The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
COMPILED BY DR. ANIEKAN AKPAN (JP)
LIFE HISTORY
Muhammad was born around 570, AD in Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia). His father died before he was born and he was raised first by his grandfather and then his uncle. He belonged to a poor but respectable family of the Quraysh tribe. The family was active in Meccan politics and trade.
Many of the tribes living in the Arabian Peninsula at the time were nomadic, trading goods as they crisscrossed the dessert. Most tribes were polytheistic, worshipping their own set of gods. The town of Mecca was an important trading and religious center, home to many temples and worship sites where the devoted prayed to the idols of these gods. The most famous site was the Kaaba (meaning cube in Arabic). It is believed to have been built by Abraham (Ibrahim to Muslims) and his son Ismail. Gradually the people of Mecca turned to polytheism and idolatry. Of all the gods worshipped, it is believed that Allah was considered the greatest and the only one without an idol.
In his early teens, Muhammad worked in a camel caravan, following in the footsteps of many people of his age, born of meager wealth. Working for his uncle, he gained experience in commercial trade traveling to Syria and eventually from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean. In time, Muhammad earned a reputation as honest and sincere, acquiring the nickname “al-Amin” meaning faithful or trustworthy.
In his early 20s, Muhammad began working for a wealthy merchant woman named Khadihah, 15 years his senior. She soon became attracted to this young, accomplished man and proposed marriage. He accepted and over the years the happy union brought several children. Not all lived to adulthood, but one, Fatima, would marry Muhammad’s cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom Shi’ite Muslims regard as Muhammed’s successor.
HIS CONTRIBUTIONS TO ISLAM AS THE MESSENGER OF ALLAH
Muhammad taught Muslims that they are forbidden to ‘associate partners’ to Allah, which to them, means calling the Hindu deity Krishna, ‘Lord God’ or any other deity such as Jesus Christ, the ‘Son of God’ in Christian theology. The crime of associating partners is called ‘shirk’ and branded ‘apostasy’ in the Muslim community. There are strict penalties for apostasy which vary among the sects of Islam, from rebuke to capital punishment. However, though apostasy was rare at one time, it is becoming more prevalent due to the integration and education of Muslims in the West. Nowadays, movements for reform in Islam are becoming more prominent, even televising their views on more liberal Arabic television stations.
Thus, Muhammad’s teachings are being questioned more so, and re-evaluated by the Muslims of today in the quest for knowledge, tolerance and inclusivity. This does not mean faithful Muslims are abandoning the Prophets teaching, it just means that his teachings are re-evaluated in light of modern society and that is how some Muslims practise their faith today, while others hold fast to a more rigid, questionable view.
In criticism, like other religious groups such as Christians and Hindus, some Muslims understand the teaching of Muhammad to promote violence. How this affects Muslims is through sectarian violence from a small proportion of Sunni extremists who label Shia as ‘Kufar’ or ‘apostates’ which usually ends in numerous deaths, particularly in Egypt and Syria where Shia Muslims are still the minority. This is being challenged and denounced by Muslims in the majority across the globe, and some Muslims live peacefully while still being faithful to the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (BBC, 2016). What is key, is that Muslims follow Muhammad ‘…from ethical conduct to diet.’ (Ruthven 1997, 60).
HIS BIRTH
Muhammad was born into the most powerful tribe in Mecca, the Quraish, around 570 A.D. The power of the Quraish derived from their role as successful merchants. Several trade routes intersected at Mecca, allowing the Quraish to control trade along the west coast of Arabia, north to Syria, and south to Yemen.
The parents of the Holy Prophet (pbuh) were noble and pious people. They were free from all the evils of their society and never worshipped idols.
Abdullah, the Prophet’s father, belonged to a very famous tribe in Makkah called Quraysh. Shortly before the Prophet’s birth while Abdullah was on a trade journey he fell ill and passed away. Aminah, the Prophet’s mother, came from the Banu Zuhra tribe in Yathrib (Madinah). Whilst on a journey to take her young son to visit his father’s grave Aminah fell ill and passed away also. The Prophet faced both deaths at just six years old.
