline because this is what blows everything away. And this is what most people, most Westerners, and certainly most Muslims don't know. So Muhammad dies in 632, right? So you would think, you would hope that his life would have been written down by the time he died.  His life, the Sahas, if you ask any Muslim who wrote down his life, they'll say this man wrote it down. But look at the date he died. 765.

Muhammad died in 632. That's 130 years later. Does that bother any of you?

It should bother all of you. It takes him 130 years to write it down. But hold on a minute.

We have nothing by, not one word. We don't have one page. We don't have one letter. We don't have one fragment from his writings. It just doesn't exist. 

The man we have to go to is this man here, Ibn Hisham. And he dies in 833. Do your maths. 632 to 833. How many years are we talking about? 200 years. So the first reference, the first story we have by any Muslim is by Iben Hisham in the 9th century for that which is happening in the seventh century, 200 years later.

Nothing before him. So let's get rid of ibn Isak because we know nothing about him. We just know his name and the Muslims attribute it to him because they want to get as close to the event as possible. Not a word from him. 

Then you have another set from Alwaki 8:35.

Then we know we need to go to the Hadith. These are the sayings of the prophet. When you talk to Muslims how they walk, talk, eat, sleep, drink is what the sayings say. They follow the Hadith for everything they do in their life. 24/7 they have to follow Hadith.

The first man to write down a hadith is this guy here, Al Bukhari. And he dies in 870. That's 240 years after the fact.

You get other ones like Sahib Muslim, Ibn Daw, Tidi, Abid Maja. You get also Abu Daw and you also get Anisa. Those are the six major hadith compilers. Look at their dates. 870, 875, 884, 887, 899, 915. That is 9th and 10th century folks.

Way too late.

Way way too late to be any authoritative. And then you have two more genre. What we call the tapid and the tid would be the commentaries and that would be the histories that Muslims are dependent on to know what has happened. Yeah.

Are those dates by scholars? There's no question about that.

Nobody questions those dates. Yep.

But here's the interesting thing. You were to go outside right now and you go to a Muslim and say, "Who is of Bahadi?" He'll say, "He's a companion of the prophet."

Really? He lived 240 years after the prophet died. You see a problem? No one has heard and put these dates together.

No one has seen this timeline. That's why I'm giving you the timeline so you can see it. So when you talk to a Muslim, say, "Date these people that you're quoting." You have to quote Al Buhari. He lived 240 years after the fact. Nowhere near Muhammad. Not even the same century as Muhammad. Okay, let's continue. If you want to go to the you need to go to Alabi. That's 923.

That is the 10th century. So everything we know about Muhammad comes from two hundreds to

300 years too late. Two hundreds to 300 years. No eyewitness count whatsoever. I want to put up this guy here, Abdul Malik, because he is the one that introduces the name Muhammad. We don't see his name before this date. Now, that's 692 AD.

Muhammad died in 632. We don't even see the name put down, put on pen to paper.

And this in the case that we're going to talk about is an inscription. We don't see this name written anywhere until 692. That is 60 years after Muhammad died. If he's that important, if he's that well-known, then why did nobody know about him? Until Abdul Malik puts his name there. And as you're going to find, Abdul Malik when he puts his name there has nothing to do with the man Muhammad. You'll see why. We're going to get to that. But then that is 141 years. So even when he introduces the name, it takes him 141 years, another 140 years for them, for the Muslims actually to put it together and create a man with this name. And who are the people that did it? These are the ones that did it. The Abbasids, it's the Abbasids who create the Muhammad we have today. 

(The Abbasid Caliphate or Abbasid Empire was the third Islamic caliphate, ruled by the Abbasid dynasty. The dynasty was descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib, after whom it is named. The Abbasids rose to power in 750, when the Abbasid revolution overthrew the preceding Umayyad Caliphate)

Chapter 5: Geography and authorship

They ,the Abbasid, come to power in 749. That is over a 100 years after Muhammad. If Muhammad died in 632, the Abbasids come together and they create the um the Abbasad dynasty. They take the the headquarters that had been in Damascus and bring it down to Baghdad.

They are the ones that give us the name Muhammad we're looking at today. But that's a hundred years too late. And as we're going to see in the next slide, [.. ..] 

look and see where all this was happening. Now, what Muslims will tell you is that it happens all right here in Mecca, Medina. See where those two those green circles are? There's Medina and there's Mecca. Okay, Mecca. Medina is where everything happens according to Islam, according to the standard Islamic narrative. But everything that has been written down about this man and this book and this place are all from Baghdad. The same Baghdad we have today.

That Baghdad was only introduced as the seat of Islam in 749.

749 that's over 100 years after Muhammad. There were no Muslims in Baghdad earlier than that. So all everything that's happened, let's just, show you what I mean. Ibn Isam that I talked about who wrote the biography, he was born in Basra. He grew up in Cairo, but he did his work in Baghdad. Cairo is 900 miles from Mecca. Basra is 1200 miles. So he was nowhere near Mecca and he certainly didn't do any of his work, because Baghdad is a good 1,200 miles from Mecca. As far as Alkari, he's the one that wrote the hadith. He comes from Bhar, way up in Turkmanistan. That is 2,600 miles away. Way too far north to be of any good. Alabi who writes, he comes from which is in northern Iran. That is 1700 miles away. None of the traditional writers lived or worked in Mecca and Medina. They were too far to the north of Mecca and came from the west and east of Baghdad. What's more, all of these northern areas where you see those red circles are, where the Abbasids originated from. The Umiads were not there. So, it's the wrong place and wrong people, the wrong time, too far away. And what's more, let's look at this one here. Now, when you look at the, when you look at what Muslims say, they say it happened in those two cities there. Let's put them up there. But everything we know about all the writers of all the traditions are from those red circles. They hardly ever went down that far south. And there's a reason they didn't go that far south. You will see why, but we'll wait till we get to that. So, everything is happening up in the north, right? What's up in the north? Water is up in the north. H2O.

This is what you need. I'm going to have to use it today as well. It's so hot. I'm going to keep drinking if you don't mind. You have to have water.

There is no water where Mecca, Medina is.

It's all up in the north and that's where the civilizations are and that's where all the things have been written down but they're not where they should be. They're two 1100 miles too far north.

So, furthermore, all of the writers and the traditions lived 9th and 10th century which means they all wrote the material hundreds of miles too far away and hundreds of years too late. So you look at the map and you look at the timeline, put them together and you can see too far north and too far away. Too far north and too far distance in time.

So let's ask the same question of Christianity. Do we not have the same problem? Are not all our writings are hadith? Our taps are, hold on a minute.

Hadith of Jesus. Yeah, we have the hadith of Jesus.They are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Anytime Jesus spoke in the red letter part of your Bible,  if you have a Bible that wherever Jesus spoke, it's in red letters that's the hadith of Jesus. So we have the same genre they have. How about the sitta, the biography of Jesus?

