The way in which he surpasses humanity has historically been very, very important. I would say it's been downplayed somewhat in some modern Muslim biographies. But that tension has always been present.
On the biographical interpretation of Muhammad's life by extremist groups, like the terrorist group that calls itself the Islamic State
They're making interpretive choices too. They are saying, "We're going to focus on a particular" — and not a particularly well-supported — "version of a political program of establishing God's rule. We're going to focus on particular norms that we want to see implemented."
But it's actually been very striking to me how little direct appeal there is to the kind of interpretive tradition that looks at translating Muhammad's life and Muhammad's example and Muhammad's precedent into rules for Muslims of later generations to follow. Because, of course, that has been a major concern of Muslim jurists for well over a thousand years.
On the significance of the Quran, as compared to a biography, when considering Muhammad
That's a hugely complicated question. "Isn't the Quran supposed to be the thing?" And the reality is that of course the Quran is the thing. But the idea that it can be separated out from the life of Muhammad makes no sense for the vast majority of Muslims.
I have a colleague who likes to say, "Muhammad wasn't just a UPS delivery guy. He didn't just bring this book and say, 'Here you go, good luck.' " And for the vast majority of Muslim history, people have really interpreted one by means of the other.
And the other thing, of course, is that most Muslims didn't have access to printed copies of the Quran or online copies that they could keyword search. You had to get this from somewhere. Just like most Christians didn't have copies of the Bible until relatively recently. And so that process of looking at the text has almost always taken place through the lens of looking at the life of the prophet.
Now, was it the historical events of the life of the prophet or was it something about his luminous character that was revealed in the things that we know about his life but also things passed down through, in some cases, a charismatic lineage of mystical teachers? There are a lot of ways in which Muhammad's life has been understood and experienced and celebrated in the past 1,400 years, and not all of them are captured by biography, to be sure.
Prophet Muhammad
Quran