Mecca was home to two widely venerated polytheistic cults whose gods were thought to protect its lucrative trade. After working for several years as a merchant, Muhammad was hired by Khadija, a wealthy widow, to ensure the safe passage of her caravans to Syria. They eventually married.
MARRIAGE
Muhammad’s wives, or the wives of Muhammad, were the women married to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Muslims often use the term “Mothers of the Believers” prominently before or after referring to them as a sign of respect, a term derived from the Quran.
Muhammad was monogamous for 25 years when married to his first wife, Khadija bint Khuwaylid. After her death in 619 CE, he over time married a number of women, most of them widows, for reasons of family bonds and to provide for them after his companions had died. His life is traditionally delineated by two epochs: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca, a city in western Arabia, from the year 570 to 622CE, and post-hijra in Medina, from 622 until his death in 632. All but two of his marriages were contracted after the Hegira (or Hijra – migration to Medina).
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
According to Anas ibn Malik, the Prophet Muhammad used to visit all eleven of his wives in one night; but he could manage this, as he had the sexual prowess of thirty men. The historian Al-Tabari calculated that Muhammad married a total of fifteen women, though only ever eleven at one time; and two of these marriages were never consummated. This tally of fifteen does not include at least four concubines. According to Merriam-Webster, a concubine is “a woman with whom a man cohabits without being married”, and has a “social status in a household below that of a wife.”
All of Muhammad’s concubines were his slaves. Al-Tabari also excludes from the fifteen several other women with whom Muhammad had some kind of marriage contract but who, due to legal technicalities, never became full wives. It is fairly certain, however, that none of these unions was ever consummated. They were the cultural equivalent of a broken engagement. There were several other women whom Muhammad wished to marry, or whom he was invited to marry, but for various reasons he did not. Finally, the Prophet (pbuh) and Khadijah (ra) had six children – four daughters and two sons . The Prophet (pbuh) also had a son with Maria (ra). Sadly all the sons of the Prophet (pbuh), Abdullah, Qasim and Ibrahim died in infancy.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
HIS CALL
When he was roughly forty, Muhammad began having visions and hearing voices. Searching for clarity, he would sometimes meditate at Mount Hira, near Mecca. On one of these occasions, the Archangel Gabriel (Jibra’il in Arabic) appeared to him and instructed him to recite “in the name of [your] lord.” This was the first of many revelations that became the basis of the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam. These early revelations pointed to the existence of a single God, contradicting the polytheistic beliefs of the pre-Islamic Arabian Peninsula.
Initially overwhelmed by the significance of what was being revealed to him, Muhammad found unflinching support in his wife and slowly began to attract followers. His strong monotheistic message angered many of the Meccan merchants. They were afraid that trade, which they believed was protected by the pagan gods, would suffer. From that point forward, Muhammad was ostracized in Mecca. For a time, the influence and status of his wife and his uncle, Abu Talib, the chief of the clan, protected Muhammad from persecution. After they died, however, Muhammad’s situation in Mecca became dire.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
EARLY RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN MECCA
The traditional groups in the region of Arabia were polytheistic and worshiped their own gods. By the time of Muhammad, Mecca is said to have been a center of worship to more than 360 deities or gods; the greatest of these was Allah (meaning “the god”). Allah was known as the chief of the Meccan pantheon of gods and was worshiped from southern Syria to Arabia. Mecca was full of idols, temples, and worship sites. Tradition states that the god Allah was the only god without an idol; he would become the sole entity of Muhammad’s new Islamic religion.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
The traditional groups that traded in Mecca held many different religious beliefs. The city was a forum for the many vices and activities associated with trade, travel, and metropolitan business. To escape the activities of Mecca, Muhammad would often seek the solitude of the mountains, where he would contemplate and think. Tradition states that the angel Gabriel appeared to him while he was meditating in a mountain cave in 610 CE, when Muhammad was about forty. Muhammad was given words from Allah, which he recited from memory to his followers. According to tradition, Muhammad was illiterate; his supporters wrote down his words, compiled them into the Koran (Qur’an), the holiest book of Islam. Muhammad was the founder of the new religion, which he called Islam (meaning “submission to Allah”). The term Muslim (meaning “one who submits”) refers to a follower of Islam.