Yes. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Again wrote down his life mostly the last three years of his ministry. So there's the sitta of Jesus written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. What about the taps? Well the taps would be Paul's letters because the taps are the commentaries on Muhammad's life. So the tap suit of commentaries on Jesus's life were written by Paul and he wrote what Jesus did. He wrote how to apply it in Ephesus for the book of Ephesians. He how to apply it in Philippi for the book of Philippians. How to apply it in Corinth for the book of Corinthians.

That's why the taps of Jesus is right through the right letters of Paul. And then as far as the histories, well , that's the book of Acts. So the exact same genre that Islam has for their prophet and their book and their man, we Christians, have for our book and our man, Jesus Christ. So let's do a comparison. Now, I'm going to step on all of your toes.

Chapter 6: Comparative historical analysis

Forgive me. I'm going to take the most liberal dates I can find. These are not dates I agree with, okay? These are not dates. Don't think that I believe in these dates. I'm doing it for a put , to make a point. Even when you take the most liberal dates for Paul and Matthew, Mark and Luke and John, look and see how much more authoritative they are than what Islam has. 

So let's start with Jesus, who dies in 33 AD and we have the first of Jesus which would be the history, that's the book of Acts written by Luke and he wrote between 52 and 62 AD. So already you have the history of the early church written within 20 to 30 years of Christ's death. Right? 

And then we have the first taps that would be the commentaries written by apostle Paul. Look at when Paul died, he died in about 65 AD.

So he started writing within 15 years of Christ's death. So within 15 to 30 years of Christ's death, you already have the tabs of Jesus written down. Then we get to the s and the hadith. If you look at the sitt and the hadith of Mark 70 AD. I know you're not going to like that date. Don't worry, I don't like it either. Let's go with that date because I want to make a point with Mark there at 70 AD. That's 37 years after Christ's death. Then you have Matthew and Luke. Some of you will say Matthew is before Mark. I don't know. I don't care. That's not my point.

The point is let's take what the liberals , liberal scholars are saying.

They would put him there 80 AD. Even 80 AD is only is only 47 years after Christ's death. 

And then you got apostle John who wrote the last sitta and the last hadith in 90 AD. That's less than 60 years after Christ's death. Which means within 29 to 57 years of Christ's death, we have the entire New Testament. We have the entire standard, is standard Christian narrative, S C N.

 Did you notice that like with like, look how much closer we are. All of the New Testament writers lived in the same place Jesus lived.

They didn't live thousands of miles away. They all live where Jesus lived.

And they either knew him personally or the material got they got from others who did know him personally who saw what he did and heard what he said. 

That's why when you do a comparison, if you look at Christianity and Islam, when you do a  comparison, Christianity ours are written within 15 to 60 years of Christ's death.

Islam is dependent on those who wrote 200 to 300 years. Which is more authoritative? Obviously, the New Testament, the person of Jesus Christ, what he said and did is much more authoritative than what they have for Muhammad. As a comparison, if we had to depend on sources for Jesus comparable to what Muslims are dependent on for Muhammad, Jesus would not even begin to appear until the third century. And how would we defend him? How could we defend him if we know nothing about him until the third century? Yet, that's exactly what we're finding about Muhammad. Yet, Muslims don't even know this yet. You've got to help them understand this. Show them how hopeless a tradition they have. 

Now, here's a modern American. If you're in America, I do this in America. 

Chapter 7: The fabrication of tradition

 Let's see if you don't you don't have to follow this, but I like to do it because it's kind of takes the mickey really out of the Muslims when they compare it to our history in the United States. We know that George Washington is our founder, right? He's the founder of our nation. And what he said and what he did, we'd like to know as Americans, right? So, he dies in 1799. The Constitution was written in 1776. That's the laws that we're dependent on. If we were dependent on what on Washington knowing who Washington was as our leader, we would have to wait till the year 2000 to get his story written down. That's just 22 years ago, folks. His story would not we would know nothing about George Washington until 22 years ago.

What about his sayings? His sayings won't even begin to appear for another for another 15 years. They won't exist until 2037. What about our constitution that we are depended on that won't even begin to appear till 2090? We're going to have to wait another 70 years before we get that. Do you see the problem what we're talking about? If we as Americans were dependent on our man and our book, our constitution, and the sayings of our man, Washington's biography would have been written and published just 20 years ago, while his speeches in US Constitution won't even yet be written for 15 to 60 years. How in the world could we base our laws on the constitution that has yet to exist? Do you see how idiotic this is? 

And yet this is what Islam is has to deal with.And none of them are aware of this. How hopeless their history is. Are you following this? So who created the Sah gets even better. This is something it's brand new. Whenever you talk about the the biography of Muhammad, you need to go to this book. This is the book that is the standard everybody uses all over the world. First written in French translated into almost every language and it's really basically the life of Muhammad from Iban Isak. Remember, we've already thrown out Iban Isak because we have nothing from him. But this is written by Alfred Guillaume, , the French author. And anytime you ask anybody, any Muslim, where did they find out about Muhammad's life? They go to this book. (New light on the life of Muhammad, by Guillaume, Alfred)

But here's the problem. Where did Alfred Guillaume get his material? Because he was just writing this in the last century. So, where did he get his material from to write the biography of Muhammad? Well, he gets it from well before 1819. That should be 1819, the 19th century. Before the 19th century there was nothing written up about Muhammad at all. We have nothing about his biography. It was this man here,

Heinrich Ferdinand Wenfeld, who between 1858 and 1860, those three years, went to four different German cities. He was a German himself. Went to Bon, went to Leiden, he also went to Berlin and I think I have to get the fourth city and he went to the libraries and he went to the museums in those four German cities and he pulled out fragments about this man named Muhammad that he got in Arabic and he wrote this the Sah of Muhammad in Arabic for the rest of the world. Finished it in 1860.

(Heinrich Ferdinand Wüstenfeld (31 July 1808 – 8 February 1899) was a German orientalist, known as a literary historian of Arabic literature, born at Münden, Hanover.

Heinrich Ferdinand Wüstenfeld studied theology and oriental languages at Göttingen and Berlin. He taught at Göttingen, becoming a professor there (1842–90). He published many important Arabic texts and valuable works on Arabic history.)

1860, that is the 19th century.

Before 1860, no Muslim knew the life of Muhammad. And today, every Muslim and everybody else is dependent on this man here.  So, who created? This guy created here. So, he is the one that created the setup that we have today in 1860.

It was Guillaume  that took his Arabic writing and then put it into French which then was put into English which then went all over the world. Before 1860, no one knew who this man Muhammad was. 

  What's interesting in 1967, so 100 years later, another man named Fouad Syskin came across some new material in Morocco and wrote up his biography of Muhammad. It's a completely different biography than the one we are using today.

So there's which one is the true biography? Neither of them go back to Hisham at all. They were all both the ones in Morocco and the ones that are sitting in those German museums are from the Ottoman period. The Ottomans come to ñpower in 1299. So they're all after 1299. Oo, I love it. That is 500 years after Muhammad, folks. We don't even know anything about Muhammad for 500 years after he died. 

