Montgomery Watt

I therefore do not believe that either the Bible or the Qur’an is infallibly true in the sense that all their commands are valid for all time. ... when the form of society changes in important respects some commands cease to be appropriate, though many others continue to be valid. I do, however, believe that Muhammad , like the earlier Prophets , had genuine religious experiences. I believe that he really did receive something directly from God . As such, I believe that the Qur’an came from God, that it is Divinely Inspired . Muhammad could not have caused the great upsurge in Religion that he did without God’s blessing.

Thus, whether Muhammad incited his followers to action and then used their wrongs committed against them to justify it, or whether he yielded to pressure from them to allow such action, the normal Arab practice of the razzia was taken over by the Islamic community. In being taken over, however, it was transformed. It became an activity of believers against unbelievers, and therefore took place within a religious context. The Emigrants were described as "striving with goods and person in the way of God 4:95, 9:20, 9:41, 9:44 . They were promoting one of the purposes of the Islamic community in trying to establish a region in which God was truly worshipped.