Muhammad is the Prophet who found Islam. He was born in the year 570 in the town of Mecca, in the high desert plateau of western Arabia. His father, Abd Allah bin Al-Muttalib died before his birth and Muhammad was raised by his mother Amina bint Wahb.
Amina fell sick and died on their return to Mecca from city of Yathrib where Muhammad’s father’ was buried when Muhammad was nearly five years old. Halima, Muhammad Nurse, returned to Mecca with the orphaned boy and handed over to his paternal grandfather, Abdul Al-Muttalib. Muhammad learned the fundamentals of statecraft under his grandfather.
When Muhammda’s grandfather died Muhammad, aged about eight, passed into the care of a paternal uncle, Abu Talib a Merchant by profession, under whose care he remained for many years. Muhammad help his uncle as a shepherd to help pay his keep. In his teens he sometimes traveled with Abu Talib, accompanying caravans to trade centers.
In his early twenties, Muhammad joined a wealthy Merchant, a widow named Khadija bint Khawalayd who was a distant cousins. Muhammad carried her goods to the north and returned with a profit.
Khadija who was Impressed by Muhammad's honesty and character, brought him a marriage proposal by which time Muhammad was twenty-five and Khadija was nearly forty. Muhammad continued to manage Khadija's business which was prosperous. Six children were born to them, two sons who both died in infancy, and four daughters.
Muhammad was frustrated with the Mecca's new materialism and its traditional idolatry. He started making long retreats to a mountain cave outside the town where he fasted and meditated. On one occasion, after a number of indistinct visionary experiences, Muhammad was visited by an overpowering presence and instructed to recite words of such beauty and force that he and others gradually attributed them to God
After several similar experiences, Muhammad finally began to reveal the messages he was receiving to his people. Muhammad gathered all these messages he received by God verse by verse and later created the Holy Qur'an, Islam's sacred scripture.
Muhammad and his followers were first belittled and ridiculed, then persecuted and physically attacked for departing from traditional Mecca's tribal traditions. Muhammad's message was resolutely monotheistic. For several years, the Quraysh, Mecca's dominant tribe, levied a ban on trade with Muhammad's people
At the age of 40 Muhammad was recognized as a Prophet who is the agent of God to communicate God’s messages to the followers.
In 622, Muhammad and his few hundred followers left Mecca and traveled to Yathrib, where his father was buried. This city was suffering from a severe civil war. The leaders of this city invited Prophet Muhammad to act as a mediator for his wisdom. Prophet Muhammad remained here for the six years, building the first Muslim community and gradually gathering more and more people to his side.
The Meccans did not take Muhammad's new success lightly. Hence there were three major battles in the next three years. Of these the Muslims won the first, Battle of Badr, lost the second, the Battle of Uhud and outlasted the third, the battle of the Trench and the Siege of Medina. After the battles, a Treaty was signed between the two sides, which recognized the Muslims as a new force in Arabia.
By this time, the power had shifted towards Prophet Muhammad and the Muslims from once-powerful Mecca. They entered Mecca city without bloodshed and the Meccans, seeing the tide had turned and joined them.
After his peaceful entry to Mecca and establishment of his religion, Prophet Muhammad returned to live in Medina. In the next three years, he consolidated most of the Arabian Peninsula under Islam. In March, 632, he returned to Mecca one last time to perform a pilgrimage, and tens of thousands of Muslims joined him after which he returned to Medina. Three months later on June 8, 632 he died there, after a brief illness. After the pilgrimage, he. He is buried in the mosque in Medina. Within a hundred years Prophet Muhammad's teaching and way of life had spread from the remote corners of Arabia as far east as Indo-China and as far west as Morocco, France and Spain
Lanka Newsweek © 2024