Did Prophet Muhammad really believe what he said is the word of God?

Question

I want to make a disclaimer first. I am not a follower of Islam or any other religion for that matter. I like to maintain a neutral perspective. I've been reading this book No God but God by Reza Aslan. And it's my first time reading about Islam in this depth.

What I've come to understand is that whatever prophet preached as a socio-economic model for the Ummah were the demand of the contemporary society. What I mean is, the group of followers that Prophet had accumulated in the city of Yathrib, later known as Medina contained poor as well as rich. It made sense for the rich to help the poor. So, prophet established that the fulfilled ones donate zakat to be given to the poor.

Also prophet allowed the men in his community to take as many women and their children as they could provide/feed for which made sense especially because women were widowed after tribal wars they had to participate in during the growing period.

Now, what concerns me is not that the Prophet appear to be preaching what seemed most rational thing to do given the circumstances. I am concerned about the people believing in his words as the word of the God and not just as that of a good leader of the community. Did Prophet really believe what he said were the voices of God? Did it actually matter whether he thought they were voices of God or just his own rational decisions on the circumstances at hand?

I have few more question along the same line. But don't want to make this question too vague.

Answer 1

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: I do not have and islamic degree, but I practice islam and read about it every day. I see you have some questions you seek an answer to them. Thats wonderful, because thinking & wondering about the; universe, things, truths, etc... is the most skill that Al Quran urge people for it.

But, I see you have some misunderstanding in your questions:

Did Prophet really believe what he said were the voices of God? Did it actually matter whether he thought they were voices of God or just his own rational decisions on the circumstances at hand?

First of all: they were 'words' from Allah not the 'voice' of Allah himself.

[You need to understand the process of revelation] I can shorted here: Prophet Muhammad does not hear Allah's voice, neither some Prophets except Moses! Mohammad hear the angel messenger of Allah (which was the angel Gabriel) (We refer to him as the Holy Spirit). And Gabriel tells Muhammad about the words of Allah, and what decisions should he take. And that words become actions that benefit the humans and become 'Al Quran' (also some become 'Hadith Qudsi' I don't mean 'Prophetic Hadith').

Therefore Mohammad heard Gabriel voice that tell him about Allah words.

And yes for us as muslims, we believe that our prophet Mohammad believe in Allah and all his Angels, previous Prophets, previous books. And yes we believe that decisions Muhammad take, was from Allah himself 'through revelation process', not a decisions based on circumstances by human mind.

Also I advice you to read from different sources. Do not let your information build on one source or on one islamic sect knowledge. Because (unfortunately) we become many sects and some sect think they are on the right path and other are on the wrong path, so they rampage on others and kill them as you saw in the media (or as you may be read in the history of islamic nation)! and that people worshiping the devil (without noticing), not Allah.

Enjoyable reading in Islam btw

Answer 2

The Islamic tradition has two parts

1. Quran
2. Hadith

Only the Quran is considered the word of Allah.

Hadith is the word of the Prophet (pbuh) which would include interpretation of the Quran, general wisdom or clarifications etc

When the Quran was revealed to the Prophet ( pbuh ), he would get into a specific state. Everybody around him knew that was not the regular way the Prophet(pbuh) spoke. What was revealed was not even regular Arabic spoken at the time. It was highly eloquent and poetic.

Besides that there was information in those revelations that the Prophet(phuh) could not have possibly known and in many cases this revelation corrected a lot of information.

For example: The story of the birth of Jesus (pbuh) to virgin Mary (ra). It begs the question how a single mother survived a very conservative Jewish society?

Jewish law calls for stoning of any fornicator. When the community around Mary (ra) came to ask her whose child it is, the infant child spoke to protect his mother. This miracle is not part of the Christian scriptures but in the Quran it is logically placed to show how virgin Mary(ra) survived a conservative Jewish society.

Another example: The story of the sleepers in the cave (surah kahf). That story was from another society that could not have possibly mingled with the Arabs at the time. It had the information about a dog. The dog was the reason why people stayed away from the cave for 300 years and the youths were able to sleep 300 years undisturbed. This was not part of any narration of the story.

Because of information like this and much more discovered in todays age ( like big bang theory or water cycle or embryology ), it is the word of Allah.