  So can you understand why there the scholars are have, are concluding that Islam as we know it did not exist in the 7th century but Guillaume over a period of two to 300 years. The Qur'an probably was not revealed to one man in 22 years but likely evolved over a period of 50 to 100 years. Therefore the history of Islam at least from the time of Kaiff Abdul Malik and before is a later fabrication.

This is the conclusion they're making.

These are what the scholars are saying today just because of what I've told you. Now, that's the problem with the setup. The question they're asking is this.

Chapter 8: Historical skepticism

Why did it take so long to write it down? And I'm sure you're asking this question as well. If there are people there watching what Muhamma did and what he said and hearing what he was saying, why in the world did they not write it? If he was such a great prophet, if he was the seal of all prophets, if he was the creator of Islam, if he was God's paradigm on earth, why in the world did they not write it down?

Muslims will respond and say, "Well, because they were illiterate." Illiterate. From Tripoli in the west to Afghanistan, from Turkey down to Yemen, nobody could read and write. What about these great cities like Alexandria and Cairo and Damascus, Baghdad?

What about these great civilizations?

Remember, there was a library in Alexandria that was burned to the ground. If there's a library, you have to have books in the fifth century, 200 years before what we're talking about.

So, you cannot tell me , they did not know how to read and write. What's more, what about the Qur'an itself? Wasn't it written down? Of course, it was written down by Zimbabwe. who is by Zimbabwe he was a secretary of Muhammad what do secretaries do they write isn't that the job of a secretary so this idea that they couldn't read and write makes no sense whatsoever it so the question is what they're saying is the Musl  the western scholars if it's all written so late two hundreds to 300 years late why are we trusting it shouldn't we go back to the seventh century itself shouldn't we go back to the century it all began.

 Shouldn't we go back to where the century where Muhammad lived and the Qur'an was put together and Mecca existed? 

And I would say yes, as any good historian, you go to the event, you go to the time of the event. You don't go to those hearsay or oral tradition because everything you're talking about, everything that Muslims are dependent on is two hundreds to 300 years of oral tradition. And I don't trust oral tradition. If I were to tell Judy something in her ear and she tells you and she tells him, she tells him, by the time I got to Hugh over here, what I told Judy and what you tell me are probably two different things. You probably played that game when you were children in birthday parties. It's called "Chinese whispers." 

The phrase ‘Chinese whispers’ is a term commonly used to describe a game of communication breakdown.

Also known as the ‘telephone game’ or ‘broken telephone’, it involves passing a message or phrase from person to person in a whisper down a line. The message often becomes hilariously altered as it travels from one person to the next. By the time the message reaches the last person in line, it’s usually morphed into something totally unexpected and different from the original.

If that can change in a 15 minute period, can you imagine what happens over 200 year period? So, can you see then why they do not trust it? 

They want to go back to the seventh century. They want to go back to this place. Let's look at this map again. There's Muhammad's empire.

There you can see the Rashidun period.

And then we have the Umaya dynasty in the purple. We want to go back to that period. And we want to see what was happening at that period.

 So let's start with Mecca. A good place to start. Let's start with the city that they consider to be the center of Islam.

Chapter 9: Geographic contradictions of Mecca

What do they claim about Mecca? The reason I like to go to Mecca is because of what they are complaining , what they are claiming. Everything they say happened in Mecca.

It is the center of the universe. It is the center of history. It's the very first place that mankind ever existed.

Therefore, the book and the man, both the Qur'an and Muhammad are absolutely dependent on Mecca. If it did not exist, then neither did the other two. Neither did Muhammad or the Qur'an. 

Once you get rid of Mecca in the seventh century, then you get rid of Muhammad and the Qur'an in the seventh century. At least the Muhammad and the Qur'an of Islam. 

So what are the claims they make? Well, they claim that Mecca was when  Adam and Eve were sent to when they were thrown out of the Garden of Eden. They're up in space in the Garden of Eden. They're thrown out of the Garden of Eden. Eve is thrown down to Mecca. Adam is thrown to Sri Lanka which is that used to be Silon that island off of the southern tip of India. Why? They don't explain why. It just looks like whoever threw him down, whatever angel did that was a bad shot. Nonetheless, Adam was 90 feet tall and he was able to strike boom boom boom boom boom coming from Kerala with up through India right across for Afghanistan, Iran over across Iraq and then down into Arabia and meet his wife in Mecca. So Mecca is the oldest city in history, right?

Because there's no one earlier than Adam and Eve.

A city has to have people. There's no people older than Adam and Eve. So that would be make it the oldest city in history or the oldest hamlet in history.

It's where Abraham lived according to chapter 21 of the Qur'an. When you open up the Qur'an, you will see Abraham is living there in Mecca. He gets up and with his son Ishmael, they rebuild the Kaaba, that square building that everybody circumambulates seven times in the center of Mecca. (circumambulate, which means to walk or go around something in a circle, especially as part of a ritual, ceremony, or formal procession.)

So in 1900 BC certainly Mecca had to exist if Abraham was there. So it's a pretty old city. It's also the center of trade norths, south, east and west. If you look at all the trade routes according to the standard Islamic narrative, all the trade north, south, east, west went to Mecca. That's what made it important.

So it should be one of the best known cities in the history of mankind, right? Someone, somewhere should have known about it.

What about the references in the Qur'an?

Well, what's interesting in the Qur'an, it only refers to it one time. Chapter 48:4, that's it. One time will you find Mecca referred to. Now, that's rather odd. If it's such an important city, if it's the oldest city, if it's the most historical city, it's where Abraham lived, it's where Muhammad was born, it's where Muhammad grew up, why is it only referred to one time?

That's a curiosity. So it does talk about the mother of the settlement. So whenever it refers to the place of the prophet or the mother of settlements, Muslims put Mecca there in parenthesis.

That's not in the Arabic. They impose it into the text. So according to chapter 3:97, it's the first sanctuary.

Okay, that must be Mecca. Mecca is the mother of all settlements. It's in chapter 6 verse 92.  It's where Adam and Eve said. I mentioned that in  chapter 7:4. Abraham lived there in chapter 21. It's where Muhammad was born according to the tradition. It's where the all the kiblas , that's the direction of prayer for every mosque. Whenever you go into a mosque, you will see a mill or it'll be directed towards Mecca.

Wherever it is, doesn't matter where it is in the world, it's always directed towards Mecca. That's called the the direction of prayer. The above implied people have lived there for the for the very beginning. Yet the only reference in the entire Quran is chapter 48:4.

That's a curiosity. When you look at the traditions, look what it describes about this place. It again doesn't really say Mecca, though sometimes it does because the traditions as we now know are written in the 9th and 10th century. By the 9th and 10th century, Mecca is well known, has been adopted, and of course it's now introduced into all the texts.

So there in Mecca, it has a valley and a parallel valley. It has a stream going through it. Outside are the ruins of the pillar of salt where Lot's wife was turned to salt. It has fields. It has trees. It has grass. It has fruit. It has clay. It has loom. It has hollow trees. Folks, that's lots of vegetation.

Suggesting therefore there's lots of water there. But look at Mecca today. Look at Mecca at any picture of Mecca.

It is as dry as bones. There's no water.

