Islam Prophet Muhammad Biography

Muhammad was an important personality of Arabian Peninsula both religious, social as well as a political personality who introduced Islam in the Arabian Peninsula. Some people believe that he is an Isa al-Masih from inside the Islamic tradition and holds the status of the Seal of the Prophets.

Muhammad was born at 570 of Common Era in Mecca, to Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. At the age of 40, according to the Islamic tradition, Muhammad said he was visited by Gabriel in a mountain cave called Hira and received his first revelation from God.

The followers of Muhammad struggled with the opposition of the Meccan polytheists for 13 years; however, after 622 Muhammad’s followers and himself have left Mecca for Medina. At December 629 AD Muhammad mobilized 10 thousand Muslim converts to march on the city of Mecca.

The messages which Muhammad claimed to have received until his death, make up the chapters of the Quran, on which the religion is founded.

Quran

Quran is the holy scripture of Islam and generally directed to a single “Messenger of Allah”. It proves very little use in adding to Muhammad’s chronological biography and the Birmingham manuscript has been carbon dated to Muhammad’s time.

Early biographies

The earliest written sira of Muhammad is Ibn Ishaq's Life of God's Messenger, written c. 767 CE (150 AH), though Ibn Hisham omitted matters from Ibn Ishaq's biography that "would distress certain people". Many scholars accept these early biographies as authentic, though their accuracy is unascertainable.

Hadith

Some Western academics view the hadith collections as accurate historical sources, while Muslim scholars place a greater emphasis on the hadith literature instead of the biographical literature.

Pre-Islamic Arabia

The areas in the Arabian Peninsula were mostly without cultivable land which was essentially volcanic in nature and therefore raised farming to near impossible unless done around oases and or springs. In this issue, tribal affiliation was effective for establishing social cohesion among indigenous tribes.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, gods or goddesses were considered as tribal affiliines and the Kaaba in Mecca contained images of 360 tribal protecting spirits. There were monotheistic people in Arabia, the Christians and Jews.

The second half of the sixth century was politically unstable in Arabian peninsula. Based on Arab racism and religious differences, many people refused to change their endorsed foreign religion.

Muhammad’s tribe had forming the cult association of hums, which linked many tribes in western Arabia to Kaaba and the importance of the Meccan shrine.

Childhood and early life

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim was born in Mecca about the year 570 and this same year, Yemeni King Abraha tried to invade mecca but failed. During his youth, he also used the title of al-Amin, and people can either bestow it as his character was described by them.

Muhammad had no father and, from his birth to the age of two, was under their foster-mother’s care; his mother died when he was 6 and he lived with his uncle Abu Talib till the latter’s death.

Sources of information that depict Muhammad’s early life are scarce and most are simply myths that were created about his childhood and early marriage. He was refused marriage from his cousin Fakhita bint Abi Talib, but he got married to a successful business woman named Khadija until then died and he remained with her though they were married only once.

The Quraysh in 605 made up their mind to place a roof on it but had considered the nature of the idols. This is how Muhammad assumed the position of mediator, put the Black Stone on the cloak and showed the clans where to help him put the Stone up.

Beginnings of the Quran

Muhammad was forty when the angel Gabriel visited him in the cave of Hira and ordered him to ‘Read’ the Quran. Muhammad said that he cannot write and the angel tightened his throat until he would recite the verses.

Muhammad was frightened by the experience, but after speaking to his wife and sponsor Khadija, and Waraqa ibn Nawfal, a Christian cousin of Khadija. Khadija brought a doctor to perform her examination on him and therefore found out that it was not a Satan but an angel that visited him.

Muhammad’s behavior every time he had revelations prompted many to accuse him of being possessed by a jinn, or he was a soothsayer or magician. Still, these mysterious seizure events could have been the convincing evidence to his followers.

Campbell believes that Muhammad’s wife Khadija was the first who started believing in him, then his ten-year-old cousin named Ali ibn Abi Talib, his close friend Abu Bakr and his adopted son Zaid. The initial surahs used what can be best described as a threatening form of encouragement for the non-Muslims, and rewards for those who embraced the religion.

Opposition in Mecca

Muhammad the prophet started preaching to the public at large in around 613 but the people of Mecca rejected him. He refused to work wonders and said that the Quran was enough as a sign from Allah for people.

The Quraysh talked to one another about Muhammad’s and his behavior with his companions and thus Muhammad said ‘if you do not obey me the god will send you a slaughter’. The Quraysh left him alone this time around after the intervention of Abu Bakr.

On two occasions, Quraysh sought to buy Muhammad’s silence or distract him with position and marriage, both of which he declined.

