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The "prophet" Muhammad stated that the angel Gabriel visited him with revelation and he put great importance upon Gabriel.

So my question is, where do Jews believe Muhammad's revelation came from and what Jews believe about Muhammad's claim about his revelations from Gabriel? Do they believe that he lied and made it up, or do they believe it was a demon rather than Gabriel who visited Muhammad?

The question is seeking answers based on doctrinal and official views of any Jewish branches.

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    Based on the amount of inconsistencies found in the Koran, i think he made it up. (I've heard as much as well.)
    – Scimonster
    Dec 20 '14 at 17:27
  • And is he made up as well?
    – havarka
    Dec 20 '14 at 20:55
  • I don't think that a mohammed would be able to testify in a beth din for any of his claims. Let alone converse with an angel. Lets remember that the Rambam, and others, call him a crazy/madman. Before analysing his claim we must question him.
    – bondonk
    Dec 20 '14 at 22:09
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I doubt you'll find a positive statement -- "we think it came from X" -- because, like any other work of fiction, it doesn't really concern us. As hinted at in the question, Jews do not consider Muhammad to be a prophet. This is for at least two reasons:

  1. The age of prophecy had ended by then. When we next see prophecy we'll be in the time of the moshiach.

  2. Parts of the Quran contradict the torah, and we do not believe one claiming to be a prophet who conflicts with torah. See D'varim 13 (h/t Shokhet).

Whether Muhammad had a dream or delusion that he honestly believed, or he or his followers wrote the book on their own initiative, doesn't affect the outcome. The Rambam believed that the practice of Islam is monotheistic and so not idolatry (avodah zarah), a status he did not grant to Christianity, but that's a far cry from supporting any of what the Quran says about its origins. I have the strong impression that, among traditional rabbinic sources, the Rambam takes the kindest view toward Islam -- so if anybody were going to grant credence to the claims of the Quran I would expect it to be him. But he didn't.

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    +1. Also, don't forget that the Rambam lived his whole life in Muslim lands, and might have had, ah, trouble, if he opposed them too much.
    – Scimonster
    Dec 21 '14 at 10:32
  • 1. The age of prophecy had ended according to whom? The Rabbis? That's exactly the issue Jesus was addressing, since the Rabbis were using such personal opinions of theirs to justify their power structure. 2. The Quran is theologically compatible with the Torah; see 28:48-50.
    – Carl Masens
    Feb 13 at 7:35
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Pas Lechem commentary on shaar yichud ch.6 "Perhaps they (the gentile philosophers) found them from an early book of one of our sages, and stole and denied and put it in their bags as they did for other wisdoms they ruled over and called it on their names, as written in the Kuzari book (maamar sheni ot 1)" - perhaps we can say the same for some of the names/attributes of Gd, etc. found in the islamic writings

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