A PROFILE OF THE PROPHET: published in The Globe and Mail on February 11, 2006.

The outrage sparked by the controversial cartoons published in Denmark has led many around the world to realize just how tenuous their grasp of Islam really is. To help fill the gap, Middle East specialist PAUL WILLIAM ROBERTS tells the story of Mohammed and why it means so much to the Muslim faithful

PAUL WILLIAM ROBERTS

Mecca sits in a barren valley between two ranges of steep hills in the west of what is now Saudi Arabia. Immediately to its west lies the bleak and blistering Red Sea coast; to the east stretches the vast Rub' al-Khali, or Empty Quarter -- the largest continuous body of sand on Earth.

The setting is forbidding: The ground is hot, dry and dusty, the horizon wobbles under a relentless sun; the entire region is scrubbed by searing desert winds. Years can pass without rainfall, but when rain does come it is often torrential, with flash floods that stream out of the hills and drown the basin in which the city lies.

As a backdrop for divine revelation, the place has much in common with the mountains of Sinai and the deserts of Judea, and is thus a fitting birthplace for the Prophet of Islam, the man at the centre of this current storm, the man depicted in those notorious Danish cartoons that in no way represent the faith followed by more than one billion human beings.

I trample under my feet all distinctions between man and man, all hatred between man and man. -- Mohammed, upon conquering Mecca

One thing is certain, Mohammed himself would probably have found the cartoons amusing, for we are told that he had a great sense of humour. We also know what his suggested response to this insult would have been: Let Muslim newspapers print cartoons showing Danish cartoonists' ignorance of our religion. For the ethics of Islam are based on "limits and proportions," and prescribe something approximating an eye for an eye when it comes to retribution.

Fear and ignorance are a deadly combination, however, and it is our ignorance of Islam in this case that fans the embers of fear that have been smouldering in the ruins of the World Trade Center ever since it was demolished. We need to know what our fellow citizens believe, and it's amazing that our schools do not offer a mandatory course in the principal beliefs of Canada ("principal" being defined by the number of followers, perhaps).

Only those who want there to be a clash of civilizations could possibly oppose such an idea, which can be rationalized even to atheists on the grounds that ideas don't have to be true to be influential. The future harmony of our society depends on our ability to understand and respect one another.

In the interests of reducing ignorance, here is an account of the Prophet Mohammed that is as familiar to most Muslims as the story of Jesus Christ is to the majority of Canadians. Those who will say their prayers in a church tomorrow must realize that a devout Muslim will have already attended mosque about 30 times this week, and will do so a few times more before it is over.

Like the story of Jesus, the only real source of historical information about pre-Islamic Mecca, the circumstances of the Koran's revelation and Mohammed's life is the classical scriptural story about Islam's founding, from which what follows has been distilled.

If any religion has a chance of ruling over England, say, or Europe, within the next 100 years, it is Islam.-- George Bernard Shaw

Before Islam arrived, Mecca was already a religious centre devoted to various pagan deities. The rites performed there revolved around the Ka'ba, a stone shrine that Muslims believe was originally built by the Prophet Ibrahim (revered by Christians and Jews as Abraham) and his son Isma'il (Ishmael).

Perhaps because of the spice traders' caravans that passed through, Mecca became increasingly prosperous during the sixth century and, in the newly cosmopolitan atmosphere that accompanied this prosperity, pagan idols of varying sizes and shapes proliferated. Tradition tells us that by the early seventh century the Ka'ba was ringed by a pantheon of about 360 statues and icons. Inside it, among numerous other objects of worship, there were idols of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.

This was the background against which the first instalments of the Koran are said to have been revealed, in 610, to an affluent but disaffected merchant named Mohammed bin Abdullah, who, along with many other virtues, possessed a reputation for never lying. This sterling character had attracted the attention of a wealthy widow about 15 years his senior, who married him after he had managed her trading business for some time.

Mohammed became increasingly distressed by the state of society and developed the habit of periodically withdrawing from Mecca's pagan squalor to a cave on a nearby mountain known as Hira', where he would meditate alone.

During one of these retreats, he was visited by Gabriel, the very same angel who, about 600 years earlier, had announced the coming of Jesus to the Virgin Mary in Nazareth. With the command "recite," Gabriel proceeded to tell Mohammed in Arabic that he was to serve as the Messenger of God.

