Nikesh Karunanithy 11KN

Islam

The Life of Muhammad

A prophet is someone through whom Allah speaks. The Qur'an names 25 prophets, but

tradition says there have been 124,000 in all. For Muslims, Muhammad in Allah's last prophet,

known as the 'seal of the Prophets.'

The exact date of Muhammad's birth in Mecca is unknown, but it is thought to have

been no later than 570 AD. His father was called Abdullah, which means 'servant of God' and

his mother Aminah- 'peaceful'. Both were members of the Hashim clan, a sub-division of the

Quraysh tribe which had lately abandoned its nomadic life as desert Bedouins and risen to

dominate the trading city of Mecca. Muhammad had a sorrowful early childhood. The name

Muhammad is said to have been given to him as a result of a dream his grandfather had. He is

also said to have had other names, such as Abul-Qasim, Ahmad, and Mustafa. There were

many legends about Muhammad. One said that before his birth his mother Aminah heard a

voice telling her the child would be a great leader. Another told of a heavy shower of rain, a

blessing that ended a long drought. Yet another legend was that two angels removed

Muhammad's heart, washed it clean, then weighed it against first one man, then ten, then a

hundred , then a thousand. Finally they said 'Let it be. Even if you set the whole community in

the scale, he would still outweigh it.' These stories show that Allah was preparing Muhammad

for his prohetetic mission in future.

His father was dead by the time of his birth and his mother died before he was six,

meaning he was raised as an orphan. According to Quraysh law he was to be given to a

Bedouin foster mother and sent of into the desert, and would be unable to inherit from his

father's estate. So almost from the beginning of his life he was both poor and something of an

outcast from Meccan society. This shows that muslims are taught to trust in Allah's goodness,

and to accept death as a stage in their life and not the end of it.

It is, however, known for certain that when he was eight Muhammad was sent to live

with his uncle, a merchant called Abu Talib. From the age of 12 Abu Talib took him with him on

his long trading trips, which sometimes lasted for many months. A number of stories surround

Muhammad in this period of his life. One tells how he and his uncle stopped at a Christian

monastery on their travels, and a monk named Bahira recognised the mark of a prophet on

Muhammad's shoulder.His future prophetic status was indicated by certain marks on his body

and by miraculous signs in nature.

Muhammad first worked as a camel driver, but as both his horizons and business

acumen expanded, he became known as The Trusted One (al-Amin) for being fair in his

dealings and honoring his obligations.

The most important hadith about his early life, and the ones with some of the largest

degree of unanimity, are about a trip to Syria, where he was recognised by a Christian monk as

Shiloh - the non-Jewish Prophet whose coming was foretold in the book of Genesis.

It seems that Muhammad, from an early age, believed himself to be Shiloh, the first

and last non-Jewish Prophet who would bring the final message and warning to mankind in the

last days before the end of the world.

It may have been for this reason that he became something of a mystic, spending long

periods of isolated meditation in the desert. From his early twenties onwards he began to have

religious experiences and visions of various sorts, but was on the whole confused by their

significance. He is also reported to have become a expert on the Jewish and Christian religions

and to have engaged in long religious debates with both monotheists and pagans.

At the age of 25 Muhammad's social status changed markedly. He had been

employed by a wealthy widow, Khadijah, to run her trading interests and, after they had

prospered, she asked him to marry her. He accepted, even though she was to prove faithful,

understanding and supportive wife and the marriage was happy. They had six children-two

sons, Qusim and Abdullah, and four daughters, Zainab, Ruqaiyyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatima.

The two boys died in infancy. The couple had only one surviving child, a daughter called Fatima

who in later life became a fanatical Muslim. After her death he had several others, perhaps the

best known of whom was the young Aisha.

Muhammad's uncle Abu Talib fell on hard times, and Muhammad repaid his kindness

by taking responsibility for his little son Ali. Another child in the house was Zaid ibn Haritha, a

slave boy given to Khadijah as a present. One day Zaid's father, who had been searching for

him for years, discovered where he was and offered to buy him back. Zaid was asked what he

wished to do and chose to stay with Muhammad. Muhammad was so moved that he freed the

boy instantly, and raised him as his own son.

At that time Mecca was tumultuous melting pot of Christianity, Judaism, and the

various pagan religions practiced by the desert tribes and Meccan clans. Khadijah's family had

been exposed to monotheism, which was growing in popularity in its various forms and it is

known that her uncle was a practicing Christian.

In contrast, the pagan clan cults of the Qursysh in the city had become decadent,

especially in their shameless worship of material goods and worldly wealth and the consequent

huge disparities between rich and poor, which Muhammad, with his varied background, was

able to appreciate.

These problems, springing from the difficult transition of the Quraysh from nomadic

poverty to sedentary merchant wealth, concerned him greatly, and social injustice-especially the

treatment of orphans like himself-is the theme of many of the early surahs of the Qur'an.

The cults of the pagan desert Bedouin clans, who visited Mecca only occasionally,

were equally divisive, degenerate and cruel. Human sacrifice and female infanticide were widely

practiced. Each Arab tribe had its own gods and worshiped idols.

The most important of these was the House of God (Ka'bah), located in Mecca itself.

When Muhammad was a young man it contained 360 pagan idols, worshipped by dozens of

separate tribes and clans. His clan, the Hashemites, had the honour of guarding it, through

tradition which held that the monument had been re-built by their ancestors Ibrahim and Isma'il

after the original- believed to have been built by Adam at the beginning of time- had fallen into

disrepair. The Quyrash's wealth was based on the dozens of pagan cults who used the Ka'bah

as their central shrine. They sold idols, and Mecca's position as a trading city was largely based
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on contacts made with the visiting tribes. New religions were welcomed as good for business.

At first Islam was seen as just another money-making cult and Muhammad was encouraged to

use the Ka'ba alongside the others in a spirit of fair and toleration.

But in 613 Muhammad began preaching to the public at large, rejecting all other

religions, demanding the removal of idols from the Ka'ba and therefore threatening trade. As

Quyrash hostility grew Muhammad showed himself to be skillful politician as well as a learned

theologian.
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