When Quraysh ran into a group of Muslims praying in a ravine, one of the Muslims took a camel's jawbone and struck a Quraysh, splitting his head open, in what is reported to be the first bloodshed in Islam.

The initial persecution by the Meccans was mostly mild, and was constrained by the clan system. The most notable instances of bodily violence against professed Muslims were against slaves, who lacked clan protection.

Quraysh delegation to Yathrib

The Quraysh’s leaders sent two men to Yathrib to asking the jewish rabbis about the issue regarding to Muhammad. The rabbis then told them that if they wanted to meet Muhammad they should put three questions to him and he would answer them the next morning.

The Qur'an answers three questions from Jews and Quraysh: men dozing in a cave; Dhu al-Qarnayn; the quality of the spirit. The Jews and the Quraysh did not embrace Islam when they received the answers.

Migration to Abyssinia and the incident of Satanic Verses

Muhammad instructed some companions to flee to the Abyssinian Kingdom of Aksum but the king refused their asylum request instead, he sent two men back with invitation to the king’s sister Umm Habiba and her husband.

As for historians, Tabari and Ibn Hisham, they record only one migration to Abyssinia but Ibn Sa’d mentions two; both groups return to Makkah after the event of hijra. Discussing the episodes, historian W. M. Watt explains that they were rather more far-fetched than simple narratives lead one to believe.

Muhammad wanted to return to his tribe and be back together and sex and Satan put two verses on his tongue that encompassed three idols of his people. The following day, Muhammad withdrew those verses and God replaced them with other verses that which curse those goddesses.

The preadolescent incident of Muhammad’s turning away from strict monotheism was reported en masse and surely recorded by nearly all of the early writers on Muhammad in Islams first two centuries, but it has slowly been revised by Muslim scholars.

Muhammad carried on moving within the town without hindrance though people started spewing at him verbally After a sub-sect among Quraysh had begun attempts to bring the boycott to an end.

Attempt to establish himself in Ta'if

Muhammad had probably one of his sad years in 619 when his wife Khadija had passed away and his uncle Abu Talib also died. His other uncle, Abu Lahab, also stopped supporting him once he was told that both his nephews, Abu Talib and Abd al-Muttalib, were already earmarked for hell.

After the incident Tribes of Mecca forced Muhammad and his companions to leave they went to Ta’if in an attempt to settle the area but were again attacked. He wanted everybody to conceal this issue to him but they stoned him and severely wounded his joints.

It is reported on the authority of Muhammad who sought refuge with Akhnas ibn Shariq and Suhayl ibn Amir and Mut’im ibn ‘Adiy and they refused. Abu Jahl said that he would fight for whoever Mut ‘im fought for, and therefore Mut ‘im went out with his sons and nephews to join Muhammad on a ride to Mecca.

Isra' and Mi'raj

Muhammad's night journey from Mecca to the farthest place of worship, described in Quranic verse 17:1, is believed by Muslims to have begun at the Kaaba, and ended at Bayt al-Maqdis, which is generally associated with Jerusalem.

The dating of Muhammad's ascension differs from account to account. Ibn Sa'd recorded Muhammad's ascension from near the Kaaba to the heavens first, while Ibn Hisham recorded Muhammad's ascension from Mecca to Bayt al-Maqdis first.

Migration to Medina (Hijrah)

Medina, more than 320 kilometers to the North of Mecca, was founded by Jewish refugees who had escaped the revolt against the Romans. Statements of the city some Arab tribes from southern Arabia moved into the city and join the Jewish people.

When Muhammad realized that he was unable to convince any more of his fellow Makkans to become Muslims, he met six people from the Banu Khazraj tribe, who converted to Islam, told the people of the tribe about their meeting with Muhammad and about the prophecy which said that both tribes could become united.

The Prophet Muhammad commissioned Mus’ab ibn Umayr to go back to Medina, and teach five of the previous converts about Islam. Mubarak claimed that 75 people from Medina gathered in a secret meeting at Aqaba and vowed to support him.

Muhammad urged the Meccan Muslims to migrate to Medina and he remained behind, supervising those who did not want to move, and insisting they migrate. In the morning after three days Muhammad left for Medina to which named Yathrib together with hisContracts Closest friend Abu Bakr.

Medinan years

According to Julius Wellhausen, the Jewish tribes were allied with the two Arab tribes as subordinates, but according to Russ Rodgers, the Arab tribes held a subservient or at most an equal position to the Jews.

Constitution of Medina

Muhammad penned a text now referred to as the Constitution of Medina, but scholars disagree on whether it was a treaty or a unilateral proclamation, the number of documents it comprised, and the proper approach to translating it.

