The fourfold prophecy tests were deliberately tailored to condemn Muhammad
Evidence
As in the other cases we have considered; it is obvious that these tests have to some extent been tailored in advance to fit Muhammad’s circumstances. Essentially this is the scheme of Pedro de Alfonso, improved by the addition of the fourth head which distinguished Muhammad’s religious institutions from his personal probity of life or his truthfulness. It sometimes recalls Peter the Venerable’s work, but it ignores that enthusiast’s stressed point that Prophecy means only a foretelling of the future in which Muhammad failed. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 406 (
#corroborates, via linked claim)
Categorization
Category: Causal Relationships
Related
- Medieval anti-Islamic polemics tailored their prophetic tests to condemn Muhammad (similarity 0.89)
- Ancient criteria of prophecy were applied selectively to predetermine Muhammad’s failure (similarity 0.88)
- The prophet-test criteria were tailored in advance to fit Muhammad’s case (similarity 0.86)
- Medieval polemicists tested Muhammad as a prophet against falsifiability-style criteria (similarity 0.85)
- Medieval Christian polemic schematized prophecy tests to reject Muhammad empirically, not by definition (similarity 0.83)
- Mediaeval authors often deliberately chose the worst accounts of Muhammad. (similarity 0.82)
- Christian polemicists seized on Muhammad’s wounds as proof he lacked divine protection (similarity 0.82)
- Medieval polemicists read Ismael’s biblical disinheritance as prophecy of Islam’s enmity. (similarity 0.82)
- Modern Western scholars retained medieval judgements about Muhammad. (similarity 0.81)
- Medieval Christian polemicists judged Muhammad by Christian criteria for prophecy (similarity 0.81)
- Medieval critics narrowed prophecy to future-telling to disqualify Muhammad. (similarity 0.80)
- Medieval Christian writers uniformly stressed Muhammad’s orphaned poverty (similarity 0.80)
- Christian polemicists explained Muhammad’s prophethood as a fraudulent bid for kingship (similarity 0.79)
- Even moderate medieval Christian writers distorted Muhammad by cherry-picking facts (similarity 0.79)
- Twelfth-century Christian polemic against Islam argued Muhammad failed the Old Testament prophetic test. (similarity 0.79)
Broader Connections
- Polemical ‘signs of prophecy’ tests were rigged against Muhammad
#corroborates(0.97) - Medieval anti-Islamic polemics tailored their prophetic tests to condemn Muhammad
#corroborates(0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 406 - Ancient criteria of prophecy were applied selectively to predetermine Muhammad’s failure
#corroborates(0.95) - Medieval Christian polemicists judged Muhammad by Christian criteria for prophecy
#expands(0.93) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 394 - Christian polemicists measured Muhammad against Hebrew prophecy criteria he was not claiming to meet
#expands(0.92) - Medieval Christian polemicists investigated Muhammad’s claims carefully rather than dismissing them
#contradicts(0.90) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 187 - Even moderate medieval Christian writers distorted Muhammad by cherry-picking facts
#expands(0.85) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1354 - Later polemicists distorted early scholarly accounts of Islam for propaganda purposes
#expands(0.72) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 1208