The Irony of Muhammad as the “Best of Mankind” versus the Miraculous Claims of His Birth

By Dr. Maxwell Shimba
Shimba Theological Institute

Islamic tradition has long advanced the claim that Prophet Muhammad was the “best of mankind” (Arabic: khayr al-bashar), a title highly revered among Muslims. However, a critical and historical analysis of early Islamic sources reveals an irony: the Qur’an itself never explicitly declares Muhammad to be the “best of mankind” nor the “greatest creation” of Allah. Instead, this claim emerges in later hadith and sira traditions, often embellished with dramatic miraculous narratives that strain historical plausibility and theological consistency.

Miraculous Fabrications at the Birth of Muhammad

Several traditions ascribed to early Islamic historians such as Ibn Hisham and al-Tabari describe extraordinary occurrences at the birth of Muhammad, including:

1. Muhammad was allegedly born circumcised and with natural eye-liner.¹

2. A physical mark, the so-called seal of prophethood, appeared on his shoulder.²

3. Most notably, a bright light is reported to have shone from his mother Amina’s birth canal, illuminating palaces in Syria at the very moment of his birth.³

4. The light allegedly extinguished a thousand-year-old Zoroastrian sacred fire in Persia.⁴

These traditions, upon scrutiny, present insurmountable geographical and logical difficulties. For instance, the distance from Mecca to Syria is approximately 1,974.7 km (via Route 328), while the fire temple in Persia would be over 2,434 km away. The notion that a localized biological light source could traverse such distances defies both physical reality and theological reason.

Critical Questions

1. How can a vaginal light, naturally directed downward, travel nearly 2,000 km to illuminate Syrian palaces?

2. By what mechanism could this light extinguish a sacred fire over 2,400 km away?

3. How does a single light simultaneously illuminate and extinguish, with contradictory physical effects, at such vast distances?

These fabrications appear more as apologetic embellishments than historical events. Their function was likely to confer cosmic significance upon Muhammad’s birth, but they stand in stark contrast to the absence of such accounts in the Qur’an itself.

Comparative Parallels with Christianity

A pattern emerges when comparing these narratives with the life of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels. Islamic tradition often mirrors, or arguably borrows from, Christian accounts:

1. Triumphal Entry: Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey (Matthew 21:5–7). By contrast, Islamic tradition describes Muhammad’s Isra and Mi’raj journey on the winged creature Buraq, sometimes confused in popular accounts with a donkey named Ya’fur.

2. Light Motif: Jesus declares, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). In Islamic tradition, Muhammad’s mother is said to emit light at his birth—an apparent narrative borrowing to assign him similar messianic significance.

3. Sinlessness: The New Testament affirms Jesus as sinless (Hebrews 4:15). Islam, however, presents Muhammad undergoing an angelic “purification” ritual where Jibril opens his chest and washes his heart with Zamzam water (Sahih al-Bukhari 3207), implying inherent impurity in contrast to Christ.

4. Ascension: Jesus truly resurrected and ascended to heaven (Acts 1:9–11). Muhammad, by contrast, claimed a visionary night journey and ascension (Qur’an 17:1; Hadith), later embellished with meetings with earlier prophets.

5. Defeat of Death: Jesus rose on the third day, conquering death (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). Muhammad, however, was left unburied for three days, and early Islamic sources acknowledge his body began to decompose.⁵

Conclusion

The irony lies in the contrast between the Qur’an’s silence regarding Muhammad as the “best of mankind” and the later proliferation of legendary narratives intended to elevate his prophetic stature. These accounts—such as the “birth canal light” illuminating Syria and extinguishing fires in Persia—lack historical credibility and reveal a pattern of myth-making in Islam’s formative centuries.

By contrast, the New Testament provides coherent, historically anchored accounts of Christ’s uniqueness—His sinlessness, divine identity, resurrection, and ascension—without reliance on implausible physical phenomena. For this reason, the Christian claim to salvation through Jesus Christ remains unparalleled and historically grounded, while legendary fabrications surrounding Muhammad continue to underscore the fragility of his constructed prophetic image.

Salvation, therefore, is found not in fabricated lights or mythical journeys, but in the true Light of the World—Jesus Christ (John 8:12).

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References

1. Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah, ed. Wüstenfeld, p. 166.

2. Sahih Muslim, Book 30, Hadith 5790.

3. Ibn Hisham, Sirat Rasul Allah, p. 166.

4. Al-Tabari, Tarikh al-Rusul wa’l-Muluk, Vol. 2.

5. Ibn Sa’d, Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir, Vol. 2, pp. 263–264 (reporting early decomposition of Muhammad’s body).

6. The Holy Bible, John 8:12; Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 21:5–7; Acts 1:9–11; 1 Corinthians 15:3–4.

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