Beginning of armed conflict

Muhammad hoped that the Jewish people would accept him as a Prophet for which he had no success. The Jewish criticism of the Quran made Muhammad’s perception of them worse, this is when the direction of the Muslim prayer was changed.

Two aspects of Muhammad’s actions classify the Meccans as the enemy: his appointment of that city as the heart of Islam and his desire to exact revenge upon his former oppressors; a divine mandate to wage war against the polytheists resulted from this decision. He sent his companions to undertake attacks on the Quraysh’s merchant caravans.

After two months that Muhammad had plotted to attack the caravan with the intention of causing it to reach Mecca in bad shape, Abu Sufyan sent a messenger to Mecca for help but Muhammad then ordered his troops to bury all the wells with sand and stones including the one reserved for him and thus forcing the Meccans into battle for water.

It started with the duel of the chosen warriors from both armies, after that it changed into a full scale fight. Muhammad encouraged his followers to fight for ‘the Lord of worlds ’ and to die fighting and would be deemed to have gone to paradise, he orders his companions to look for Abu Jahl who was beheaded and handed over to Muhammad.

As soon as Muhammad came to power, he endeavored to strengthen his rule. He commanded his followers to assassinate Asma bint Marwan and Abu Afak and appointed poets, Hassan ibn Thabit to disseminate his orders amongst the tribes.

Conflicts with Jewish tribes

After the Battle of Badr, Muhammad began a blockade on the Banu Qaynuqa, considered weaker and richest of three Jewish clans in Medina. The Banu Qaynuqa surrendered in two weeks without going to war.

One hadith is that Muhammad was going to kill the entire tribe, but Abdullah ibn Ubay entered the tent and told Muhammad to spare them. Muhammad saved their lives on condition that they leave Medina in three days and surrender their wealth to the Muslims.

Then Muhammad shifted to another personal issue, he asked the devilish followers who would kill Ka’b ibn Ashraf, a man who made fun of God and his errand boy. Ibn Maslama proposed himself for the job, and Muhammad assembled a group with Ka‘b’s foster brother, Abu Naila’.

Meccan retaliation

In 625, the Quraysh, wearied by Muhammad's continuous attacks on their caravans, assembled an army to oppose Muhammad. Muhammad convened a war council, and decided to meet the enemy in open battle at Uhud Hill, but lost advantage when some archers disobeyed orders.

Muhammad found himself needing to pay blood money to Banu Amir, so he sought monetary help from the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir, but while waiting, he disappeared and revealed a divine revelation of an assassination attempt on him by the Banu Nadir.

Raid on the Banu Mustaliq

Muhammad’s troops ambushed the Banu Mustaliq at their watering place and they all fled swiftly. They were able to seize 2,000 camels, 500 sheep and goats and 200 women from the said tribe although they demanded for ranson.

Murder of the Khaybar leaders and the story of Banu Uraynah

This northward raids of Medina had attracted alot of opposition by Muhammad. Standard Release One of the major leaders living in Khaybar was killed by the Muslims at night in his room, the other Khaybar leader was killed as he approached Medina with the intention of reaching some sort of agreement with the Muslims.

Muhammad requested eight men from the Banû Uraynah tribe to drink camel’s urine and milk but instead they decided to steal the camels and slaughter the shepherds.

Battle of the Trench

The Quraysh, realizing their victory at Uhud had failed to weaken Muhammad's position, decided to capture Medina, and after extensive negotiations with various Bedouin tribes, amassed a force believed to number around 10,000 men. Muhammad ordered his followers to fortify Medina with trenches, and used covert negotiations to create discord among his enemies.

Massacre of the Banu Qurayza

Meccans have witnessed the angel Gabriel visit Muhammad and order him to massacre the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. Qurayza wanted 70 hostages from Quraysh, but Abu Sufyan rejected their demand.

Muhammad attacked the tribe and would not let it depart with portable property. The tribe then asked to take one of the Aws partners who have embraced Islam but Muhammad pointed to the throat and beckoned a massacre.

The Banu Qurayza accepted defeat after a 25-day blockade and, at Muhammad’s instance, Sa’d ibn Muadh as the judge in the case. Sa’d then ordered that every man among the people should be killed, and that their women and children should be kept as prisoners.

Incidents with the Banu Fazara

Muhammad prepared to conduct numerous operations after the annihilation of the Qurayza, and several tribes joined the Muslims to avoid the raids.

