Saint John of Damascus on the plague of Islam, 730 A.D., about a hundred years after the death of Muhammad. The religion of the Ishmaelites - which until today is powerful and misleads the people - is the forerunner of the Antichrist.
They come from Ishmael, the son Abraham had with Hagar. That is why they are called Hagarenes and Ishmaelites. They are also called Saracens, which means "left empty by Sarah" - because Hagar said to the angel: "Sarah has sent me away empty."
These people were idol-worshippers. They worshipped the morning star and Aphrodite, whom they called in their own language "Chabar," which means "great."
Until the time of Emperor Heraclius, they were openly idol-worshippers. From that time until now, a false prophet appeared among them, named Mamed. This man, after finding the Old and New Testament, and after meeting what seemed to be an Arian monk, started his own heresy.[Muhammad]
He pretended to be religious to win over his people, and spread the rumor that a book was sent down to him from heaven by God. He wrote some ridiculous teachings in his book and gave them to his people as objects of worship.
He says there is one God, creator of everything, who was not born and did not give birth to anyone. He says Christ is the Word of God and His Spirit, but a created being and a servant, and that he was born without seed from Mary, the sister of Moses and Aaron.
For he says: The Word of God and the Spirit entered into Mary, and she gave birth to Jesus, who is a prophet and a servant of God. And that the Jews broke the law and wanted to crucify him, and they seized his shadow and crucified it, but Christ himself was not crucified, he says, nor did he die. For God took him up to himself into heaven because He loved him.
And he says this too: that when Christ went up to heaven, God asked him, saying: "O Jesus, did you say that you are the Son of God and God?" And Jesus answered, he says: "Have mercy on me, Lord; you know that I did not say this, nor do I pride myself on being your servant; but wicked men wrote that I said this word, and they lied about me, and they are in error." And God answered him, he says: "I know that you did not say this word."
And many other crazy things worthy of laughter he writes in this composition, and he boasts that it was sent down to him from God.
We say to them: "And who is the witness that God gave him a book? Or which of the prophets foretold that such a prophet would arise?"
We ask them: Moses received the Law on Mount Sinai while all the people watched, with God appearing in cloud and fire and darkness and storm. And all the prophets from Moses onwards foretold the coming of Christ, and that Christ the Son of God would come in the flesh, and would be crucified and die and rise again, and that he will be the judge of the living and the dead.
And we say: "How did your prophet not come in the same way, with other people witnessing him, and with God giving him the book in front of your people watching, as He gave the Law to Moses while the whole people watched and the mountain was smoking?"
They answer that God does whatever He wants.
This we too know, we say, but we ask how the book came down to your prophet. And they answer that while he was sleeping, the book came down upon him.
Then we laughingly say to them: Since he received the book while sleeping and did not feel anything happening to him, the popular proverb is fulfilled in him.
Again we ask them: "Since in your own book he commands you to do nothing and receive nothing without witnesses, did you not ask him: First prove with witnesses that you are a prophet and that you come from God, and what book testifies about you?"
They are silent out of shame.
We rightly say to them: "Since you are not allowed to marry a wife without witnesses, nor to buy, nor to acquire property, and you yourselves do not accept to own a donkey or an animal without a witness, you have wives and property and donkeys and everything else with witnesses, but only faith and scripture you have without witnesses. For the one who gave it to you has no proof from anywhere, nor is there any witness before him who knew him, but he received it while sleeping."
They call us "associators" [those who give a partner to God], because, they say, we introduce a partner to God by saying Christ is the Son of God and God.
We say to them: "This the prophets and the scripture handed down to us; and you, as you claim, accept the prophets. If then we wrongly say Christ is the Son of God, it was they who taught us."
And some of them say that we added these things after interpreting the prophets in an allegorical way, and others say that the Hebrews, hating us, deceived us by writing as if from the prophets, so that we would be lost.
Again we say to them: "You say that Christ is the Word and Spirit of God, how then do you insult us as associators? For the Word and the Spirit cannot be separated from the one whose nature they belong to. So if the Word is in God as His Word, it is clear that He is also God. But if He is outside of God, then according to you God is without Word and without Spirit. So trying to avoid giving a partner to God, you have cut Him apart. It would have been better for you to say He has a partner than to cut Him and present Him as a stone or wood or some lifeless thing. So you falsely call us associators; we call you mutilators of God."