It's no valley. There's no tree, clay, grass, loom. There are no olive trees outside of the  Mediterranean. The only olive trees that grow naturally are up in the Mediterranean. That's 600 miles further north.

So all of these make no sense.

And yet Muslims know that and they don't know how to answer this. That's why I love to really niggle them with this. I say, "These are your traditions telling me this. This is your Qur'an telling me this. Yet you have no way to support this because look at Mecca. It is as dry a place as you can get. Is not in a valley. It has none of those listed above because it's in a desert, folk.

It's just too arid and dry to support any of the above. 

Chapter 10: Linguistic and regional analysis

When you look at the geography of the Qur'an, there are according if you look at the Quran, there are about 65 geographical references, but the ones that it talks about the most are the peoples and where they live.

So when you look at the geography, you will notice that there are three peoples that are up there that live in that this it doesn't say Muhammad. In the entire Qur'an, Muhammad's name is only found four times, but it refers to the prophet, the nabi, the rasool, the messenger, the prophet, the ambassador of God. Always it says that. It doesn't give a name. Muslims put the name there in parenthesis because it's not there in the Arabic. But it mentions that this man of God, this Rabbi, the Rasul 23 times he has contact with these people from Ad over and over again. 23 times would be the ooze in the Bible.

The biblical people call uz 24 times he has contact with the Nabotans. Who are the Nabotans? From Tammud. These I'm sorry from Tammud. Not Nabatian. We call them Nabatians. The 24 times he has contact with people from Tammud. Take a look at the map and see where is. Look at the back and see where Thamud is.

UD's way up here. There's Thumbud way up there. Here's Mecca way down here.

That's 600 miles. Seven times he has contact with people from Midian. We know who the Medidianites are. We know exactly where they live. They lived way up here. That's 600 miles further north.

How could this messenger of God, this apostle of God, this prophet of God have daily contact with people who live 600 miles further north? He'd have to go up 600 miles, come back down 600 miles in one day, unless he had a helicopter.  They didn't have helicopters in the 7th century, folks. Can you see this is a problem for Muslims? They don't know how to deal with this. It's obvious whoever wrote the Qur'an did not live in Mecca. He lived much, much much further north.

In fact, I would suggest he lived where these geographical locations are. The Qur'an itself exposes that. And the reason why is look at the Arabic. Whoever wrote the Qur'an, spoke an Arabic that did not come from Mecca or Medina.

That green rectangle. Muslims say that the Qur'an was written by Muhammad, received by Muhammad in the Qureshi dialect, which was his dialect there where that green rectangle is. That's Arabia where Mecca and Medina are. But if you look at the Qur'an, just open up its pages and read the Arabic there. It has these endings that are all from where the red rectangle is. 

See where the red rectangle is? That is in modern day Jordan and Israel in Lebanon.

That is Nabotian Aramaic. And the Quran is written in Nabotian Aramaic. Why?

Well, look at the endings. The AB, the unstressed inflectional short final vowels, those are not found where the green area is. They're all found where the red area is. The tarbuta which is the t sound which makes it feminine at the end that is found where the red area is not where the green area is. The al of maksur looks like an s shape that is the e the y sound that is at the end of the letters that is only found up where the red area is the definite article al the whenever you have the that is not found in the green area that's only found in the red area 600 miles further north. So what Arabic did they speak in that green area? The Arabic they spoke in that green area, comes from that part of the world where the big red the red square is that is Sabayan. That's from the Sabian from what today is Yemen in Oman, way down in the south. That's the kind of Arabic they spoke up there in Mecca, Medina. The Sabayan Arabic did not have the Tmarbuta or the alaksur or the definite article. And what's most interesting, as you're going to find out later in our arguments coming up, the Sabic Arabic had the dots and vowels, which the Nabotian Aramaic did not.

There are no dots and vowels in the Nabotian Aramaic. That's what caused all the kit problem. Most of you looking at me blankly. You have no idea what I'm talking about. You'll hear it after the break. We're going to get into that. So, but this is what's exciting for those of us who are studying this. It's obvious that when the Qur'an was written, whoever wrote the Qur'an did not come from Mecca, Medina. They all came from 600 miles further north. The Qur'an itself exposes it. So look at all these prophets going up on the screen. You not recognize some of them. 

Chapter 11: Archaeology and historical records

Adam? These are all the prophets that according to traditions were buried in Mecca Medina. You get buried where you live. You have to be buried within 24 hours. Which means all of these people lived in Mecca in order to be buried in Mecca. Not Medina. Sorry, I shouldn't have used Medina. These are all buried where the Kabba is, that square building all around it. And they were all buried with sitting on their knees with their hands like this praying to God, in a praying  position even as they died. Because according to tradition, prophets do not deteriorate. Even though they're dead, they still pray to God until the end of times. So there you have Adam and Eve were buried in Mecca. So was Seth. So was  Ishmael. So was Noah. Hood, the great great grandson of Noah, was buried there. Sully, the grandfather of Hagar, Queen of Sheba. I had no idea. The queen of Sheba, what's she doing way up there?

Well, there's a story about that in Surah 27. Daniel, the prophet Daniel, your prophet Daniel, was buried in Mecca. Did you know that? I had no idea.

Now you know. And about 300 prophets according to traditions were all buried in Mecca.   They all lived or died there and were buried kneeling in Mecca. So why can't we find them today? Why do I say that? If you look at Mecca today, you will see there are all these huge skyscrapers being built. The fourth highest building in the world has just been finished.

It's a clock tower looking down onto the Kaaba. It is enormous. It has four faces. The clock itself is 45 ft across. They're going to make it the Meccan meantime. They want to take time away from Greenwich mean time and make it to Mecca meantime. So the whole world will be following Mecca meantime. Now that in order to build that building, in order to build all of those skyscrapers, you have to dig deep. You have to make foundations and you have to dig down there to make sure that the buildings don't fall over. When your buildings fall down and when you start digging foundations, who shows up? The archaeologists show up. This happens with any archaic city. When they started digging up the Tower of London, the archaeologists were there. Why? Because they came across all these Roman ruins. Londonium. Am I correct? The same way in Athens, the same way in Rome, the same way in Jerusalem. Anytime there's any  digging, the archaeologists are there because they don't have the equipment, nor do they have the funds to g dig that deep. And they know that when you start digging, you're going to come across artifacts. And those artifacts recreate the history of the city. So when they started digging these huge tall buildings all around the Kaaba, the archaeologists showed up. 

Dan Gibson was in a conference with them in Dubai a number of years ago. He sat at their table and he asked these Saudi Arabian architects, "So what have you found? What has been dug up?" And they wouldn't answer him. So he insisted, tell me you must finding all kinds of things because you have the furthest foundation. This is the oldest city in the history of mankind. What have you found? They finally admitted that the only thing they have been able to find is an old Ottoman fort from 1300 AD.

1300 AD. That's 500 years after Muhammad. Can you see the problem folks?

Archaeologically speaking, it is having the same problem as you see historically with these prophets. 