Subsequently, until his death, Mohammed received through Gabriel divine revelations known as qur'an ("recitation") that announced, initially in a highly poetic and rhetorical style, a new and uncompromising brand of monotheism known as Islam, or "submission" (to God's will). Mohammed, who supposedly was illiterate, reported these revelations verbatim to sympathetic family members and friends, who either memorized them or wrote them down.

The Meccan oligarchy, wary of teachings that undermined the pagan core of its city's cultural and economic life, soon began to persecute Mohammed and his small group of devoted followers. As a result, in 622, they migrated about 320 kilometres north to a town called Yathrib, which some time later became known as Medina (an abbreviation for Medinat al-Nabi, or City of the Prophet). Some accounts say he was invited to be ruler there.

This migration is known as the hijra, and it is viewed as the birth of an independent Islamic community. It was at this point, too, that Mohammed told his followers to face Mecca when they prayed, rather than Jerusalem as they had formerly done. Thus, 622 is Year One in the first century of Islamic time, where it's currently about 1384, measured in years since the hijra.

In Medina, one of Mohammed's first acts was to guarantee the Jews freedom of worship -- perhaps believing they would convert to Islam, since he subsequently turned against them. He continued to receive divine revelations, which became increasingly pragmatic and prosaic in nature, and by 630 he had garnered sufficient support within the Medinan community to attack and conquer Mecca. The last two years of his life were spent proselytizing, consolidating political power, and continuing to receive revelations from Allah.

The last sermon of the Prophet is known as Khutbatul Wada', and was given in front of a large gathering of people during Haj in Mecca. It is worth quoting extensively since it is almost a quintessence of Islam, as central to the faith as the Sermon on the Mount is to Christianity: "O people . . . listen to what I am saying to you very carefully and take these words to those who could not be present here today.

"Just as you regard this month, this day, this city as sacred, so regard the life and property of every Muslim as a sacred trust. Return the goods entrusted to you to their rightful owners. Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you. Remember that you will indeed meet your Lord, and that He will indeed reckon your deeds. Allah has forbidden you to take usury; therefore all interest obligation shall henceforth be waived. Your capital, however, is yours to keep. You will neither inflict nor suffer any inequity . . .

"Beware of Satan for the safety of your religion. He has lost all hope that he will ever be able to lead you astray in big things, so beware of following him in small things.

"It is true that you have certain rights in regard to your women, but they also have rights over you. Remember that you have taken them as your wives, only under Allah's trust and with His permission. If they abide by your right, then to them belongs the right to be fed and clothed in kindness. Do treat your women well and be kind to them, for they are your partners and committed helpers. And it is your right that they not make friends with anyone you do not approve, and never be unchaste.

"O people, listen to me in earnest, worship Allah, say your five daily prayers, fast during the month of Ramadan, and give your wealth in Zakat [charity]. Perform Hajj [pilgrimage to Mecca] if you can.

"All mankind is from Adam and Eve, an Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab; also a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white -- except by piety and good action. Learn that every Muslim is a brother to every Muslim and that the Muslims constitute one brotherhood. Nothing shall be legitimate to a Muslim which belongs to a fellow Muslim unless it was given freely and willingly. Do not therefore, do injustice to yourselves. Remember one day you will appear before Allah and answer for your deeds. So beware, do not stray from the path of righteousness after I am gone. People, no prophet or apostle will come after me and no new faith will be born.

"Reason well therefore, O people, and understand the words which I convey to you. I leave behind me two things, the Koran and the sunna [Islamic customs] and, if you follow these, you will never go astray."

Islamic tradition tells us that, when Mohammed died in 632, the Koranic revelations had not yet been gathered into a single book; they were recorded only "on palm leaves and flat stones and in the hearts of men." The oral tradition was strong and well established, and Arabic script, written without the vowel markings and consonantal dots used today, served mainly as an aid to memorization.

These were also heady years for the Medinan Arabs, and the creation of such a text was not their primary concern. An unlikely coalition of ex-merchants, desert nomads, and agriculturalists united under the banner of a potent new faith and inspired by the life and sayings of Prophet Mohammed, they were at the time engaged in an extraordinarily successful series of international conquests.

By the mid-640s, Arabs possessed most of Syria, Iraq, Persia and Egypt; 30 years later, they held parts of Europe, North Africa and Central Asia. The faith did not evolve; it exploded on to the world's stage.

During the warfare that took up Islam's first decades, many members of Mohammed's immediate family and closest followers were killed, and with them died valuable knowledge of the Koranic revelations. Muslims at the edges of the empire began to argue over what was scripture and what was not.

