Was Islam born in the middle of the desert, out of nothing - or as the natural continuation of the monotheist Christian currents of late antiquity? In From the Messiah to Muhammad, Hüseyin Doğan follows the etymological and theological journey of a single word: Ḥanīf - from the Aramaic ḥanpā. Tracing this word reveals a startling continuity between early Islam and late antique Christianity. Beginning with Paul's profound rupture with the Jerusalem apostles, the book examines how Philo's concept of the Logos shaped Christian theology, the theological foundations of the doctrine of the Trinity, the influence of the Mithraic mysteries and Roman mythology on early Christianity, and the role that the monotheist struggle of Arius and Nestorius played in the emergence of Islam. The Najrān Christians' statement, "We were Muslims before you," points beyond mere courtesy to a shared theological inheritance. The author examines the pre-Islamic Ḥanīfs one by one - Waraqa ibn Nawfal, Ubayd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh, Zayd ibn ʿAmr and others - and offers a comparative reading of the concept of "Allah" in pre-Islamic Mecca, the parallels between Islamic worship (especially ritual prayer) and the Syriac Christian tradition, and early Islam's friendship with Christians alongside its tension with the Jews. Equipped with Semitic philology and early Christian sources, this study treats the first period of Islam not as an isolated beginning but as a continuation of the monotheist movements within Christianity. The result is a bold and provocative thesis: that the history of faith is made not of sealed boxes, but of crossing roads and shared inheritances. This book is an invitation to the questioning reader, ready to suspend dogma and accompany the long march of words and ideas.
