Medieval Christian polemicists misattributed beliefs to Muslims that Muslims would disown.

Evidence

Ricoldo’s express intention was to advise and inform missionaries, but his method, which consisted of collecting information and arguments without discrimination, makes it impossible that he should ever have used much of it effectively. We know that many arguments can never have been brought out before a Muslim audience, because a Muslim (if he had not been scandalised ) would simply have laughed at the positions Ricoldo imputed to Islam; would have disowned, rather than bothered to argue about them: for example, the assertion that the Qur’an says that God ‘prays for’ Muhammad. Alternatively, if such arguments were ever voiced, either they or the replies of the Muslims were not understood. Christians ludicrously asserted that Muslims believed what the Christians said they did; and such absurdity would have been, evidently was, proof against anything Muslims may have had to say. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1435

Categorization

• QUESTION: The claim that the Qur’an says God ‘prays for’ Muhammad — is this a misreading worth tracking down its actual origin?
• XREF: connects to: Lull saw Muslim and Christian fears of misbelief as mirror images