Previous research on Muslim cultural representations of the Prophet

Muhammad has identified certain recurring themes both in history and in the contemporary world. Muhammad is represented as the last in a chain of prophets and messengers delivering divine revelation to mankind. He is also, in words and deeds, a religious authority expanding that message. Furthermore, he is a model human being, a source for emulation, on the individual, social and political level. Lastly, there are representations of him as a preexistent and eternal super-human active agent and as an object for personal devotion and love. The above representations are not mutually exclusive, but certain traits in some contexts tend to cluster together, at the expense of others. This is evident for example in contemporary intra-Muslim conflicts over the role, form and overall legitimacy of mawlid, the celebration of Muhammad’s birthday. The paper is exploratory. A few concepts and theoretical themes taken from the cognitive science of religion are tried out in order to assess their potential usefulness in understanding both the forms of representations mentioned above, and conflicts surrounding some of them.