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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 word "fiction" is usually used to distinguish between narrative texts. Since the Quran is a philosophical work, the word seems to serve as simple polemic in your response, and doesn't really add to an understanding of the question or your answer. On the other hand, the applicably of the word "fiction" is an important question with regard to parts of the Torah which explicitly claim that they present narrative histories, such as the Book of Chronicles. – Carl Masens Aug 3 at 7:46
  • @Scimonster This doesn't serve to clarify the answer. The implication in your comment of the lack of freedom of philosophical inquiry in medieval Islamic lands is unfounded. – Carl Masens Aug 3 at 7:48
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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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