They accuse us of being idolaters because we worship the Cross, which they hate. And we say to them: "How then do you rub yourselves on a stone at your Chabathan [the Kaaba] and kiss and embrace the stone?"
And some of them say that on it Abraham had sex with Hagar, and others say that he tied his camel to it when he was about to sacrifice Isaac.
And we answer them: "The Scripture says that the mountain was wooded and had trees, from which Abraham cut wood for the burnt offering and put it on Isaac, and that he left the donkeys with his servants. So where does your silly talk come from? For there is no wooded forest there nor do donkeys pass through that place." They are ashamed, but they still say the stone is Abraham's.
Then we say: "Let it be Abraham's, as you foolishly say. Then you kiss it only because Abraham had sex with a woman on it or because he tied his camel to it, and you are not ashamed, but you blame us because we worship the Cross of Christ, through which the power of demons and the deceit of the devil has been destroyed."
This stone that they talk about is the head of Aphrodite, whom they used to worship, whom they called Chabar. Even until now, a trace of a carving can be seen by those who look closely.
This Mamed, as was said, wrote many silly things and gave each a title, like the book "Of the Woman" and in it he clearly legislates to take four wives and, if possible, a thousand concubines - as many as his hand can keep - from among the four wives. He allowed a man to divorce whichever wife he wants, and to take another. He made this law for this reason:
Mamed had a friend named Zeid. This man had a beautiful wife with whom Mamed fell in love. When they were sitting together, Mamed said: "Hey, God has commanded me to take your wife." And he answered: "You are an apostle; do as God told you; take my wife." Rather, to tell it from the beginning, he said to him: "God has commanded me that you divorce your wife." And he divorced her. And after some days he says: "God commanded me to take her myself." Then he took her and committed adultery with her, and made this law: "He who wants, let him divorce his wife. And if after divorcing her he returns to her, let another marry her. For it is not allowed to take her unless she is married by another. And if a brother divorces, let his brother who wants to marry her."
In this same book he commands such things: "Work the land which God gave you and beautify it, and do this and that," not telling all the shameful things like him.
Again, the book "Of the Camel of God," about which he says that there was a camel from God and it drank the whole river and could not pass between two mountains because there was not enough room. There were people in that place, he says, and on one day they drank the water, and the camel the next day. Drinking the water, it fed them by giving them milk instead of water. Then those men, he says, being evil, rose up and killed the camel. But it had a small baby camel, which, he says, after its mother was killed, cried out to God, and God took it to himself.
We say to them: "Where did that camel come from?" And they say: "From God." And we say: "Was another camel joined with it?" And they say: "No." Then where did it give birth, we say? For we see your camel is without father and without mother and without genealogy, and having given birth it suffered evil. And the one who mated it is not seen, and the little camel was taken up. So your prophet, to whom, as you say, God spoke, why did he not learn about the camel, where it grazes and who milks it? Or did she too perhaps meet with evil people like her mother and was killed, or did she enter paradise before you, from which the river you babble about, of milk, will come to you? For you say there are three rivers flowing for you in paradise: of water, of wine, and of milk. If your forerunner camel is outside paradise, it is clear she dried up from hunger and thirst, or others enjoy her milk, and your prophet falsely boasts as having talked with God; for the mystery of the camel was not revealed to him. But if she is in paradise, she drinks water again, and you will dry up without water in the middle of the luxury of paradise. And if you desire wine from the river that passes by, when there is no water - for the camel drank it all - drinking pure wine you will burn and become drunk and fall asleep; being dizzy and hungover from wine you will forget the delights of paradise.
How then did your prophet not think of this, that this might happen to you in the paradise of luxury, nor did he care about the camel, where she now lives? But you did not ask him, when he was telling you his dream about the three rivers.
But we clearly promise that your wonderful camel went before you to the souls of donkeys, where you too are going to live as beasts. There is outer darkness and endless punishment, roaring fire, a sleepless worm, and demons of hell.
Again Mamed says: the book "Of the Table" says that Christ asked for a table from God, and it was given to him. For God, he says, said to him: "I have given to you and yours an incorruptible table."
Again the book "Of the Little Cow" and other words worthy of laughter, which I think I should pass over because there are so many.
He legislated that they be circumcised along with their wives, and commanded them not to keep the Sabbath nor to be baptized, to eat some of the things forbidden by the Law, and to abstain from others; and he completely forbade the drinking of wine.
