Aquinas denied Islam any authority because it lacked miracles and true documents

Evidence

To disqualification on account of his ‘evil life’ were added Pedro’s other two points: the shameful and contradictory teaching of the Qur’an and its not being confirmed by miracles. Except to point out Muhammad’s failure to foretell his own successors, the whole of the third book would have been devoted to the absence of confirmatory miracles. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 388 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

The other point of great importance was the mediaeval objection to the Islamic teaching that revelation might come down to solve problems of a transient nature. When the implications of this objection are considered, it will be seen that the objection extends to any revelation related to the circumstances of a prophet at a time and place; it implies, in fact, all the detailed objections that were made to the character of Muhammad, and to his history, and that were thought definitively to preclude his claim to prophethood. Always contrasted with the true elements in the Qur’an were the false ones; always associated with the Qur’anic picture of Christ was the Qur’anic picture of Muhammad - largely negatively, the absence of any ‘praise’ of Muhammad in the Qur’an at all. His prophethood was seen as alien to all known prophethood; non-prophetic, untruthful in utterance, evil of life, unverified by miracles. This absence of miracles was considered one of the most damning weaknesses in the Muslim case; on the one hand, said the Christians, Muhammad denied the need, because he had not the gift; and, on the other, his followers, embarrassed by the lack and realising the need, attributed bogus miracles to him, in spite of his own denial. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1524 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Aquinas (contra Gentiles 1.1) argued that, as the Scriptures are unacceptable to Muslims, it is necessary to have recourse to natural reason. Because of this very fact, he can scarcely be counted among writers on the religion of Islam. His rational scheme was constructed with little (if any) reference to it. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1969 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Aquinas’s rational apologetic bypassed actual knowledge of Islam’s content — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1969; Aquinas refuted Islam without ever reading the Koran — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1226; Aquinas held faith provable only as non-contradictory, not demonstrable (+5 more)

Related

• Medieval critics faulted Islam for lacking miracles and coherent scripture (similarity 0.89)
• Medieval Christians held Muhammad’s lack of miracles as decisive against his prophethood (similarity 0.87)
• Aquinas’s rational apologetic bypassed actual knowledge of Islam’s content (similarity 0.87)
• Aquinas refuted Islam without ever reading the Koran (similarity 0.84)
• Aquinas attacked Muhammad for lacking miracles, a core trope of anti-Islamic polemic (similarity 0.84)
• Aquinas attacked Islam while knowing it only from hearsay despite citing Muslim philosophers (similarity 0.80)
• Thomas Aquinas held that reason can defend faith but never prove it (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Medieval critics faulted Islam for lacking miracles and coherent scripture #exemplifies (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 388
• Medieval Christians held Muhammad’s lack of miracles as decisive against his prophethood #exemplifies (0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1524
• Aquinas’s rational apologetic bypassed actual knowledge of Islam’s content #expands (0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1969
• Aquinas refuted Islam without ever reading the Koran #expands (0.80) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1226
• Natural reason served as Aquinas’s last resort for engaging the Muslim enemy #responds-to (0.80)
• Aquinas held faith provable only as non-contradictory, not demonstrable #corroborates (0.75)
• Thomas Aquinas held that reason can defend faith but never prove it #corroborates (0.75) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 1229
• Christians invented false miracles about Muhammad that Muslims never claimed. #contradicts (0.70) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2013