If you don’t like hadith, but you still want “something else” ... As the Qu’ran is virtually impossible to understand .... I would reccomend the SIRA literature. It is often earlier, and modern scholarship is much more accepting of its big picture.

You can see the craziness

The early Muslims first continued the Arab tradition of Saj (rhymed poetry) in the form of Maghazi ... which were simply early legends of Muhammads raids. Through the oral culture these became more “magical”, just like Jesus gospels, but the stories are still EARLY, and fun..

These early story tellers were called “Quisas” and many scholars rebuked them outright for forgery, but some were more sympathetic to them. Ibn Ishaq was more sympathetic to these people. The “Fiq” scholars didnt even know much about history, but Ibn Isahq did. It’s interesting

Through contemporary non-Muslim sources, archaeology, and these early “legendary-ish” biographies we can construct a generally reliable picture of Mohammed’s and the early “Muslim’s” life. We do not have similar confidence with the hadith tradition.

This thread of mine is similar to what would’ve happened in early Muslim times. Maybe after a good raid, some killings, and some booty. We would tell legends of our “great one”. His elevated prophethood status came as things were written down later, and the “religion” developed