A general returning from leading Muslim troops in Azerbaijan expressed his fears about the dangers of sectarian controversy to the Caliph 'Uthman (644-656) -- who was the third Islamic ruler to succeed Mohammed -- and is said to have importuned him to "overtake this people before they differ over the Koran the way the Jews and Christians differ over their Scripture."

'Uthman convened a kind of editorial committee that meticulously gathered up the various pieces of scripture that over the years had been memorized or written down by Mohammed's companions. The result was a standard written version of the Koran. 'Uthman ordered all incomplete and "imperfect" collections of the Koranic scripture destroyed, and this new version was quickly distributed to all the major centres in what was one of history's fastest-growing empires.

Someone has said Europeans in South Africa dread the advent of Islam . . . If it is equality of coloured races, their dread is well founded. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Over the next few centuries, Islam solidified as a religious and political entity, and a vast body of exegetical and historical literature evolved to explain the Koran and the rise of its religion. The most important elements of this are hadith (the sayings and deeds), sunna (the body of Islamic social and legal custom), sira (biographies of the Prophet), and tafsir (Koranic commentary and explication). It is from these traditional sources -- which were compiled in written form mostly from the mid-eighth to the mid-10th century -- that all accounts of the revelation of the Koran and the early years of Islam are ultimately derived.

This is very similar to the development of Christianity. But where Islam differs drastically from the earlier religion is that it kept all accounts of Mohammed's life within the main body of scripture. There are numerous other Christian gospels, including an Arabic Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus, but because these reflect a very different image of Christ -- in one, he kills a boy who makes fun of him -- the church excluded them.

Most significant of all, however, is the difference of focus. Christians made Jesus the centre, a divinity, whereas Muslims, while they revere Mohammed, reserve their piety for the teaching revealed to him in the Koran, which is regarded as the direct word of God, and thus sacred. It can be interpreted but not tampered with. By contrast, additions were being made to the New Testament as late as the Middle Ages.

Roughly the same length as the New Testament, the Koran is divided into 114 sections, or suras, that vary quite considerably in length and form. For Westerners, one of the book's more puzzling features is an organizing principle that is neither chronological nor thematic -- for the most part, the suras are arranged from beginning to end in descending order of length.

The other big surprise awaiting newcomers to the Koran is the degree to which it draws on the same beliefs and stories that appear in the Bible. Where the Torah has several different names, some of them plurals, that are only translated as "God" in English, and the New Testament has Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the Koran has only Allah, who rules supreme, an all-powerful, all-knowing and all-merciful entity who has created the universe and everything in it. He sends messages and laws through prophets to help guide human existence; and, at a time in the future known only to him, he will bring about the end of the world and the Day of Judgment.

Adam, the first man, is expelled from Paradise for eating from the forbidden tree. Noah builds an ark to save a select few from a flood brought on by the wrath of Allah. Abraham prepares himself to sacrifice his son at Allah's bidding. Moses leads the Israelites out of Egypt and receives a revelation on Mount Sinai. Jesus is born of the Virgin Mary (the actual birth is described in a passage of immense, sensual beauty) referred to as the Messiah, works miracles, has disciples and rises to heaven. It is all far more familiar than outsiders may imagine.

The Koran goes out of its way to stress this common monotheistic heritage, but it also toils equally assiduously to distinguish Islam from Judaism and Christianity. It mentions prophets, for example -- Hud, Salih, Shu'ayb, Luqman, and others -- whose origins seem exclusively Arabian, and it points out to readers that it is "a Koran in Arabic for people who understand."

Despite its repeated assertions to the contrary, however, the Koran is often extremely difficult for contemporary readers to understand. Even highly educated speakers of Arabic find about a fifth of it incomprehensible. It sometimes makes dramatic shifts in style, voice, and subject matter from verse to verse, and it assumes a familiarity with language, stories, and events that seem to have been lost even to the earliest of Muslim exegetes -- all of which is typical of a text that initially evolved in an oral tradition.

In the original Greek, the New Testament would be similarly problematic, and is written without chapters or verses, without punctuation, and even without spaces between words. The two different gospel accounts of Jesus's birth alone show the level of inconsistency to be found throughout the text, which most Christians know from a conflation in stories told by priests.