Muhammad organized a caravan to conduct trade in Syria, but was attacked by Banu Fazara. Zayd led a punitive expedition that captured Umm Qirfa, the esteemed Fazara matriarch, and ordered Qays to execute her.

Treaty of Hudaybiyya

Muhammad embarked on an unopposed pilgrimage to Mecca, but encountered Quraysh emissaries who questioned his intentions. He sent Uthman, Abu Sufyan's second cousin, to negotiate with the Quraysh, but the negotiations ended in a treaty.

A ten-year truce was established between Muhammad and the Quraysh. Muslims were allowed to form alliances with the Quraysh, but were required to depart back to Medina.

Invasion of Khaybar

Muhammad intended to attack Khaybar, a rich source of water and food 75 miles (121 km) north of Medina and the Jews of the town never expected an attack from the Muslims. This city was taken over by the Muslims after a bitter fight that lasted well over a month.

Muhammad consummated the marriage with Safiyya bint Huyayy, a beautiful 17-year-old girl, the very night after the battle, in disobedience to his own sexually mandated waiting period for the captives, no less than one menstrual cycle before cohabitation was permitted.

Some of the Jews after being defeated by the Muslims suggested to Muhammad a proposal to continue living in Medina and be his tenant farmers. Muhammad agreed to the decision with a reservation that he had a right to replace them at any one time.

Bishr an associate of the prophet Muhammad died by poison as well as Muhammad experienced a period of ailments from the same poison. The woman that poisoned Muhammad was Zaynab bint al-Harith and when she has committed the act, she was put to death.

Fulfilled umrah and the Battle of Mu'tah

Muhammad took some of his followers to perform the umrah in Mecca, where he married Maymunah bint al-Harith, a 27-year-old sister of his uncle al-Abbas. The Quraysh refused to join his wedding feast.

Muhammad launched four raids on tribes in the vicinity, two of which ended in defeat, and directed his army to move northwards, towards the frontier of the Byzantine Empire, where they were defeated at Mu'tah.

Conquest of Mecca

The Prophet Muhammad, by sending his secret infiltrator, Allan fanned the animosity between the Banu Bakr and the Banu Khuza’ah and directed his forces towards Makkah, where the Quraysh leader Abu Sufyan embraced Islam and informed the residents that their persons and possessions would not be harmed.

Muhammad dispatched his troops in the field with instructions that any six men and four women should be executed on the spot. Among those targeted was Abdullah ibn Sa’d ibn Abi Sarh who claimed that he used to change the content of the revelations of the Quran while in the company of Muhammad and the Prophet could not notice it.

The Muslims armies took over Mecca and the locals were forced to surrender and accept the new religion and the leadership of Muhammad. The main ten goals were hit and killed, while the rest ten were given a sort of amnesty for all of their misdoing.

Subduing the Hawazin and Thaqif and the expedition to Tabuk

Muhammad led 12,000 soldiers to raid the Banu Hawazin, but they surprised him at Wadi Hunayn and were overpowered. Muhammad then turned his attention to Taif, a city that was famous for its vineyards and gardens.

Muhammad distributed the loot acquired at Hunayn among his soldiers, and some of them opposed giving away their portions. He compensated them with six camels each from subsequent raids, and distributed a big portion of the booty to the new converts from the Quraysh.

Muhammad took his army to attack the wealthy border provinces of Byzantine Syria, and forced some of the local chiefs to accept his rule and pay jizya. This resulted in Taif losing its last major ally, and the people of Taif embracing Islam.

Farewell pilgrimage

Muhammad received a revelation granting idolaters four months of grace, after which Muslims would attack, kill, and plunder them wherever they met. He also reaffirmed the right of husbands to discipline and strike their wives without excessive force.

Death and tomb

Muhammad suffered a dreadful headache in June 632, fainted in Maymunah's hut, and died on 8 June. He said that God would not afflict him with such a vile disease, and ordered all the women to also take an Abyssinian remedy.

Muhammad was buried in Aisha's house, and his tomb was expanded during the reign of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I. The Green Dome above the tomb was built by the Mamluk sultan Al Mansur Qalawun in the 13th century.

When Saud bin Abdul-Aziz took Medina in 1805, Muhammad's tomb was stripped of its gold and jewel ornamentation. In 1925, the Saudi militias retook Medina and this time managed to keep it, but many pilgrims continued to practice ziyarat.

After Muhammad

With Muhammad's death, disagreement broke out over who Muhammad's successor would be. Abu Bakr was confirmed as the first caliph, but had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes.

The pre-Islamic Middle East was dominated by the Byzantine and Sassanian empires, but Muslims conquered Mesopotamia, Byzantine Syria, Byzantine Egypt, and large parts of Persia within a decade.

