This study will look at the sects named in the Qur'ān to demonstrate that what the Muslim holy book describes as “Islam,” a verbal activity which - along with the higher grade of “faith” (īmān) - is a general action engaged in by existing religious communities to which the Qur’ān was orated, rather than being set forth as a new religion. A major problem in unpacking what the Qur’ān means by “Islam,” in the relatively few times that it is mentioned, is that this general term for “obedience” or “submission” to God, was not used in relation to any one specific community in the passages where it appears. One way to decipher its meaning then, is to take a critical and contextual look at those historical groups named in the Qur’ānic audience. This study, therefore, endeavors to understand more about the activity of Muhammad ibn `Abd’ullāh (ca. 570/571 – 632 CE), and the meaning of “Islam,” by reviewing the historical sources on the religious groups specifically named in the Qur’ān, in order to establish the context of the Qur’ān, and thereby more appropriately elucidate its intended meaning to its original audience.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Thesis Statement and Introduction

I. How Historical Jesus Research Can Help Us Assess the Historical Religious Milieu of the Qur’an and Muhammad’s Islam
The Historical-Critical “Quest”
The Methodology for Assessing Probability Regarding the Qur’ānic Religious Milieu

II. The Traditionalist and Revisionist Scholarship on Islam
Revisionist Methodologies
Modern Analysis of the Hadith Literature
John Wansbrough and the Sectarian Milieu
Criticism of Wansbrough

III. The Religious Milieu of the Qur’ānic Audience
Polemic Translations of “Those Who Turn” as “Jews”
Various Sectarian Expressions of Judaism
Hasmonean Dynastic Origins
The Ḥimyarite Empire of Yemen as It Relates To Islamic Origins
The Emergence of Pharisees
The Essenes “in every town”
Jewish Sects After The Fall of Jerusalem and into Late Antiquity
The Sabians (Sābi’ūna Hunafā’)
The Identity of the Qur’ānic Nazarenes: A Broken Off Branch
People of the Gospel
Nazarenes and the Virgin Birth
Qur’ānic Designations Regarding Nazarenes as Quasi-Jewish and Hebraic
Who Were the Qur’ānic Mushrikīn?

IV. Chapter 4: What Did Muhammad Mean by Islam?
How the Constitution of Medina can help us understand Muhammad’s Islam
Conclusion

V. Endnotes

VI. Bibliography

Review from Amazon

This is, without question, one of the most important pieces of work ever contributed to the study of the Historical Muhammad, and not only because it provides a little-utilized approach to the study of the man and the environment in which he grew and exerted his influence as one of the most pivotal individuals in mankind's history, but also because the ramifications of this book are potentially VERY far reaching. Anyone interested in World Peace, and in gaining a deeper understanding of what it will truly take to bring about TRULY long-lasting harmony between three of the most influential sociological forces - namely the three Abrahamic faiths - and provide an integral stepping stone towards a brighter future will do well to read this book. Again, VERY timely work in troubled times like this. - Steve Sabar

This topic has been a subject of great interest to me for as long as I can remember, but with one nagging pitfall to that interest: How could one reconcile the Muhammad that a quarter of the world's population hold in such profoundly high esteem as the peak of human spiritual achievement, and the Muhammad that polemicists often painted for the world: A war-criminal, slave-monger, paedophile; BOTH sides ironically using the very same "Seerah" sources to support their own projections of Muhammad and refute the other side.

It was with this desire at heart that I followed with great interest the author's Google-group and Facebook posts on the progress of his research through the years, and whilst he shared very generously, nothing prepared me for the depth he delved into while preparing this crucially important work for his Master's Thesis when I finally got my hand on it. First thing I gleamed was the notion that approaching the topic with the "What Really Happened"-biases of both propagandists and polemicists does little justice not only to the man himself, but to a SERIOUS discussion of the subject of Islamic origins, and that instead, it is far more productive to approach this subject matter as a study of "Probabilities".

This is made all the more important when dealing with a personage about whom most of the accounts first began existing over a century after his death. Fortunately, as he points out - and in what I think is the most significant part of his approach - there IS a precedence, a formula, that was developed in the span of decades of academic work, namely Jesus Historical Research. Mysteriously, this method was almost never (fully) employed in the study of Muhammad, and I finally understood that it is this that lies at the heart of so much conflicting information - even BI-POLAR depictions - of the man if one was to rely purely on anecdotal narratives instead of the two-pronged method of studying the audience groups the Qur'an was addressing, using the formula of JHR as the model of research.

What emerges out of this endeavor is likely one of the most important steps in bringing about a much-needed Peace between the mostly estranged adherents of the Abrahamic faiths and perhaps, most pivotally, between those of Islam and Judaism.

Isaac, and Ishmael have both returned - I firmly believe - in the very pages of this book, both smiling broadly, and inviting their respective lines to give every single page of this extremely important work their full attention.

This is not a recommendation… It is an appeal to read this book. I think it's time was long over-due. - Arman

Have you ever wondered what the Qur'an means when it mentions other religious groups, how to interact with these groups and over all why does it mention them. If you are such a person than this book is a must read, it is written for the layman as well as the scholar. You will have a greater under standing of the Qur'an and Islam as a whole after reading this book. - Matthew L.

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