The Beginning

The name Mecca has become synonymous in the English language with any place that attracts enormous throngs of devotees. This is a fair and accurate use of the word, for its roots can be traced to a real  city, in a real place, which at last count was visited by over  two million pilgrims in just one week!

However, Mecca is not a new kind of Disneyland or vacation resort. It is an old city – an ancient one – that has been continuously inhabited for over two and a half thousand years. It is an oasis in the Arabian Desert. It is also the birthplace of Muhammad, who was arguably the most influential human being who ever lived.

Our story, then, will begin with the Mecca of Muhammad’s day, since it has remained the most important city in the world until even now both in terms of religion and cultural exchange. Situated at the nexus of a series of important merchant roads, Mecca’s three main functions in ancient days consisted in providing water to passing caravans in an otherwise hot and dry region, offering a merchant bazaar second to none, but most importantly, serving as a religious center, for in it lay the ancient House of Abraham, a cube-shaped shrine whose first prototype was built by the venerable patriarch over two thousand years before.

Of the two most important sons of Abraham, Ishmael and Isaac, it was Ishmael who was settled by his father in that valley before it was ever inhabited.

Abraham left both Ishmael and his mother there on God’s instructions, but they did not perish from thirst, for they soon discovered a bubbling spring that saved them. This unfailing well also gave them a valuable commodity, which they used to trade for food with passing nomads. Upon a return visit, Abraham saw his family had survived, and in a show of thanks both he and his son built a shrine dedicated to the One Tine God. Today that shrine is known as the Ka’bah or Cube. Bedouins eventually began to settle in the valley, and it was Ishmael himself who was their first patriarch and prophetic guide. He instilled within his budding people the importance of monotheism and of pilgrimage to God’s shrine in Mecca as a way to rededicate themselves to God. The Jewish Old Testament bears witness to these ancient rites and to Mecca being an age-old center of pilgrimage. In the Psalms of David (84:6), we read about the pilgrimage to Becca (the ancient name of the city) and its famed well.

However, something happened along the centuries to the ancient purpose of this town and its shrine. Through evolving customs and the accretion of tribal myths and legends that built up over countless generations, the One God was removed further and further away from the active consciousness of the people of Arabia and was ultimately replaced with an entire pantheon of idols and demigods.

The Arabs came to believe that the One Supreme God, whom they knew as Allah (Hebrew: Elohim), was remote and disinterested in human affairs and that the idols were the day-to-day maintainers of luck, health, wealth and social stability.

They also adopted the view that there was no afterlife and certainly no consequences to pay for one’s own bad behavior or immorality.

The very notion of God keeping track of their faith and deeds was preposterous to them, for they held that this life was all there was. Although a few brave souls deplored the idolatry of the Arabs, they were drowned out in a sea of superstition and tribal bravado and legend, Thus, one’s honor and success were the true measure of a man in his brief life. (Women exerted only a marginal influence on the rough and tumble life of the desert nomads, and they fared only a little better in the dusty settlements that dotted the trade routes.)

Honor, both personal and tribal, was the badge a man wore to showcase his reputation, courage and self-worth. Honor dictated that guests should be treated well – even to excess, but it also held that any small insult or slight could lead to a fight between men and even between entire tribes, a fight that would, more often than not, spiral downward into a generation wide conflict of revenge and counter revenge, of murder, looting and kidnapping. Add to this the constant inter-tribal raiding that was a fact of life in that visually stunning but desperate land, and one comes away with a picture of a lawless place where chaos could ensue at any moment – a land ruled by long standing customs and pagan superstitions.

The civilized empires of the day, the Byzantine Romans and the Persians, held little sway in the Arabian Peninsula, though each tried to play the tribes against each other in the north and south of Arabia in their own quest for power and influence. As for religious diversity, only a handful of Christians lived in scattered settlements, some Zoroastrians dwelt in the northeast, while a small number of Jewish tribes were settled in the oasis towns to the north. Other than that, the overwhelming majority of Arabs were basically pagans, albeit with a limited sense of an all powerful God. Arabia, then, was an unspoiled land populated mainly by those who believed in idols. It was a land of contrasts. Even as the oasis towns presented a stark reminder of the cruelties of the desert, the code of honor and bravery added a positive aura to an otherwise warlike and fervently superstitious people.

Mecca was the place where some semblance of a central culture could reign, for the Shrine of Abraham still resided within the Arab imagination. However, it was no longer a center of monotheism. Rather, it was transformed over the centuries into a neutral place where every tribe could store its patron idol in safety.