Household

Muhammad's life is traditionally defined into two periods: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca (from 570 to 622), and post-hijra (emigration) in Medina (from 622 until 632). Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives in total, and performed household chores such as preparing food, sewing clothes, and repairing shoes.

Khadijah had four daughters and two sons with Muhammad; all but one of his daughters, Fatimah, died before him. Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him a son named Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, who died at two years old.

Muhammad adopted Zayd ibn Haritha as his son, but disowned him when he was about to marry Zayd's ex-wife, Zaynab bint Jahsh. Muhammad insisted that slave owners treat their slaves well and stressed the virtue of freeing slaves.

Islamic tradition

Shahadah is one of the basic beliefs of the Muslim, and is muttered by any person before dying. It is mandatory for any person who wants to embrace Islam to read this creed.Anummeroder │dat The creed has to be read by non-Muslims who wish to embrace Islam.

All the so called prophets are regarded to have been the last one being Muhammad the prophet of Islam and Quran acknowledges that Quran is the only miracle given to Muhammad. But in the later writings several miracles or the events of supernatural nature were attributed to Muhammad after his death.

The Sunnah also refers to what was said and done by Muhammad ands is very general, applying to almost all facets of life. It is good practice for the hypothetical righteous Muslim and the accomplishments it has made in its culture.

The Muslims in a general way have shown affection and esteem towards Muhammad. The Quran calls Muhammad as 'rahmat’ for the worlds and in most of the Islamic world a celebration of Muhammad’s birth occurs on the twelfth of the Rabi’ al-awwal, though public celebration is prohibited in Saudi Arabia due its Wahhabi influence.

 Appearance and depictions

Muhammad was moderately tall, and of strong build with broad chest, possessed black piercing eyes, long thick beard, neat black mustache, good set of teeth and healthy complexation. His gait was militarilike and had a decided purpose.

Islamic art dealing with religion refrain from illustrating the word and as well as images of Muhammad. And yet, the typical portrayal of the Prophet implies him wearing a face veil, or depicts him allegorically as a flame.

The first known representational images of Muhammad date back from the early 13th century Anatolian Seljuk and Ilkhanid Persian paintings, where Sunni and Shi’ite factions employed in a bid to justify their agenda respective histories of Islam. The Persian territories witnessed the representation of real-life Miguel through the Timurid and Safavid periods, but most of the mosques never painted images of Miguel. Today numerous copies from historical representation and present images exist in some of the Muslim-dominated nations.

Concisely, in the view of William Montgomery Watt, Muhammad’s religion was a total response to a total situation. He was interacting with the religious, the intellectual, the economic, the social, the political context of the present day Mecca.

Islamic social changes developed from the previous conditions of Arab society in some ways. Muhammad’s message revolutionalized the society and moral orders of life in the Arabian Peninsular and his message intended paying of an alms tax known as zakat for the indigent.

European appreciation

We can look to Guillaume Postel claiming that Muhammad should be hold by the Christians as a prophet, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who appreciated the fact of Muhammad not going astray from the natural religion and political talents of Muhammad described by Henri de Boulainville.

 Voltaire has contradictory ideas about Muhammad offering a picture of Muhammad as a fanatic while at the same time as a legislator for uniting the religious and the political authority. In comparing Zoroaster, Confucius and Muhamad , Emmanuel Pastoret provided a lecture to the effect that the Quran offers the loftiest truths of cult and morale to humanity. Napoleon Bonaparte had respect to Muhammad and Islam, while Thomas Carlyle named Muhammad as the silent giant soul.

However, other European Jews, more nuanced in their perceptions, and particularly envious of Al-Andalus, used writing about Islam as an escape to fantasy, in view of the disgust, hatred, and pogroms that dominated Jewish existence in nineteenth-century Europe according to Ian Almond.

Some modern authors have ruled out any suggestion of conscious dishonesty on Muhammad’s part, claiming that the Prophet was entirely genuine and above board. But, as it often occurs, sincerity does not guarantee the truthfulness, and Muhammad could have received his visions in his subconscious.

Criticism

Criticism of Muhammad has existed since the 7th century, when non-Muslim Arab contemporaries decried his preaching monotheism, and in the Middle Ages, Western and Byzantine labeled him a false prophet, the Antichrist, or portrayed him as a heretic.

Sufism

Sufis, who sought to understand the inner meaning of the Quran and the inner nature of Muhammad, viewed the prophet as a perfect human being.

Other religions

Muhammad is considered an important prophet of God in the Druze faith, but his teachings have been superseded by those of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá faith.