After Muhammad returned to Mecca and related his visions and Allah’s words from the angel Gabriel, he began to speak out against the city’s vices and many gods. He stated that there was only one god: Allah, the same creator god of Abraham. He spoke out against gambling and drinking alcohol. He advocated the caretaking of widows and orphans. He also preached regarding family and community. His message was not well received: in 622 CE the people of Mecca forced Muhammad out. He fled to the safety of the nearby city of Medina in a journey known as the hejira (hijra). This historic journey became the start of the Islamic calendar, which is based on the lunar cycles. Muhammad found refuge in Medina and became a respected citizen.
Launching out from Medina, Muhammad and those loyal to him defeated the army of Mecca and converted the city into Islam’s holiest place. They destroyed all Mecca’s idols and temples except the Kaaba. Muhammad’s teaching brought unity to many Arabian groups under one religion. Since the Koran was written in Arabic, Arabic became the official language of Islam. The Kaaba and the mosque built at Mecca became the center of the Islamic world and a destination for Muslim pilgrims. Islam brought a new identity, a faith in one god, and a set of values to the Arab world. Islam made sense in a world with many traditional beliefs and few unifying principles.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
It’s important to keep in mind that monotheist belief was not new: Christianity had been around for more than six hundred years. Judaism and Zoroastrianism in Persia had been around for centuries before Christianity. The principles of Islam and Muhammad’s teachings are a continuation of Judaism and Christianity. All three traditions assert a faith in a divine creator, with important messages coming through prophets or holy messengers. All three religions acknowledge Abraham as a founding patriarch. Muslims believe that Moses and Jesus were major prophets and that Muhammad was the greatest and final prophet. All three religions have stories about creation, Adam and Eve, the flood, and other similar stories that have been adapted to the traditions and characters of each religion.
Religion is a part of culture. The religions that emerged out of the Middle East absorbed many of the existing cultural traits, traditions, or habits of the people into their religious practices. Early Islam adapted many Arab cultural traits, styles of dress, foods, and the pilgrimage and folded them into its principles. Early Christianity and Judaism also adopted cultural traits, holidays, styles of dress, and cultural traditions.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
However, during the first three years of his ministry, Muhammad preached Islam privately, mainly among his near relatives and close acquaintances. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad’s wife Khadija was the first to believe he was a prophet. She was followed by Muhammad’s ten-year-old cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, close friend Abu Bakr, and adopted son Zaid. According to Islamic belief, in the fourth year of Muhammad’s prophethood, around 613, he was ordered by God to make his propagation of this monotheistic faith public. Muhammad’s earliest teachings were marked by his insistence on the oneness of God, the denunciation of polytheism, belief in the last judgment and its recompense, and social and economic justice.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Most Meccans ignored and mocked him, though a few became his followers. There were three main groups of early converts to Islam: younger brothers and sons of great merchants; people who had fallen out of the first rank in their tribe or failed to attain it; and the weak, mostly unprotected foreigners.
HIS PERSECUTION
- Beginning of Persecution
At the end of the third year, the Prophet received the command to “arise and warn,” whereupon he began to preach in public, pointing out the wretched folly of idolatry in face of the marvelous laws of day and night, of life and death, of growth and decay, which manifest the power of God and attest to His Oneness. It was then, when he began to speak against their gods, that Qureysh became actively hostile, persecuting his poorer disciples, mocking and insulting him. The one consideration which prevented them from killing him was fear of the blood-vengeance of the clan to which his family belonged. Strong in his inspiration, the Prophet went on warning, pleading, and threatening, while Quraish did all they could to ridicule his teaching and deject his followers.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Ø The Flight to Abyssinia
The converts of the first four years were mostly humble folk unable to defend themselves against oppression. So cruel was the persecution they endured that the Prophet advised all who could possibly contrive to do so to emigrate, at least temporarily, to Abyssinia (now Ethiopia), where they would be well received by the Christian Negus, ‘an upright King.’ About eighty converts fled there in 614 CE to the Christian country.
This apparent alliance with a foreign power further infuriated the Meccans, and they sent envoys to the Negus demanding the Muslims’ extradition. A great debate was held at Court and the Muslims won the day, first by demonstrating that they worshipped the same God as the Christians, and then by reciting one of the Quranic passages concerning the Virgin Mary, whereupon the Negus wept and said: ‘Truly this has come from the same source as that which Jesus brought.’
