I | INTRODUCTION |
Muhammad
(prophet) (570?-632), last prophet of Islam, whose revelations,
encompassing political and social as well as religious principles, became the
basis of Islamic civilization and have had a vast influence on world
history.
Muhammad was born in Mecca. He belonged to the
clan of Hashim, a poor but respected branch of the prestigious and influential
tribe of Quraysh. His father died before he was born. After his mother's death
when he was six, he was brought up by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, and after
his grandfather's death, by his uncle Abu Talib. Pensive and withdrawn in
temperament, he displayed an acute moral sensitivity at an early age, and he was
known as al-Amin (“the trusted one”). Like his fellow tribesmen, he became a
trader and made several journeys to Syria, where he may have met and conversed
with Christians. He then began to manage the business of a rich widow, Khadija;
she was greatly impressed by both his honesty and ability, and she shortly
offered him marriage, which he accepted. Muhammad was 25 years old and Khadija
may have been as old as 40 at the time.
II | FIRST REVELATION |
Muhammad probably heard Christians and Jews
expound their religious views at commercial fairs in Mecca, and, troubled by the
questions they raised, he periodically withdrew to a cave outside Mecca to
meditate and pray for guidance. During one of these retreats he experienced a
vision of the archangel Gabriel, who proclaimed him a prophet of God. He was
greatly perplexed by the experience but was reassured by his wife, and, as new
revelations followed, he came to accept his prophetic mission. His wife and his
cousin Ali became his first followers, and eventually he began to preach in
public, reciting the verses of his revelation, which came to be known as the
Qur'an (Koran). He gained some prominent converts, but the movement grew
slowly.
III | TEACHINGS |
Muhammad's earliest teachings emphasized his
belief in one transcendent but personal God, the Last Judgment, and social and
economic justice. God, he asserted, had sent prophets to other nations
throughout history, but, having failed to reform, those nations had been
destroyed. Muhammad proclaimed his own message, the Qur'an, to be the last
revealed Book and himself to be the last of the prophets, consummating and
superseding the earlier ones.
IV | OPPOSITION |
Insisting on the necessity of social reform,
Muhammad advocated improving the lot of slaves, orphans, women, and the poor and
replacing tribal loyalties with the fellowship of Islamic faith. This
egalitarian and reformist tendency quickly aroused the enmity of the rich
merchants who dominated Mecca. They persecuted some of Muhammad's weaker
followers, and in 615 he ordered 83 families to take refuge in Ethiopia. When
both his beloved wife Khadija and his uncle and protector Abu Talib died in 619,
he despaired of his position in Mecca. After an unsuccessful effort to convert
the nearby town of AţŢā’if, he was approached by a delegation from Yathrib
(later Medina), a city about 300 km (about 186 mi) to the north that was divided
by tribal feuds. They asked him to arbitrate the feuds, offering him
considerable authority. After careful negotiations, Muhammad accepted and asked
his followers to emigrate from Mecca to Medina.
V | THE HEGIRA |
Muhammad left Mecca just as his enemies were
preparing to murder him, and he arrived in Medina eight days later. His
emigration became known as the Hegira (Arabic hijrah) and marks the
beginning of the Islamic calendar.
Muhammad was soon given supreme authority in
Medina, and he began to establish the ritual practices of Islam and to carry out
social reforms. He promulgated a charter that specified the rights and
relationships of the Muslims, Jews, and other groups of the city. The Meccans,
meanwhile, persisted in their hostility, demanding the extradition of Muhammad
and his Meccan followers. They were supported in Medina by a group, referred to
in the Qur'an as the Hypocrites, who had submitted to Islam but were secretly
working against it. This group in turn was aided by the three Jewish tribes that
were residing in Medina.
VI | WAR WITH MECCA |
Muhammad's strategy in the developing conflict
with Mecca was to attack Meccan trade caravans returning from Syria and thus
economically weaken the city. In 624, the first major battle occurred, in which
the Muslims, despite their inferiority in numbers and weapons, soundly defeated
the Meccans. In the next major battle, the following year, the Meccans had the
advantage but were unable to achieve a decisive victory. A Meccan army of 10,000
besieged Medina in 627 but failed to take the city. Muhammad meanwhile
eliminated his enemies within Medina. After each of the first two battles he
expelled a Jewish tribe, and after the third major battle he had the males of
the remaining tribe massacred for collaborating with his opponents.
VII | VICTORY |
In 630, the Meccans, unable to conquer Medina
and crippled by the severing of their trade routes, finally submitted peacefully
to Muhammad, who treated the city generously, declaring a general amnesty.
Tribal delegations arrived from throughout Arabia, and their tribes were soon
converted to Islam. Muhammad, now the most powerful leader in Arabia, enforced
the principles of Islam and established the foundation of the Islamic empire. He
ordered the destruction of the idols in the Kaaba, the traditional place of
pilgrimage in Mecca, which then became the holiest shrine of Islam. He granted
Jews and Christians religious autonomy as “peoples of the Book,” whose
revelations anticipated his own. On his last visit to Mecca, at the time of the
annual pilgrimage, he gave a sermon in which he summarized his reforms, declared
the brotherhood of Muslims, and repudiated all distinctions of class, color, and
race. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in Medina about a year later, on June 8,
632.
VIII | DESCENDANTS |
As long as Khadija lived, Muhammad took no
other wives. After her death in 619, when he was 50, he eventually married
several other women, including Aisha, the daughter of his kinsman and early
follower Abu Bakr, who was to become the first caliph, or successor to Muhammad.
He also took a Christian Coptic slave as a concubine and may have married her
after setting her free. Muhammad's sons all died in infancy, and the only
daughter to survive him was Fatima, who married Ali, the fourth caliph.
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