Why Do Religions Disagree About Muhammad?

Judaism's disagreement with Islam over Muhammad is fundamentally a question of prophetic succession and scriptural closure. The Hebrew prophetic tradition, as preserved in the Tanakh, is understood by rabbinic Judaism to have ended with the last of the classical prophets — a concept sometimes called the cessation of prophecy (Hebrew: hashkat ha-nevuah). The Talmudic tradition, codified by the rabbis of the 2nd–5th centuries CE, holds that the divine voice (bat kol) no longer speaks with the authority of the earlier prophets.

Because Muhammad appeared roughly a millennium after the Hebrew prophetic period as understood by Jewish tradition, and because his claims were rooted in a new scripture (the Quran) rather than the Torah or Tanakh, Jewish authorities from Sa'adia Gaon (882–942 CE) to Maimonides (1138–1204 CE) rejected his prophethood. Maimonides, in his Mishneh Torah, outlined criteria for authentic prophecy that Muhammad, in his view, did not meet — including the requirement that a prophet not abrogate the Torah's commandments.

Deuteronomy itself establishes a legal framework for adjudicating disputed claims: "Then both the men, between whom the controversy is, shall stand before the LORD, before the priests and the judges" Deuteronomy 19:17. Jewish legal reasoning applied similar scrutiny to prophetic claims. A prophet who appeared to contradict Mosaic law was, by that standard, disqualified — and Muhammad's message, which superseded Jewish practice, fell into that category for virtually all Jewish authorities.

It's worth noting that medieval Jewish-Muslim relations were complex. Some Jewish thinkers acknowledged Muhammad as a prophet for the Arabs (a position sometimes attributed to later interpreters of Maimonides), but mainstream rabbinic opinion never accepted him as a universal prophet in the line of Moses or Isaiah.

Christianity's disagreement with Islam over Muhammad stems from its foundational conviction that Jesus Christ is the final and complete revelation of God. The New Testament's prologue to the Gospel of John declares Jesus to be the eternal Word (Logos) made flesh — a claim that, for Christian theology, leaves no room for a subsequent prophet bearing a corrective or superseding revelation.

Early Christian responses to Islam, such as those of John of Damascus (c. 675–749 CE), framed Muhammad not as a prophet but as a heretic or false teacher. This framing persisted through the medieval period. The Crusades and subsequent centuries of theological polemic hardened Christian rejection of Muhammad's prophetic claims.

A key point of contention is the Gospel of John's account of division over religious claims. When the Pharisees debated Jesus, the text records: "This man is not of God, because he keepeth not the sabbath day. Others said, How can a man that is a sinner do such miracles? And there was a division among them." John 9:16 Christians apply a similar evaluative logic to Muhammad: his teachings contradict core Christian doctrines — particularly the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and the crucifixion — making his prophetic status impossible to affirm within orthodox Christianity.

The Quran's explicit denial of the crucifixion — "they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him, but it was made to appear so to them" Quran 4:157 — is perhaps the single sharpest doctrinal fault line. For Christians, the crucifixion and resurrection are the irreducible core of the faith. A prophet who denies them cannot, by Christian logic, be speaking divine truth. Scholars like Miroslav Volf and Kenneth Cragg have attempted more irenic approaches in the 20th–21st centuries, but mainstream Christian theology remains firm in not recognizing Muhammad's prophethood.

From the Islamic perspective, the disagreement isn't really about Muhammad per se — it's about the human tendency to accept some prophets while rejecting others. The Quran addresses this directly and forcefully. Surah 4:150 condemns those who "believe in some and reject others," treating selective prophethood as a form of unbelief: "Indeed, those who disbelieve in Allah and His messengers and wish to discriminate between Allah and His messengers and say, 'We believe in some and disbelieve in others,' and wish to adopt a way in between — those are the disbelievers, truly." Quran 4:150

Islam's theological framework holds that Muhammad is the Seal of the Prophets (Khatam al-Nabiyyin), the final messenger in a long chain that includes Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. From this view, Jews and Christians who reject Muhammad are not simply making a historical or theological error — they are repeating a pattern of rejecting prophets that, the Quran argues, their own scriptures warned against.

Islamic scholars like Ibn Kathir (1301–1373 CE) and, in the modern era, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, have argued that the Torah and Gospel contain prophecies pointing to Muhammad — particularly Deuteronomy 18:15 ("a prophet like me") and John 14:16 (the "Paraclete"), though these interpretations are firmly rejected by Jewish and Christian scholars.

The Quran also emphasizes that true prophets do not exclude believers from their community. Surah 26:114 records a prophet saying: "And I am not one to drive away the believers." Quran 26:114 This inclusive prophetic model is central to how Islam frames Muhammad's mission — as a mercy to all of humanity (rahmatan lil-'alamin), not a sectarian figure. The disagreement, from the Islamic side, is therefore attributed to religious pride, textual corruption (tahrif), and the human reluctance to accept a messenger from outside one's own community.

In the Jewish scriptural pattern, religious controversies are brought before the LORD, priests, and judges—indicating a legal-process approach to disputed claims and testimony Deuteronomy 19:17. That paradigm helps explain why Judaism emphasizes procedures and standards when evaluating anyone’s prophetic status: disagreements arise because claims must be examined in communal and judicial settings, not merely by reports of signs Deuteronomy 19:17.

The New Testament itself shows that impressive deeds didn’t settle arguments about a person’s authority; some judged a wonder-worker as not ‘of God’ while others saw the deeds as compelling, so division resulted John 9:16. Even close followers could waver under pressure, underscoring that recognition of God’s agents was contested within the earliest Christian story Luke 22:57. This inherited context helps explain why Christians, using their own criteria, might diverge from others on later prophetic claims John 9:16.

The Qur’an frames disagreement over prophets as a moral and theological error: to ‘believe in some and disbelieve in some’ is censured, so Muslims see rejection of Muhammad as an instance of dividing between God’s messengers Quran 4:150. The Qur’an also highlights earlier communities’ disputes over messengers and notes sharp disagreements about Jesus—evidence that inter-religious contention over prophetic status is neither new nor unexpected in Islamic analysis Quran 4:157. From this standpoint, disagreement about Muhammad arises when people apply selective acceptance to revelation and messengers Quran 4:150.