Still in spite of persecution and emigration, the little company of Muslims grew in number. The Quraish were seriously alarmed. Idol worship at the Kaaba, the holy place to which all Arabia made pilgrimage, ranked for them as its guardians, as first among their vested interests. At the season of the pilgrimage, they posted men on all the roads to warn the tribes against the madman who was preaching in their midst. They tried to bring the Prophet to a compromise, offering to accept his religion if he would so modify it as to make room for their gods as intercessors with God. In return, they offered to make him their king if he would give up attacking idolatry. Prophet Muhammad’s constant refusal frustrated their efforts at negotiation.
Ø Conversion of Umar
More important still was the conversion of one of the most formidable young man in the city, Umar ibn al-Khattab. Infuriated by the increasing success of the new religion – so contrary to all that he had been brought up to believe – he swore to kill Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, regardless of the consequences. He was instructed that, before doing so, he had better look into the affairs of his own family, for his sister and her husband had become Muslims. Bursting into their home he found them reading a Chapter called ‘Ta-Ha’, and when his sister acknowledged that they had indeed embraced Islam, he struck her a harsh blow. More than a little ashamed of himself, he then asked to see what they had been reading. She handed him the text after insisting he made ablution before handling it, and as he read these verses of the Quran, he underwent a sudden and total transformation. The sweet potency of the words of Quran changed him forever! He went directly to Muhammad and accepted Islam.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Men such as these were too important in the social hierarchy to be attacked, but most of the new Muslims were either poor or in slavery. The poor were beaten and the slaves tortured to make them renounce their faith, and there was little Muhammad could do to protect them.
A black slave named Bilal was pegged down naked under the scorching sun with a heavy stone on his chest and left to die of thirst. He was taunted by the pagans to renounce his religion in return for remission of torture, but his only reply was ‘Ahad! Ahad!’ (‘God is One! God is One!’). It was in this state, on the point of death, that Abu Bakr found him and ransomed him for an exorbitant fee. He was nursed back to health in Muhammad’s home and became one of the closest and best-loved of the companions. When, much later, the question arose as to how the faithful should be summoned to prayer, Bilal became the first mu’ezzin (the call to prayer announced with a loud voice from the Muslim place of worship, called masjid) of Islam: a tall, thin black man with a powerful voice and, so it is said, the face of a crow under a thatch of grey hair; a man from whom the sun had burned out, during his torment, everything but love of the One and of the messenger of the One.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Ø Destruction of the Saheefah
Frustrated on every side, the Meccan oligarchy, under the leadership of Abu Jahl, now drew up a formal document declaring a ban or boycott against the Hashim clan as a whole; there were to be no commercial dealings with them until they outlawed Muhammad, and no one was to marry a woman of Hashim or give their daughter to a man of the clan. Then, for three years, the Prophet was constrained with all his kinsfolk in their stronghold, which was situated in one of the gorges which ran down to Mecca.
At length some kinder hearts among Qureysh grew weary of the boycott of old friends and neighbors. They managed to have the document, which had been placed in the Kaaba, brought out for reconsideration. When it was found that all the writing had been destroyed by white ants, except the words Bismika Allahumma (“In thy name, O God”). When the elders saw that marvel, the ban was removed, and the Prophet was again free to go about the city. Meanwhile, the opposition to his preaching had grown rigid. He had little success among the Meccans, and an attempt which he had once made to preach in the city of Taif was a failure. His mission was not proceeding how he expected,, when, at the season of the yearly pilgrimage’, he came upon a little group of men who heard him gladly.
HEGIRAH
On this day in 622, the prophet Muhammad completes his Hegira, or “flight,” from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. In Medina, Muhammad set about building the followers of his religion–Islam–into an organized community and Arabian power. The Hegira would later mark the beginning (year 1) of the Muslim calendar.
Emigration became the only hope for Muhammad and his followers’ survival. In 622, they headed to Medina, another oasis town, where they were promised freedom to practice their religion. The move from Mecca to Medina is known as the hijra—the flight—and marks year 1 of the Islamic, or hijri, calendar.
