The Prophet as Puppet: How Empire Forged Muhammad's Legacy

Introduction: When Silence Speaks Louder Than Revelation

In the centuries following Muhammad's reported death in 632 CE, something extraordinary happened. A man who, by all traditional Islamic accounts, was the seal of the prophets, a divine legislator, and the moral archetype of humankind, suddenly became the central authority in every domain of Islamic life. He dictated law, ethics, governance, even toilet etiquette. And yet, in the decades immediately after his death, he is conspicuously absent from the public record. No inscriptions. No coins. No biographies. No sayings. The silence is deafening.

This article argues that Muhammad's persona, as known today, was not faithfully transmitted but politically constructed. It was caliphs—particularly under the Abbasid regime—who posthumously turned Muhammad into a divine rubber stamp, issuing retroactive approvals for their laws, wars, and rule. This was not religious continuity. It was imperial engineering.

📜 1. The Silent Prophet of Early Islam

From 632 to the late 7th century, Muhammad's name is startlingly rare in official records. No Arab inscriptions venerate him. No Roman or Persian chroniclers describe him as a prophet. Coins issued by early caliphs mimic Byzantine and Sasanian styles, featuring Zoroastrian fire altars and imperial iconography—not a trace of Muhammad.

Even the Dome of the Rock (691 CE), one of Islam's earliest monuments, quotes Qur'anic passages but says nothing of Muhammad's life, miracles, or teachings. The early Qur'anic manuscripts are similarly skeletal, lacking diacritics, vowels, and explanatory commentary. No hadiths. No sīrah (biography). No rituals traced to him.

This historical silence speaks volumes. If Muhammad had truly reshaped theology and governance in Arabia, why is there no trace of his legacy in the decades that followed? The most plausible explanation is that the detailed persona of Muhammad had not yet been constructed. He was not remembered; he was retrofitted.

🗡️ 2. From Prophet to Political Tool

The Abbasid revolution of 750 CE marked a turning point. To justify their overthrow of the Umayyads and legitimize their own rule, the Abbasids needed a divine anchor. That anchor became Muhammad—not the elusive historical figure, but the oracle-like authority of hadith.

Suddenly, thousands of sayings emerged, attributed to the Prophet:

• How to dress, wash, eat, and pray

• How rulers should govern

• Who was deviant and who was righteous

Many of these hadiths were suspiciously convenient. For example:

• "The caliphate shall remain among the Quraysh."

• "Obey the ruler, even if he beats your back and takes your wealth."

These were not preserved memories; they were political retro-prophecies. They transformed political dissent into theological heresy. Disobey the caliph? You defy the Prophet. Challenge the state? You blaspheme.

⚖️ 3. Legal Absolutism Through Muhammad’s Voice

The Abbasids institutionalized hadith as the foundation of Sharia. Through Muhammad’s voice, they now defined:

• Tax codes (zakat, jizya, kharaj)

• Warfare, slavery, and booty distribution

• Marriage, divorce, and inheritance

• Criminal punishments (hudud)

These laws often postdated Muhammad by over a century. But once attached to his name, they became sacrosanct. Caliphs could implement a new policy, and within days, a hadith would "surface" affirming that Muhammad had endorsed it 120 years earlier.

This was not prophetic tradition. It was theological laundering.

🧠 4. Silencing Rationalism, Enshrining Myth

Rationalist scholars like the Mu‘tazilites challenged this prophetic absolutism. They promoted reason and ethical inquiry over blind tradition. But the caliphs suppressed them, branding them heretics and promoting hadiths like:

"Every innovation (bid‘ah) is misguidance—and every misguidance leads to the Fire."

Thus, dissent became deviance. Innovation became sin. The Prophet’s supposed authority crushed intellectual inquiry and consolidated authoritarian rule.

🧳 5. The Isnād Hoax: Forging Chains of Authority

To mask their fabrication, Islamic scholars invented the isnād system—a chain of narrators linking each hadith back to Muhammad. But these chains crumble under scrutiny:

• Narrators were often separated by generations

• Many were known fabricators or political loyalists

• Contradictory hadiths abound on nearly every issue

Despite later efforts to sift "authentic" hadiths, the selection was governed by imperial orthodoxy. Only those sayings that reinforced state control and religious conformity survived.

🏪 6. Muhammad as a Totalizing Template

By the 9th century, Muhammad had become the archetype for every domain of life. His behavior dictated:

• Sexual etiquette

• Trade practices

• Military conduct

• Hygiene rituals

This turned Islam into a closed system. Any deviation could be denounced as a betrayal of Muhammad’s "perfect example."

But this perfection was engineered. The Prophet's image was not preserved. It was programmed.

🧩 7. Historical Absence, Political Presence

The contrast is jarring:

Early Evidence	Abbasid-Era Hadiths
No biography of Muhammad	Hundreds of volumes of sīrah
No rituals attributed to him	Detailed rules from hadith
No prophetic sayings recorded	Thousands of attributed hadith

This transformation didn’t occur through reverent memory. It happened through political necessity.

🖜 Conclusion: Echoes of a Fabricated Voice

The Muhammad known today was sculpted not in the sands of 7th-century Arabia, but in the courts of Abbasid Baghdad. He was not a remembered teacher. He was a posthumous puppet, invoked to bless conquest, suppress dissent, and canonize empire.

Just as Roman emperors deified Caesar and Chinese dynasties claimed Heaven’s Mandate, the caliphs needed their own divine mandate. Muhammad became that mandate. A prophet retrofitted to justify imperial rule.

The tragedy is not just historical. It is ongoing. Millions still live under laws, traditions, and ideologies rooted in the manufactured sayings of a manufactured Prophet. The voice that echoes in mosques and courtrooms today is not the voice of history. It is the voice of empire.

Key Takeaways:

🔹 Muhammad is absent from coins, inscriptions, and legal codes for over 50 years after his death 🔹 His detailed persona emerges only when politically expedient under Abbasid rule 🔹 Hadiths were forged to support legal and theological absolutism 🔹 Rationalism was crushed in favor of dogmatic obedience 🔹 The Prophet's image was engineered to serve empire, not truth

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References ):

• Patricia Crone and Michael Cook, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World

• John Wansbrough, Qur’anic Studies

• Fred Donner, Narratives of Islamic Origins

• Yehuda Nevo and Judith Koren, Crossroads to Islam

• Robert Hoyland, Seeing Islam as Others Saw It