If there was a Muhammed and we loosely follow his story we can see he maried into wealth and became a successful trader. It's illogical to believe he lived in poverty at this stage. Later the Muslims were supposedly (according to the haddith) outcasts of Mekkah and we're supposed to believe at this stage Muhammed was living in poverty and starving? Yet shortly after this period the tribes of Medina ask this outcast living in poverty to mediate and rule over them. That sounds like the most unlikely story if we apply the historical realities to it. No group of tribes are going to request leadership and mediation from an outcast living in poverty, it'd never happen.
If Muhammed was a real person he likely is native of Medina and the pre-Medina period likely to be pure fabrication. The Muhammed of early Mekkah seems more ethicaly than the later Muhammed. Maybe there was a soothsayer or Prophet Mohammed years before Medina Mohammed and there stories got rolled into one. Or maybe like all stories they were retold with creative licence. The verses from pre-Medinan period are said to be superior poetry. Perhaps merely plagerising superior poets?
I see, wish I could travel back in time and see just how different Muhammad was to the man I was taught he was growing up. Spent two decades thinking that he was gentle, kind, wouldn't hurt a fly, hated materialism and loved the poor so much that he wanted to live like one of them, married widows and divorcees because their lives were hard and he wanted to be their saviour, and so forth.
All while executing rivals, condoning slavery, watching over massacres. Quite a contradictory character, almost like he is multiple folk heros rolled into one.
I recently asked this question and I was told that the booty percentage that mo had was distributed amongst the poor and needy. I would imagine he did do this.
Takes over a whole nation, conquering and massacring tribe after tribe. Gives all his plunder to the poor. Sounds legit
Topic: Did Muhammad live in poverty?