MOHAMMED IN MEDINA
Among the first things Muhammad did to ease the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was draft a document known as the Constitution of Medina, “establishing a kind of alliance or federation” among the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca. The document specified rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina (including between the Muslim community and other communities, specifically the Jews and other “Peoples of the Book”). The community defined in the Constitution of Medina, Ummah, had a religious outlook, also shaped by practical considerations, and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tribes.
The first group of pagan converts to Islam in Medina were the clans who had not produced great leaders for themselves but had suffered from warlike leaders from other clans. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, with some exceptions.
In Medina, Muhammad continued to receive divine revelations and built an ever-expanding community around the new faith. The conflict with the Quraish continued, but after several years of violent clashes, Mecca surrendered. Muhammad and his followers soon returned and took over the city, destroying all its pagan idols and spreading their belief in one God.
CLASHES BETWEEN THE UMMAH AND QURAYSH
The polytheistic Quraysh opposed the monotheistic message preached by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, himself a Qurayshi from the Banu Hashim. The tribe harassed members of the nascent Muslim community, and attempted to harm Muhammad, but he was protected by his uncle Abu Talib. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his companions, including the Qurayshi Abu Bakr, emigrated to Medina. Muhammad then confronted a Qurayshi caravan returning from Palestine and defeated the Quraysh at the ensuing Battle of Badr in 624. The Quraysh later besieged the Muslims at Medina in 627, but were defeated in the Battle of the Trench. The Treaty of Hudaybiyya was then signed between Muhammad and the Quraysh in 628, but was violated because of a dispute between Bedouin tribes from each camp. In January 630, Muhammad moved to finally settle the conflict with Quraysh and returned with his followers to capture Mecca.
Muhammad entered Mecca victoriously in 630, prompting the rest of Quraysh to embrace Islam. Muhammad sought to consolidate the unity of his expanding Muslim community by “winning over this powerful group [the Quraysh]”, according to Donner; to that end, he used several means, including assurances of Qurayshi participation and influence in the nascent Islamic state. Thus, despite their long enmity with Muhammad, the Quraysh were brought in as political and economic partners and became a key component in the Muslim elite. Indeed, many leading Qurayshi tribesmen were installed in key government positions and in Muhammad’s policy-making circle. According to Donner, the inclusion of Quraysh “in the ruling elite of the Islamic state was very probably responsible for what appears to be the more carefully organized and systematic approach to statesmanship practiced by Muhammad in the closing years of his life, as the organizational skills of the Quraysh were put to use in the service of Islam
With Muhammad’s death in 632, rivalry emerged between the Quraysh and the two other components of the Muslim elite, the Ansar and the Thaqif, over influence in state matters. The Ansar wanted one of their own to succeed the prophet as caliph, but were persuaded by Umar to agree to Abu Bakr. During the reigns of Abu Bakr (632–634) and Umar (r. 634–644), some of the Ansar were concerned about their political stake. The Quraysh apparently held real power during this period marked by the early Muslim conquests.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
During the First Muslim Civil War, the Ansar, who backed Caliph Ali of the Banu Hashim against two factions representing rival Qurayshi clans, were defeated. They were subsequently left out of the political elite, while the Thaqif maintained a measure of influence by dint of their long relationship with the Quraysh. A hadith holding that the caliph must be from Quraysh became almost universally accepted by the Muslims, with the exception of the Kharijites. Indeed, control of the Islamic state essentially devolved into a struggle between various factions of the Quraysh.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
In the first civil war, these factions included the Banu Umayya represented by Mu’awiya ibn Abi Sufyan, the Banu Hashim represented by Ali, and other Qurayshi leaders such as al-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam of the Banu Asad and Talha ibn Ubayd Allah of the Banu Taym. Later, during the Second Muslim Civil War, these same factions again fought for control of the caliphate, with the Umayyads victorious at the war’s conclusion in 692/93. In 750, the issue of which Qurayshi clan would hold the reins of power was again raised but this time, the Abbasids, a branch of the Banu Hashim, were victorious and slew much of the Banu Umayya. Afterward, Islamic leadership was contested between different branches of the Banu Hashim.
