Muhammad - From Peaceful Preacher in Mecca to Military Leader in Medina | Javad Hashmi | Gabriel Reynolds

In this interview I have the the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Javad Hashmi. Dr. Hashmi. Dr. Javad T. Hashmi is a board-certified emergency physician, former Harvard Medical Ethics Fellow, and Ph.D. candidate in Religion at Harvard. Holding BA and MA degrees in Arabic and Islamic Studies (UC Berkeley, Harvard), his scholarship probes Qur’anic ethics of war, jihad, and the sanctity of life, with added interest in South Asian Islamic modernism. He promotes religious literacy, interfaith dialogue, and a human-rights discourse.

In this video we discuss the question of war and peace in the Qur'an. Dr. Hashmi takes us through some of his recent publications where he argues against the notion that Muhammad was merely biding his time during the Meccan period in order to begin the conquests in Medina. This view, termed opportunistic pacifism, is replaced with an emphasis on the apocalyptic view of divine judgement in the Meccan Qur'an. Dr. Hashmi connects this outlook with the idea of YHWH's day in the Hebrew Bible and its later interpretation in the New Testament.

Links to Articles Mentioned in this Video:

ICMR Article – “Ethics of War in the Qurʾān”
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09596410.2025.2484082

Der Islam Abstract – “The Proto-Apocalyptic Muḥammad”
https://www.academia.edu/130330414/The_Proto_Apocalyptic_Mu%E1%B8%A5ammad_The_Imminence_of_Yahwehs_Day_in_the_Qur%CA%BE%C4%81ns_Three_Stage_Eschatology

Academia.edu Profile (all publications)
https://harvard.academia.edu/JavadHashmi

(JIQSA article forthcoming—link will be added when available.)

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