Answer
Asalamu Alaikum Brendan,
Thank you for contacting About Islam with your question. We would like to extend to you a warm welcome to Islam.
Yours is really one of the most unusual questions I have ever been asked. To be honest, I have never come across such an accusation about Islam.
The idea that Islam was in some way created by the Vatican is not an idea held by any Islamic scholar or Christian theologian that I know of.
I have been unable to access any website or “source” of this allegation, so will give an answer based on what is generally held to be fact by historians and by Christian and Muslim scholars and writers.
The Natural Religion
Muslims believe that Islam has existed since the beginning of time and that it is the natural religion of mankind. Adam (peace be upon him-PBUH), according to Islam, was a prophet and the first Muslim.
Muslims believe that all the prophets of the Old Testament, such Abraham and Moses as well as Jesus in the New Testament (peace be upon them all), were all prophets of Islam.
They were all called to bring the message of Islamic monotheism: that there is only one God, and that He alone is worthy of worship.
Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was the last in a long line of prophets. And he was given God’s final revelation to mankind, the Quran. This is what Muslims believe.
Non-Muslims—while not agreeing that Muhammad was a prophet—do, however, agree that he brought the revelation of the Quran, whether it was from God or not.
Serious scholars have never suggested that the Quran was brought by anyone else. Some of them, in fact, over the centuries, have suggested that Muhammad made up the Quran himself, but they do not attribute it to someone else.
History of the Vatican
The Christian church has never been particularly strong in the Arabian Peninsula. In fact, the Church in the seventh century had not reached anything like the power it would eventually achieve in the Middle Ages.
Therefore, the Vatican would not have had the people nor the influence to be able to trick so many Arabs into believing the “new” message of Islam.
It is beyond the bounds of belief, then, that the Christian Church, the Vatican, or anyone else could have tricked Muhammad (PBUH) into believing that he was receiving revelations which were, according to the accusation, somehow made up by them.
Muhammad’s critics at the time used to call him a sorcerer, or a magician, or a poet; claiming that he made up the Quranic verses himself. But none of them ever claimed that he was revealing them on behalf of someone else, such as the Vatican.
Evolution of the Muslim Community
The early Muslim community began to grow, at first, in Makkah–the home of Muhammad and the Kabah—and then spread to Madinah. After the Prophet’s death, the message of Islam spread even further across the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.
When the message was first revealed, though, Muslims were not present in Palestine. For the Vatican to want to “take control” of Palestine at such a time would have been unnecessary. It was not under threat from anyone.
Historians can describe for us in great detail the growth of the early Muslim community. We know the names of tribes, families, and even individuals involved in the story. We have details of the skirmishes between the Muslims, and the polytheists, and the Jewish tribes.
We also know the threat that Christian armies tried to pose when they saw that Islam was beginning to take hold and spread. We even have the most minute details about the early battles of Badr, Uhud, and the Trench; in which Muslims gave their lives for Islam and their Prophet (PBUH).
These early Muslims did not give their lives for a message brought by someone else. They died for Islam as it was revealed to the Prophet of Islam (PBUH).
They knew Muhammad (PBUH). They lived with him. They learned by heart the verses which were revealed to him and these verses were later written down in exactly the way they had been revealed.
Muslims take great pride that the Quran has not been altered in any way since it was first revealed and written down. If they were present, then, when many of the verses were revealed, it is not possible that someone else could have revealed them or invented them.
Personal Experience
Finally, before embracing Islam, I was Roman Catholic.
In fact, I lived and studied in the Vatican itself. Church history was a part of my studies for the priesthood.
In all the years I lived and studied in Rome, I have never heard anyone make the allegation that Islam was the invention of the Vatican. Christian scholars, historians, and theologians would not accept such an allegation.
Wherever such a claim comes from, it is both outlandish and untrue. The conspirators of this allegation have no knowledge of neither the Islamic faith nor Islamic history. It is one of the more far-fetched ideas leveled against Islam, but has no serious basis in fact.
I hope that as someone new to Islam you will not take too seriously the ideas of people whose only aim is to confuse, and perhaps worse. May Allah Almighty strengthen you as a Muslim.
I hope this answers your question. Please keep in touch.
Walaikum Asalam.
Please continue feeding your curiosity, and find more info in the following links:
The Concept of Dawah and the Spread of Islam
Did Muhammad Spread Islam by the Sword?