Chapter 12: Kiblas and early prayer direction

Now, so when is the first reference to Mecca? Well, the first reference is found in the apocalypse of Sudenthodius continue Arabica in 741.

Dr. Patricia Kurun could not find any reference earlier than that. Muhammad died in 632. This is over a hundred years later. And the first time it is found on any map is not till 900 AD. That's the 10th century, folks. That's 300 years after Muhammad. So if you look at all the old maps, you need to look and see where Mecca is on the old maps. And let's look at these maps, not made by Ponomy, but referring made because of Ponomy. Patonomy in the second century AD is the first one to write about the geography of Arabia. And he wrote about all the towns and hamlets and all the other places where the streams were, where the mountains were, and he put designated coordinates for them. So some Europeans in this case, the 15th century, started putting maps together with looking at all his descriptions and this is one done by Lard Hole in 1482. But take a look at the map and you'll see a problem with it. Mecca should be right where that question mark is there. Mecca is not on that map in 1482. No reference to Mecca anywhere. What about this one here? 1541. We're still in the 16th century now. Look at where is Mecca?

Mecca is not there. What about this map here? Here's one by Sebastian Müster in 1571.

Mecca is not there again. Everywhere they looked, they could not find Mecca.

So, here's another one. This is one that is a redacted map put today, redacting it back on to the 7th century. Mecca's not on that map as well. Here's another redacted map. you can't find Mecca on any of the archaic maps. Not at all. Yet it is supposed to be the oldest city in the history of mankind. The most important city in the history of mankind. Yet, we can't find it on any map. 

What about the qiblas? Remember I talked about the qiblas , the direction of prayer. Dan Gibson was doing his research from 1987 to 2005.

And for 25 years he went to every mosque he could find from as far away as Guangho in China over to Shaman in India. Every mosque he could find. He went to the Kibla wall. And when he looked at the Kibla walls, he found that they were all facing Petra, not Mecca.

Petra in Jordan.

Doesn't matter what side of the world they were, they were all up until 706, that's the 8th century, every mosque was facing Petra. Well, now we have a problem with Mecca, don't we? What are you going to do? And how are you going to support it? And where are you going to find importance for it?

Chapter 13: Debunking trade route theories

Muslims have not been able to show any historical reference for Mecca. So along comes Dr. Montgomery Watt, Scottish missionary who worked with Muslims, spoke fluent Arabic, and he rescued them. He rescued them by coming up with what we know as the trade route theory.

Have you any of you heard of the trade route theory? You've heard of it? Do you remember Montgomery Watt? You don't remember him? Okay, but you know about the trade route theory. And the trade route theory is this. Mecca got its importance because of what happened on the trade route. The trade routes used to come from India and China to the western coast of India and then they go across where the red arrow is going up across the Arabian Sea through the Persian Gulf and then across Syria and Jordan over to the Mediterranean. So they had to get to the Mediterranean world and that's where they went going across the Arabian Sea. That was the trade route. However, however, two great empires, the Sassanian Empire which is the Persian Empire and the Byzantine Empire which is the Christian Empire.

One was Zarash and the other was Christian started battling each other in the fifth century. So from the fifth and sixth century started boom that shut down the trade route. So let's get rid of the trade route. You couldn't go that route any longer. So what Montgomery Watt said is oh not a problem. Instead of going that way through the Persian  Gulf they came across the Arabian Sea went to Aiden there in the south on shipped all their goods and went 1250 miles up to Gaza in the north and from Gaza they went to the Mediterranean. That proved that Mecca, which is right here, can you see Mecca right there where I'm pointing to? It was in charge of it because it was right in the middle of the trade route. Problem solved. Right? Do any of you see a problem with that theory? I was taught this theory. I didn't see a problem. I showed it to my 10-year-old son. He saw a problem right away. Let's see if you can figure it out. I never figured it out, but he did. Do you see a problem with that? Coming across the Arabian Sea going to Aiden and zipping up the western coast up not the coast along the western plateau up to the north.

Dr. Patricia Crone, head of department at Cambridge University, wrote a book called Meccan Trade in the rise of Islam because she saw two major problems. Meccan Trade And The Rise Of Islam is a 1987 book written by scholar and historiographer of early Islam Patricia Crone.

Here's the first problem. Let's take a look again at there at Aiden. She said when you look at Aiden let's take a look at Aiden and see where the trade would have gone. It would have started at Aiden and gone up to Najan up to Sana then Najan and up to Taif. So there's Taif circled right there. But that is all along the western plateau.

But from Taif it would have to make a detour down 1,000 meters. That's 3,000 ft down to Mecca which is not on the coast. It's about 30 miles inland, but it's still way down off the plateau where that circle is. And then from Mecca, it then would have to get back up 3,000 ft to get to Ythreb and then from Ythreb on up to Gaza in the north. So can you see the detour on the map? She said, "Why hadn't anybody noticed this? Mecca is not on the western plateau." That's  the first problem. 

The second problem, she said, is this. Why would you come all the way to Aiden and then go, 1250 miles by land when everybody knows that a ton of goods just 50 miles by land costs the same amount as 1,250 miles by sea.

You always use the sea. Everybody has used the sea. We still use the sea today. Why? Well, because that's the  cheapest way to take tons and tons of good. All you need is air. What's more, you don't have to protect anything. If you take it by land, you need camels.  Camels need to be fed. They need to be watered. Secondly, they need to be protected. If they're anytime you're going through a valley or mountains on either side, they can attack you. You're on the sea. It's open water. You can see for miles in advance. You can see anybody that's going to attack you. You don't have to feed the ships. There's no water or food. They just need wind, which is free. And that's why even today though we don't use sails anymore, it's still cheaper. That's why you have these super tankers taking tons and tons of goods all over the world and you're very close to one right here in Pool and in Plymouth and also in Southampton. There are your ports. Why? Because all the goods coming from China have to come by boat. Well, the same thing in the ancient days. She said, "Well, why don't you look at what's going on right up here? Look at this Red Sea. you have a waterway going up the west side. Why didn't they stay on board water? Now, the great thing about Patricia Crone asking this question is that she reads and writes 15 languages.

So, she could go back to all these archaic language, Aadian, Nabit, Aramaic, Sero, Cyroaic, all these Aadian these languages that no longer are used today and she could read every one of them because she was such a scholar. 15 archaic languages. She went back to the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh up until the seventh and eighth century and she read all the original documents and this is what she found , that all the trade came across following the green arrow. They did stop at Aiden, yes to get resupplies, but they took no goods off there whatsoever for because it was all inhospitable. And they went up , they went to Agilus right there.

There's Agilus, which is initial. And from there they went up the Red Sea right up to Petra and from Petra to Gaza and from Gaza right across all across the Mediterranean world. So that is where all the trading documents say.

Mecca is not referred to once in any of the trading documents. Why not Mecca?

Well, Muslims have tried to come back and say, well, okay, so they went up the Red Sea, but they went to Jedah. Jedah is on the coast and then from Jedah they took the goods into Mecca, which is 30 miles in land. That's what Muslims are trying to say today. And here's where Patricia Crone did not go far enough.