The Koran's apparent inconsistencies are also easy to find: God may be referred to in the first and third person in the same sentence; divergent versions of the same story are repeated at different points in the text; divine rulings occasionally contradict one another. But the Koran anticipates criticism and, in this last case, defends itself by asserting the right to abrogate its own message ("God doth blot out, or confirm, what He pleaseth").

Muslim scholars rightly point out that the Western enterprise of "Koranic studies" has largely been Orientalist in nature, frequently drawing from sources and scholars who are openly hostile to Islam. Nonetheless, there are still Muslim scholars who want to apply the techniques of modern science to the study of the Koran, and indeed there were originally two schools of thought regarding the text, one of which regarded it as flawed like anything else created over time.

Before these Danish cartoonists, perhaps the best-known insulter of Mohammed was Salman Rushdie. And here, too, it's necessary to know something about Islam to comprehend fully the anger The Satanic Verses caused among many Muslims. Its title in Arabic, for example, could be translated as The Satanic Koran, and its central theme, the position of doubt in faith, is a far more contentious issue in Islam than it is in Judeo-Christianity. Doubt is basically forbidden to Muslims, viewed as a sin, whereas Christians regard it as a necessary concomitant to belief.

The author also mimics passages in the Koran where the text boasts of its inimitability, and in effect is challenging Allah by offering a different version of the Koran in the novel. Mr. Rushdie was well aware of how offensive the book would be to devout Muslims, although he rarely mentioned this when protesting his right to free speech.

As for the cartoons, the objection -- as summed up by Tariq Ramadan, a member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood who is also somehow adviser to the British Home Secretary -- was twofold: Islam prohibits any depiction of any of its prophets, and the Muslim world is not accustomed to laughing at religion.

Neither objection is necessarily the case. As Iranian writer Amir Taheri pointed out in The Wall Street Journal, "There is no Quranic injunction against images, whether of Mohammed or anyone else. When it spread into the Levant, Islam came into contact with a version of Christianity that was militantly iconoclastic.

"As a result, some Muslim theologians . . . issued 'fatwas' against any depiction of the Godhead. That position was further buttressed by the fact that Islam acknowledges the Jewish Ten Commandments -- which include a ban on depicting God -- as part of its heritage.

"The issue," he continued, "has never been decided one way or another, and the claim that a ban on images is 'an absolute principle of Islam' is purely political. Islam has only one absolute principle: the oneness of God. Trying to invent other absolutes is, from the point of view of Islamic theology, nothing but sherk, i.e., the bestowal on the Many of the attributes of the One."

Which is why there are numerous paintings of Mohammed, many of them commissioned by Muslim rulers and currently on display in museums within the Muslim world. There also are, though far fewer, sculptures, many of these by contemporary Iranian or Arab artists. One is in the U.S. Supreme Court building, where Mohammed is among humanity's great lawgivers.

The misperception of Islam as humourless and dour, not to mention intolerant and violent, has much to do with Wahhabite sectarians, who share in Saudi Arabia's oil wealth and whose version of Islam, based on the teachings of 18th-century fundamentalist preacher Wahhab, who viewed himself as Mohammed's second coming, is regarded by many to be heretical.

The flood of petro-dollars permitted Wahhabi clerics to gain a stranglehold on Islam worldwide, through a vast network of free schools and new mosques, a story well told in Stephen Schwartz's book, The Two Faces of Islam.

That Saudi Arabia, arguably the most repressive society left on Earth, remains a close U.S. ally is a phenomenon that history will judge harshly -- and Islam most harshly of all, for it has taken the brunt of the fallout.

In reacting to the outrage over the cartoons, it helps to remember there was a time when Islam represented the most civilizing force on Earth. Europe was still a dark, barbaric wasteland when the followers of Mohammed conquered Spain, bringing with them music, science, architecture and a literature that included all the treasures of the ancient Greco-Roman world. Without these, there would have been no Renaissance, and today's world might look very different.

No doubt, a millennium ago, some railed against Arab civilization, including the nascent church, which viewed Mohammed as the anti-Christ. Now, the tables are turned, and Islam is having a hard time adjusting to the values of the West, which in some ways resembles Islamic descriptions of a depraved, corrupt End Time.

If outsiders practised the fairness they preach, they would attempt to be a little more understanding, if only because history has a way of repeating itself. Like Jesus and ancient Jewish scholar Hillel, Mohammed urged his people to treat others the way they would like others to treat them. If everyone could remember this part of their common heritage, we would all be so much better off.