User talk:Patrick poloney

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Founder
Hello Patrick. Thanks for your comment on my talk page. The debates I refer to can be viewed here: Talk:Muhammad/Archive_8, Talk:Muhammad/Archive_10, and there are probably a few more sections elsewhere. The essential issue was how to present the passage in a way that reconciled two opposing viewpoints. One perspective is the purely historical one, from which it may be argued that Islam as a religious-legal code originated in the time of Muhammad. The other perspective is the Islamic one, which asserts that Islam (i.e. submission to God's will) has existed as long as mankind has, with every prophet sent with the same message and being upon same religion, and with Muhammad as a continuation and finalisation of that religion. There were many arguments and counter-arguments raised with regards to expressing things in a way that doesn't imply one side or the other to be false. That's where I think the "founder of Islam as a historical phenomenon" has served as a reasonable compromise and does seem to have stuck for quite some time. Regards,  ITAQALLAH   19:13, 5 October 2008 (UTC)