She didn't realize that you can debunk that as well. And we debunked it very quickly. We just did it last year and we just by looking and we decide let's go

Chapter 14: Hajj origins and final summary

see and let's take another look. Look at the Red Sea. But let's look at it from space. When you look at the Red Sea from space, looking topographically, you will see that the center of the Red Sea is where the deep water channel is. That's where the red line is. Do you see the red line? That's where the big ships today go. They need that deep channel.

Back in the seventh century, there were no big ships like that. You didn't have super tankers. You just had small ships that were pushed by the wind. They needed other channel. So, where are the  channels for the small ships? Well, there they are right there, the golden arrows. But look and see where they are.

They're on the western side. They're not on the eastern side. They're on the African side. Why are they on the African side? Unlike the eastern side,  the Eastern Arabian shore, which was arid with no fresh water whatsoever, and thus few people, the West African shore had plenty of fresh water and had larger populations as a result. What's more, the west coast had easily accessible ports. We know their names and this is what we have done in London. We decided to go back and uh my researcher here in London, myself, we decided to go back and see where these ports were. So, we just did a historical survey and we found that there were five coastal cities, Assaup here in it. It has been around since 246 BC. That's the 3rd century BC. It's an old old port. Agelus that we talked about earlier since 79 AD. And then you have Swaken in what is today Sudan. That's 170 AD. Up here you have Bones and also at the very top Saga. Those are both in what is in Egypt. But look at the dates 282, 275.

These are long before Islam. That's where all the trade went. Those are the five trading routes. Notice that they are equidistance. That is exactly one boat's ride per day. So you could go start at Assab, do a boat drive, get  pull into the port and Agelus, get off, stay in a go to a pub, go and have your beer and then have a nice time with all your friends. Get back on ship and go up to Swaken, go up, get off, get your water, get your vegetation, and then have your beer again and just go from days. So it take five days to get up the Red Sea all on the western side. Well, their dates all predate Islam. All five are a day's distance apart. On the Red Seaside, you have only Yanbu. Only Yanbu is ever recorded and it supplied all the needs for Yatre which is a well-known city. It has been a city but a small city for millennia but nothing else bamboo are on the Red Sea at all. What about Jedha and Mecca? Because Muslims say, "Well, Jedha is what supplied Mecca." It does so today. Jedha must be one of the oldest cities in the history.

So we did a survey on Jedha and I went back to my professor Dr. Gerald Haunting who wrote a book on Jedha and he did by looking at his survey he found that Jedha did not exist prior to the 8th century. It was the 8th century  where Jedha was created to give supplies to Mecca which was created in the 8th century. Oh, I love it.

Therefore, let's just get rid of Jedah and Mecca. Goodbye. history throws them out. So what happens to Mecca and Jedha? Without Mecca, what then happens to Islam? A big red X. However, let me just show you, prove my point. Look at this topographical map. This is what it looks like from space. Let's put these cities on it. There you can see Aiden.

There you can see Sana Nudan Ty. Notice they're following the western plateau.

Do you see the western plateau? It's up above the rest. There's a big cliff there.

From Tai, you go up to Yreb. From Yreb , you go up to Tabuk. From Tabuk, you go up to Petra. Gaza. And then you're in the Mediterranean. Where's Mecca?

Bingo. There's Mecca. It's way off the Western Plateau. Can you see it? 3,000 ft down. No wonder it's not on the trade  route. Why would you go from Tai down 3,000 feet to a city or a hamlet that had no water and had no vegetation for  your camels and then climb back up to Ythre? 

Let me show you another map. Here is one with a what they call the wired, the line graphs for the top of to show you really distinctly what we're talking about. There's Aiden. There's Sana. There's Najaran. Up here we have Tif. There's Ythre. Then we get up to Tabuk. Up to Petra and to Gaza. And look at Becca. It's completely off the western plateau.

And Muslims have never looked at this before. They had no idea until we showed them this. Said, "No wonder there's no record for Mecca. No wonder it wasn't on the trade route. No wonder it had no importance whatsoever." So what do ancient maps show us concerning Mecca?

Well, what we would like to do is we want to know if Mecca was that important, someone should have known about it. So what about the empires surrounding Mecca? Maybe someone would have heard about this place. You would hope that someone would heard about it, right? So let's go and see what they knew about Mecca. We asked the Sabayans. We looked through all the Sabbain material. Not one word about Mecca. We asked about the Himy. The Himyites. They had no word about Mecca.

We went to the Eastern Arabia. Eastern Arabia knew nothing about Mecca. What about Western Arabia? That is where Mecca is situated. Certainly they would have known about Mecca. Not one reference whatsoever about Mecca. What about the patriarchal period that long preceded Mecca? Nope. They never heard about it. The Himaites, they didn't hear about it. What about the Assyri? Nope.

Nothing were mentioned. The Babylonians, the central western Arabians, the Persian, and even the Romans. We can't find any reference to any of these empires. These are all the empires that predate the seventh century. They are all surrounding the geographical location of Mecca. and not one of them has heard of this place. What does that tell you?

It has no history. No wonder they've not heard about the place. Now, one of them has heard of Mecca. So, take a look at this map. And this is where I'm going to help you. This is what you can do. And this is what I did.

Back in November, I came down to London. I was on the ladder with Hutton. And I were on the ladder. As we're getting up on the ladder, Hutton said, "Jay, I don't agree with anything you're saying about Mecca.

Let's" and I said, "Listen, you may not agree with me, but don't say that from the ladder. Not while we're on the ladder today." 

So, let's go through and I want to show you why we don't, why we don't accept Mecca. So, I showed these four pictures. These are pictures of topographical pictures of what Mecca looks like today. And when you look at Mecca Medina, what do you notice about them? Well, they're all in a desert. Can you see that they're all in a brown area? So, it's very clear that they're in a desert. So, I showed this to all the Muslims and by on November they were all around the ladder. Not like a two weeks ago. So, I said this. All right.

Where there's a desert, there's no water. Where there's no water, there's no food. Where there's no food, there's no people. There's no people, there's no towns. Where there's no towns, there's no cities. Where there's no cities, there's no civilization. Where there's no civilization, there is no history.

It's as simple as that. I only had to say that once. How long did it take me to say that? 10 seconds.

No water, no food, no food, no people, no people, no towns, no towns, no cities, no cities, no civilization, no civilization, no history. You're going to say it so quickly. I only had it say it once as the Muslims started coming.

Well, what about Muhammad when he was in Mecca? Wait a minute. What do you mean Mecca? There's no water. Well, yes, but according to traditions, he went with, he went up from Mecca to... Wait a minute.

Mecca, there's no water there. All we had to say after that is there's no water. Once you say that, it shuts down the debate. This is what we call a meme.

That's how easy it is, folks. All you need to say is you can't use Mecca. You can't use Medina. You can't have  Muhammad or a man named Muhammad living in that place if there's no water. You have to have water. If there's no water, it's just like Mars. What's the purpose of going there? Can you see?

If you don't have Mecca, you because there's no water, you don't have history. And that's why it's absolutely essential you've got to have water. 

