“Those who disbelieve in the Message of the Prophet say: ‘This (Criterion) is nothing but a lie which he has forged with the help of others’. Such have indeed resorted to a grievous wrong and sheer falsehood. They say: ‘These are merely fairy tales of the ancients which he has got inscribed and they are then recited to him morning and evening’.”
(Al-Qur’ān – 25:4-5)
It is intriguing that during the lifetime of the Messenger (peace and blessings of Allah be to him), none of his enemies ever asserted that he had acquired the substance of his teaching from Bhuhayrā the monk whom he had met in his childhood. Nor did they ever say that he had taken over all his teachings from Christian monks and Jewish rabbis during the trade journeys he made in his youth. This is understandable because they knew that the Blessed Messenger did not undertake those journeys all alone but went along with the caravans. Even if they had levelled such a charge, they would have been refuted by many of their own people. Everyone in Makkah had seen him live in their midst for many years. Hence such a charge would have been violently rejected by the people. For if he had really received all the information from Bhuhayrā the monk, either when he was 12, or 13, or 25 years old when he went on these trade journeys, then why had no one ever heard anything from him throughout these years about any of the matters which form part of the Qur’ān?