MOHAMMED AS A SOCIAL TRANSFORMER
All great civilizations, such as the Greeks, Romans, Persians and today in the form of West, have arisen mainly by advancing human rights and the rule of law. The rise of the Islamic civilization between the 7th and 13th centuries also owes itself to this principle. Few individuals in any civilization have been able to accomplish religious, gender, educational, racial and conflict-resolution reforms all at once. Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam, reformed his society in all five respects which laid the foundation of the Arab and Muslim civilization. Their later decline and today’s extremism from some Muslims has unfortunately obscured the historical contributions by the Prophet for humanity. The following points intend to provide a better sense of his efforts and to show where today things have gone wrong:
- Religious Freedom
Some intolerant Muslims today persecute non-Muslims for proselytizing or blasphemy. In contrast, the Islamic Holy scripture Quran states that “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). However, few know of its context. Before the migration of Prophet Muhammad to Madina, some polytheists in the town had dedicated their children to be raised in the monotheistic Jewish tradition. After converting to Islam, the parents objected to this when the Jewish guardians took the children with them. However, the Prophet refused them permission to forcibly take back their children or to convert them to Islam in the light of this Quranic verse.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Moreover, the Prophet permitted Najrani Christian priests to offer their prayers in his mosque and to have an open religious dialogue before an audience. Moreover, he later wrote them a decree that declared “No compulsion is to be on them; No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims’ houses; they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate.”
- Racial Equality
Pre-Islamic Arab society had racial biases against non-Arabs just as American society had up till the 1960’s. The Prophet managed to purify these primitive sentiments by his personal example. His closest companions Bilal bin Riba (an Abyssinian) and Salman Farsi (a Persian) were both former slaves who went on to command enormous respect in the first Muslim society. In his famous last sermon, the Prophet declared “a white has no superiority over black, nor does a black over a white, except by piety and good action”.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
- Education
The Prophet famously declared that “learning is obligatory upon every Muslim man and woman” and that “he who gives the best upbringing and education to his daughters shall enter paradise.” In his unlettered and oral society, he encouraged his followers learn writing so to be able to transmit Quran’s message far and wide. In sharp contrast to today’s Taliban who blow up girls’ schools, he reminded his people that they needed to “learn half of faith” from his wife Ayesha and that one should seek “knowledge even if one needs to go to China.”
Not surprisingly, it was this initial encouragement which ultimately led to the Islamic golden age of science which advanced medicine, astronomy, algebra and philosophy and also contributed to the Western Renaissance.
- Women’s Rights
In the pre-Islamic society, some proud pagans practiced ‘honor’ killings and female infanticide to offset their ‘shame.’ The numerous reforms which the Prophet instituted in the 7th century included the end of ‘honor’ killings, the right of a woman’s approval in her marriage, her right to ownership of private property, to seek unilateral divorce if the husband was abusive and to re-marry as a widow or divorcee. Some of these rights did not exist even in the West until the early 20th century. Moreover, as the Prophet taught, while a husband was supposed to provide for his wife, the wife was under no obligation to share her wealth or property with the husband.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
Critics point out cruelties in Muslim societies today where women are forced to veil or to marry abusive husbands. Ironically, the violence against women today is exactly the same as the one which the Prophet ended in his society. While many Islamic injunctions on female modesty are voluntary or personal, when they are enforced by law as in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan, they become a violation of “there is no compulsion in religion” (2:256). Moreover, the Quranic injunction in 2:283 that when a woman testifies in financial matters, she should have a female aide at her side (for any help in recalling) is misinterpreted to imply that a woman’s testimony is half of a man in all cases. Often women have no recourse to justice in cases of rape where they are usually punished for ‘adultery.’ This is itself contrary to Quranic commandment (24: 5) which prescribes a corporal punishment for those who try to destroy the reputation of women by false accusations.
- Islam’s “Geneva Convention”
Quran permitted war only in the interest of establishing religious freedom or for self-defense (22:40). The Prophet was himself driven out of his city for preaching his religion, his followers were persecuted or killed and their bodies were mutilated. Yet, he himself forbade retaliation in kind or the holding of slaves except as prisoners captured in such conflicts. His instructions for humane treatment of prisoners during a conflict were exemplary: no women, children, hermits or other non-combatants were to be harmed and that prisoners or slaves were to be fed the same food and clothed the same clothes as the Muslims themselves. It is not surprising that his humane teachings quickly won the hearts of his former enemies which rapidly led to the conversion of Arabia to Islam.