Chapter 14: Hajj origins and final summary

Now, let's end off Mecca by going to the Hajj. When you go to the Hajj, you need to ask all these things that they do. This is when they go once in their lifetime to do the pilgrimage.

They do the haj there and there are five stages that they go through. Let's go through them real quickly and let's see what we do. Now the first stage is this.

You go to Mecca. You go to the Kaaba.

You've seen this picture. They circumambulate it in this direction which means they circumambulate it counterclockwise. Sorry, this way for you. Counterclockwise. All right. Nobody circumambulates counterclockwise.

Everybody goes clockwise except in Mecca. Why do you think they circumambulate counterclockwise?

And why do they do it seven times?

Who does it counterclockwise seven times? Anybody know? The Jews. The Jews do it. The Jews did it in Petra to begin with. And so in Petra, you can see there's the Kaaba. Kaaba just means square in Hebrew and in Arabic. Both in Arabic and in Hebrew, it means square. Kaaba.

So you're going to that square and when you look at the square, you see it is a square, circumambulating it seven times.

Now when you look in Petra there is the same square where they were circumambulated seven times. But where  does that come from? That comes from Jerusalem. Go to Jerusalem where the Dome of the Rock is, is where the holy of holies is. That is where the temple stood and that is where the Kaaba in Hebrew. That was where the Holy of Holies is. And the Jews would circumambulate seven times going counterclockwise. Why? Because that's what they did in Jericho. Because of what they did in Jericho.

They're doing it in Judaism today. They would do it today if they control the Mount. But they don't control it today because the Muslims control it today. Therefore, they can't do it today. That's why most of you don't know what that it's supposed to. Every Jew is supposed to do that. So the whole circumambulation seven times around the Kaaba there in Mecca comes from Jerusalem. It's borrowed from the Jews. Even the word comes from Hebrew. That's the first stage. 

What do they do next? Well, then they run back and forth between these two mountains. They call them Marwa and Safa. Back and forth between Marwa and Safa. They're only about 20 , 50 yards away from the Kaaba. So they're in the same area as the Kaaba. They run back and forth between those two mountains. And why?

Because they believe that is where Hagar was looking for water when she was thrown out of Mecca by Abraham. Remember Abraham was in Mecca. He rebuilt the Kaaba there. Hagar is from Mecca. She's also buried there. She is then thrown out with her son Ishmael. Ishmael is thirsty. He needs water. So she runs to Marwa, looks for water, can't find it. She runs to this mountain called Safa. Can't find water. So, she runs back and forth seven times. There's that number seven again. That's the perfect number in Judaism, right? But take a look. Do those look like mountains to you? No. They look like rocks that you can climb. They're only about 20 feet high. That does not make a mountain. What's more, if she has been thrown out into the desert by Abraham and she can't find any water, what is she only doing 100 yards away from the Kaaba, which is the center of Mecca, where Abraham lives, where hundreds and thousands of people live. If she needed water, all she needed to do is knock on someone's door.

So obviously, these are not the original mountains. This is nothing more than a faximile, a symbolism of the real Marwa and the real Safa. You want to know where the real  Marwa and the real Safa are? Well, if you go to Petra, you will see Marwa and Safa, two mountains in Petra, who are called Marwa and Safa, but those are not the original Marwa and Safa. The original Marwa and Sulfa are in Jerusalem.

Mount Moriah right there. Mount Moriah where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac is where the temple was built, is where the temple mount was. What is the Arabic name for Moriah? Marwa.

Here is the Kidron Valley. On the other side of the Kidron Valley is Mount Scopus right there. There is Mount Mariah which is Safa. Marwa in Arabic. Mount Scopus in Arabic is Safa.

There is Safa in Marwa. It is there in Jerusalem still today. They would go from Mount Moriah down across the Kidron Valley up to Mount Scopus and back again seven times. And the reason they would do that is because the Kidron Valley here especially is where they're going, the hell is going to open up at the end of times. That is where they're going to be thrown into hell at the end of times. Which is interesting because they have just taken the same structures, the same names and reproduced them there in Mecca. But instead of be mountains, these are mountains. These are mountains. . The ones in Mecca are nothing more than rocks. 

Ones in Mecca are nothing more than rocks.

So if you look at the five stages, you see that the Kaaba is borrowed there from what we have in Jerusalem.

You see the Safa and Marwa are also borrowed from what we have in Jerusalem.

You then go to the hill of Ararat where they pray outside that is found also in Petra with in Jerusalem. It's found  outside of Jerusalem. Then you get to the six jamarat. Now this is the one thing that is not borrowed from Jerusalem because for one very good reason. The Jamarat according to Islam is the pillar that where Satan is. And whenever Muslims come to Mecca, they take anywhere from 49 stones to 72 stones and they throw it at that pillar to basically to destroy Satan. They're throwing it at Satan. And if you look at the pillar, there is this foundation, the pillar in Petra. Today, that pillar has been changed. It is now three pillars. It used to be just one pillar up until 1980. And so the 49 to 72 stones that were being thrown at the pillar were against one Satan, which makes sense because according to Islam and Christianity and Judaism, there's only one Satan, right? But take a look today. It's now three pillars with a stairway in between. Three pillars.

What are the three pillars symbolizing? If you ask any Muslim today, those jamarats are temptations of Abraham. So they're now throwing it against the temptations by Satan against Abraham. This narrative about the pillars has changed in the last 40 years, which means they're still creating Islam as they go. Even as we live, Islam is still creating a new narrative. I love that.

And then they have the Zum well. The Zum well is really interesting. It's very small well. It only is about 20 feet across and only about 40 feet deep. And yet that is an ancient picture of, an old picture of the Zum well. Today you won't see that picture anymore. But if you go to any Muslim shop, ask them have they had any Zum water. You go to any Muslim shop here in Bay Reges if there are any here or go to whatever large city that's near you and ask for a zum water. Everybody has zum water. They sell zum water because that's how you drink the zumzum water and you get purified. It is even sweet. It's sweetened water. And all over the Muslim world, 1.8 billion Muslims drink the Zum water from that little well.

So David Chappelle, who is a well-known comic, who's an American comic who's been converted to Islam, was questioned by David Letterman about a year ago and said, "What about this Zam Zam well?" He called it. What about this well that never never runs out of water? And David said, "Yeah, this well is always has water because of Allah. Allah has provided water for the whole Muslim world. 1.8 billion Muslims can drink from that one well." Take a look at that well. Does that look like it could feed or water? 1.8 billion people. So, how do they do it? Allah gives them this water. It is unquenchable.

Well, if you take a look and I should put some pictures up. I don't have the pictures today. I remember to put the pictures up. If you look the pictures up, there are actually it is now sealed over. There is a cover over top it and there are pipes going down into it and pipes coming back out of it. And those pipes are filling it with water and flushing it back out again. And guess where those pipes come from? Those pipes come from Jedha. From a desalination plant made by Becttel Corporation, American Becttel Corporation. It has nothing to do with Allah. It has everything to do with the great Satan. We are the great Satan as they say. And I remember I put this up about two months ago on March three months ago. And boy did I get some feedback from kickback. Muslims do not like to be told that which they have been drinking their whole life. Think it is forgiving their sins comes from America. Has nothing to do with Allah. They even put perfume in it to sweeten it up to show that it's a different water than anything else. God bless the Americans.

