A seventh-century life. Questions worth asking.
Who was Muhammad,
and what does the evidence support?
Explore the history. Understand Muslim belief. Examine the Qur’an, the claims and the questions that remain.
For Muslims, non-Muslims, sceptics and anyone willing to ask.
The inquiry, in three lenses
Begin with curiosity.
Continue with care.
You do not need a settled belief to begin. You need a question, a source and a willingness to look more closely.
Understand the history.
Arabia, the early community and the distance between an event and its surviving account.
↗02 / EVIDENCEExamine the claims.
The Qur’an, transmitted reports and material evidence. What does each source establish?
↗03 / PERSPECTIVEExplore belief and doubt.
Muslim understandings, serious objections and the questions that do not have easy answers.
↗Plan your reading
Ramadan, around the world.
Explore the meaning of the month, with expected dates for 2027 and 2028 and guidance on local differences.
Planning dates, not a worldwide religious announcement.
Six starting questions
Follow the question.
Start with a short answer. Stay for the explanation, the sources and the limits.
Did Muhammad exist?
Separate a historical person from the claims made about him.
What do the earliest sources say?
Read manuscripts, reports and early witnesses on their own terms.
What did Muhammad teach?
Explore God, worship, justice and human responsibility.
Who did Muhammad claim to be?
A human messenger. A claim to revelation. A question of authority.
What happened at the end?
The final years, the community and the question of succession.
Is the Qur’an from God?
Hear the Muslim arguments, serious objections and the limits of proof.
Read · Search · Compare
Before the answer,
read the passage.
Explore all 114 surahs in Arabic and English. Find a reference, follow a theme, or give a single passage your full attention.
Open the Qur’an reader Search by word or reference ↗ٱهْدِنَا ٱلصِّرَٰطَ ٱلْمُسْتَقِيمَ
Show us the straight path,
Marmaduke Pickthall, 1930
Arabic: Tanzil Project · Uthmani text
A translation is an interpretation of meaning.
Explained from a Muslim perspective
Islam, faith
and meaning.
Why send a messenger? What is revelation? How do mercy, responsibility and ordinary life fit together?
Seventeen questions, with short answers, fuller explanations and a clear distinction between belief and historical evidence.
Read or print the complete collection ↗Deeper questions
Make room for the difficult.
Power, conflicting accounts and the reliability of memory. Take the questions seriously.
Research essay · 01
When faith is used to harm
Islam, power and responsibility: read the difficult passages, acknowledge disagreement, and keep the people affected in view.
Read the essay ↗
Research essay · 02
Why the sources differ
Qur’an, hadith, biography and manuscripts do different work. A difference needs an explanation before it becomes a verdict.
Read the essay ↗
Research essay · 03
What memory and transmission research can tell us
The six memory studies shared with The Jesus Inquiry, plus research on memorisation, oral performance and transmission chains, applied with careful historical limits.
Read the essay ↗Our approach
Conviction deserves
careful questions.
We distinguish what a source says, what an interpretation adds and what a person believes.
Start with a question.
Be precise about what is being claimed.
Go back to the sources.
Read the passage and its setting before the argument.
Hear the strongest competing views.
Understand a position before accepting or rejecting it.
Keep different kinds of claims distinct.
History, theology and conviction are related, but different.
Leave room for uncertainty.
Say what the evidence supports, and where it stops.
Your inquiry
What question are you carrying?
A doubt. A passage. Something you have heard but never checked. Give it a place to begin.
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The Islam
Inquiry
History, Evidence, Faith,
and the Questions That Remain
The companion book
The inquiry continues
on the page.
A book in development, bringing the questions, sources and competing perspectives into a sustained reading journey.
Explore the book project ↗