Islam’s global spread and appeal owed itself to Prophet Muhammad’s social reforms. Unfortunately, over the centuries his teachings have been obfuscated and violated much as any other faith or movement. Thus, the misconduct of some Muslim extremists today often makes it difficult to put the historic struggle of Prophet Muhammad for humanitarian causes in context.
In summary, He pioneered the socio-political and economic guidelines for a peaceful and prosperous community life based on justice. Classical Islamic scholars relied on his example in developing Islamic normative law, the maqasid al shari’ah, as a system of human responsibilities and rights encapsulated in the following eight principles:
- Respect for Divine Revelation and Freedom of Religion
- Respect for the Human Person and Life the Allah has made sacred.
- Respect for Family as a foundation on which to build strong community and nation
- Respect for the Environment as vicegerents of Allah on the earth.
- Respect for Economic Justice with Broadened Capital Ownership
- Respect for Political Justice with Self-Determination through Shura (consultation)
- Respect for Human Dignity with Gender Equity and equality of men and women
- Respect for Knowledge and Dissemination of Thought.
THE FIRST FOUR SUCCESSORS OF PROPHET MOHAMMED
Let’s have a look at the era of the four Medina-based Caliphs or “Rightly Guided Caliphs”, in the time immediately after Mohammed passed away.
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
The first Caliph, Abu Bakr
By the time of Muhammad’s death in 632, Islam had become a dominant power in the Arabian peninsula. Muhammad’s successors (the four caliphs) were appointed by the Muslim community to carry out the leadership and rule of Islam throughout the Arabian peninsula and other parts of the world.
The four caliphs were more political figures than spiritual leaders. By military force the first caliph, Abu Bakr, brought all the tribes in the Arabian peninsula under the rule of Islam. These tribes had been divided after Muhammad’s death.
The second Caliph Omar
Under the second caliph Omar or Hadrat Umar Farooq (634 – 644) a phenomenal expansion began, which continued for about a hundred years. The Muslim armies defeated the armies of the Sassanian (Persian) and Byzantine empires. The Muslims then swept through the area that is present-day Iraq and Iran to Central Asia (Bukhara and Samarkand) and the Punjab. They conquered all the Asiatic territories of the Roman Empire except Anatolia (modern Turkey). Northward they occupied Syria, and Damascus was the capital of the Umayyad Dynasty (661 – 750). They conquered Egypt and moved across North Africa and into Europe, ruling most of Spain. Their move into the West was stopped in 732 by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in France.
Remarkable Growth
Within a hundred years after Muhammad’s death, Islam became an empire in which Allah and the laws of Islam were established in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Only Europe would remain virtually untouched.
The third Caliph Othman and division
After the assassination of Othman or Hadrat Uthman, the third caliph, in 656, increasing tension arose within the Muslim community. This ended in a civil war and division which still exists up to this present day throughout the Muslim world.
The fourth Caliph Ali and the Shiites
The Shiites, the followers of Ali, the fourth caliph and first convert to Islam, became strong opposers of the Umayyads (the tribe from which the third caliph came). The power struggle between these two Muslim groups continued after Ali’s assassination in 661 by his former followers called Kharijites.
The killing, hatred and division went on as Yazid, the son of Mu’awiyah of the Umayyad Dynasty, massacred Hussein, the son of Ali, with his family in 680. This event is remembered every year during the Islamic month of Moharram by Shiites.
The successors of Prophet Muhammad (s), who guided the people after him, are called Imams. We have Twelve Imams and their names are as follows:
- Imam Ali al-Murtadha 2. Imam Hasan al-Mujtaba 3. Imam Husayn al-Shaheed 4. Imam Ali al-Sajjad 5. Imam Muhammad al-Baqir
- Imam Ja’far al-Sadiq 7. Imam Musa al-Kadhim 8. Imam Ali al-Ridha
- Imam Muhammad al-Taqi 10. Imam Ali al-Naqi 11. Imam Hasan al-Askari 12. Imam Muhammad al-Mahdi
The Biography of Prophet Mohammed
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