Now we stop with this and this is the this is the this is the I don't know how to explain this. This is the black stone. Have any of you seen this before or have heard about this?

The black stone is in the eastern corner of the Kaaba.

That's it right there surrounded by this silver encasing. So the black stone is right here. That little bit there surrounded by the encasing there. You can see people who are kissing it. Hundreds of people as they're circumulating want to kiss that stone because by kissing that stone all your sins are forgiven, which mean that is idolatry at its worst. Is it not yet what do Muslims say whenever they raised their fingers there is only one God but God. Right and they point to God and he is one. One there is no other and if you believe any other you are mushrik . A mushrik is someone who equates or elevates another person or another thing to God. We Christians are called mushriks because we elevate Jesus to his divine status. So we are kind of called mushrik. Slay the mushriks wherever you  find them. Besiege them. Lay and wait with them with every kind of ambush. Chapter 9 verse 5. It's right there in the Qur'an. They are to slay us. Slay us if we equate another with God. 

Yet take a look at that stone there on the eastern corner of the Kaaba. It is as idolatrous as you can get because how can a stone forgive sins?

So where did that stone come from? And why is it still there?

The fact that it's at the very center of Islam, every Muslim prays towards that stone. Doesn't matter where they are in the world, the qibla is praying towards that stone. It is a it is the bastion of idolatry. And Muslims will not respond to you.

The qibla (also spelled kibla) is the direction towards the Kaaba—the cube-shaped building located at the center of the Sacred Mosque (al-Masjid al-Haram) in Mecca, Saudi Arabia—that Muslims face during their daily ritual prayers (salat)

 Ask them. say, "What's the Blackstone doing there in the Kaaba?" When you did the haj, why did you want try to go kiss it? They have to have, if you look at that picture more carefully, and if you look at a film, they have to have guardsmen there pushing people away so that they won't so they, so they can control the crowds because so many millions of people are trying to kiss that stone at once.

Right at the whole center of Islam is based on the most idolatry motion. So, what have we done? And I'm going to finish here, and then we're going to have a break. 

Conclusions concerning Mecca's historical problems. No one could find Mecca placed on in the Qur'an.

 Patricia Crone could not find any maps of Mecca until 980. Gibson introduced the qiblas facing Petra from 2011 to 2017. The moment Dr. Patricia Crone debunked completely the land trade based trade route theory to Mecca. We debunked the sea based trade theory towards Mecca. And then of course Gibson debunked the five stages of the Hajj in Mecca. Therefore conclusion though Mecca has existed since Adam and Eve's day in seven , according to seven chapter 7 verse 24, there is no evidence of it anywhere until 741 AD. And everything we now find in Mecca we could previously find in Petra and now even earlier in Jerusalem.

So conclusions, Mecca is foundational for both Muhammad and the Qur'an. So without it they both fall. References to Mecca in the Qur'an and traditions do not hold up historically as a center of history or even geographically or linguistically. What's more, neither the prophets the supposedly who were buried there nor the ancient maps that of Ptoamy nor the qiblas of Gibson's research support the early, an early Mecca. Neither the land route on the  western plateau nor the sea route on the African coast supports an early Mecca. Topographical maps prove Mecca is off the western plateau and in a desert with no water. Thus the reason no civilization surrounding Arabia. That's why no one has heard of Mecca as people need water. The five stages of the Hajj, the Kaaba, the Safa, Marwa, Arafat, Zamar, Zum, Blackstone support Jerusalem and not Mecca. Someone somewhere at some time should have known about this city, Mecca. Yet no one anywhere nor at any time has proving that it has never existed at the time Muhammad nor during early Islam.

Chapter 15: Q&A and closing remarks

Any questions? No questions. Go ahead. 

So what's the black stone?

So what is the black stone? Yeah.

To understand the black stone, you need to go back to Algabilus. Well, actually the black stone is referred to back in the Egyptian time as far back as 4,000 BC. We do know also of a black stone. We don't know if it's the same black stone, but it's a meteorite that comes from the heavens that the Phoenicians* refer to the black stone. [* The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic-speaking maritime civilization that thrived along the Levantine coast (primarily modern-day Lebanon) from approximately 1500 BCE to 300 BCE. They were not a unified nation but a confederation of independent, fiercely competitive city-states, including Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and Arwad.  The term "Phoenician" is a Greek exonym derived from phoinix (purple), referencing their prized purple dye production, while they identified themselves as Canaanites or by their specific city names. ]

But it's the Romans who are the ones who really take pick it, black stone,  up and run with it. And it's alabilis, the emperor Algabilus in the second century who takes the black stone, takes it to Rome and claims that it is where Allah's presence is because it comes from the heavens. And he was the one that gives impetus to it that wherever the black stone is, Allah's presence goes with it. From Rome, it made its way to Damascus. From Damascus down to Petra. Abdul Malik when he was caiff in 685. His governor of Petra named Zubed rebelss against Abdul Malik in 687 destroys Petra, grabs the black stone and runs with it. And he runs down to we now know pretty much it's Mecca. He doesn't say where he goes to. He just goes to the south. But it looks like he went to Mecca. When he took the stone, all the pilgrims followed him because they wanted to go where Allah's presence was. They weren't care. They didn't care   dillishly swat about the politics. They just wanted to be where God was. But when he got down to Mecca, he needed allies. So what did he do? Well, he went to the Abbasids who lived up in Baghdad.

The Umiads live in Damascus or this way. So they needed the black stone. They loved the black stones. They immediately made allies with him. And therefore, all the qiblas are all confused from many different because they didn't know whether or not to have their qiblas going towards Petra or towards Mecca. Those who allied  themselves with the Umiads, they had their qiblas going towards Petra. Those who allied themselves with the Abbasids, who are getting stronger and stronger and stronger now, they had their qiblas facing Mecca. The Abbasids then destroy the Umayads in 749 and everybody then now starts going to Mecca where the black stone is because that's Allah's presence. If Allah's presence is there today, it's still there today. But it is as idolatrous as you can get.

So if I was a Muslim reading the Qur'an, where does it say in the Qur'an? Anything? Nothing about it in the Qur'an at all.

So what's it doing in the Kaaba? Bingo.

This is called folk Islam. And yet at the very center of Islam is the most idolatrous notion. It is an oxymoron. It is a contradiction in terms.

Lovely, isn't it? We don't have that problem. Christianity. Thank God we don't have this problem. Okay. Now you have an awful lot of grist that you can throw at your Muslim friends. Any other questions? Did you understand everything I said?

It's very visual, is it not? 

It's maps.

It's timelines. We're going to get to even more visual after the break because now we're going to get into the coins and the inscriptions and these are fun.

Okay, go have some coffee, some tea, and we'll come back in what time?