"But there were already so many prophets. Muhammad heard about them from the Jews who came to Ukaz from the great palm oases of Medina and Khaybar to the north, as well as from the Christians who came from Yemen and the cathedral city of Najran to the south. They were known as People of the Book, and the very idea of a book --- of words having their own separate physical existence, not in the mouth or the ear but before one's eyes, inscribed on parchment scrolls --- itself exerted a magical force on a boy who could neither read nor write. These were people with physical proof that their god had spoken to them, or at least to their prophets. But how then could this god have said such different things, and how could one people's prophet be denied by another? How could every tribe revere its own totem in the Kaaba precinct but not all the others? How could there be so many truths?"
--- Extracted from "The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad" by Lesley Hazleton published by Atlantic Books, London, 2013
No meaning should be attached to the order in which the excerpts are presented. I just append the excerpts as and when I come across them either in my notes or in the process of reading something.
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