For religious and trade purposes, the Arabs mutually agreed that four months out of the year were to be truce months, wherein all fighting in Arabia had to cease so people could conduct their business and visit Mecca to venerate their idols. Any violation of these truce months was inconceivable because of the amount of shame it would heap upon the offender’s family and tribe (though sometimes various tribes would try to ‘bend’ the rules on this issue).
The Meccan tribe of Quraysh, which was a collection of loosely related clans that governed the city through a council of elders, ensured that Mecca was more or less an open city for all, though they did so mostly for financial interests. In other words, they exploited the beliefs of their countrymen for their own gain. Yearly trade fairs, like those held in other cities, were especially extravagant and diverse in Mecca due to her special status as the home of the gods. Thus, Mecca was the focal point of nearly the entire Arabian Peninsula, and it was into this world that Muhammad was born.

Muhammad’s Youth

Muhammad was born in approximately the year 570 into the clan of Banu Hashim, a weaker and poorer branch of the Quraysh confederation. His young father ‘Abdullah’ died before he was born while away on a trading expedition. His mother Aminah and an African maidservant named Barakah moved themselves and the baby into the house of Abdullah’s father.

When Muhammad was not yet a year old, he was sent to live with a foster mother in the countryside, as was the custom of Meccan mothers, for about five years, so he could learn the ways of the desert as the basis of his personality. In the care of his Bedouin foster mother and her eldest daughter, the boy grew into a healthy specimen who was well-groomed, well mannered and extremely articulate. When he was finally returned to his mother, he had truly taken on the air of a native son of the desert, which was still the goal of the town-dwellers who were afraid of losing touch with the ways of their ancestors. Muhammad had the favor of his grandfather, who loved him like he was his own lost son ‘Abdullah. The boy would often sit with his grandfather during city council meetings and was even allowed to perch in his lap and on his official rug. When he was about seven years old, his mother Aminah took him on a journey to the northern city of Yathrib. She fervently desired to visit the grave of her departed husband, for that was where he died. She took along Barakah as well, and upon her arrival she spent several weeks mourning at his graveside, while Muhammad played with his distant cousins in the city. On the return journey, however, Aminah caught a debilitating fever, and her life force slipped away day by day on the harsh caravan trail. When she could travel no longer, the trio abandoned the caravan in which they were a part, and Barakah pitched a tent in which her mistress could rest. Muhammad could do nothing as his mother slowly passed, though before she died she extracted a promise from Barakah never to leave Muhammad and always to care for him.

After the pair buried Aminah by the side of the trail, the teenaged girl and small boy returned somberly to Mecca. Muhammad’s frail grandfather felt dearly for the boy, who was now doubly orphaned, but he, himself, was quite advanced in years and knew his time with his grandson would be short. Even as Aminah sought protection for her son with Barakah’s promise, so, too, did Muhammad’s grandfather make one of his sons, Abu Talib, promise to take the boy in and look after him should he pass away.

When his grandfather finally did pass on a year later, Muhammad soon found himself a boy of about nine years old in his uncle’s house. There were quite a number of mouths to feed, and Abu Talib was poor, so Muhammad was given the chore of minding Abu Talib’s flock of sheep in the hardscrabble hills outside the city. Thus, Muhammad was a full-time shepherd, often alone in the wilderness for over a decade. The only real adventure that came into his life was when he was allowed (after much begging) to accompany his uncle on a trading expedition to the city of Bosra in Syria. The twelve-year-old boy was assigned the difficult task of minding the animals, which made for an arduous, though no less rewarding, experience. In the exotic lands of Syria, Muhammad would get to see the wider world for the first time, and it made an impression on him that would last a lifetime.

Muhammad: Citizen of Mecca

When Muhammad became a young man in his early twenties, he developed something of a reputation about town for being honest, generous and well mannered. He never visited prostitutes or joined the local boys in drinking binges, which were common pastimes for young men at that time. Because of his upright nature, Abu Talib wanted to do something for his nephew to give him a chance to make something of himself, so when he heard about an offer for a caravan manager circulating in the marketplace, he approached the noble lady Khadijah, a rich widow, and offered Muhammad as an employee. Though his nephew was young, he explained, the young man was meticulous and trustworthy.

Khadijah consented, but resolved to send one of her slaves along on the expedition to act as a spy (to make sure that this untried manager was honest and legitimate). Muhammad accepted the job graciously and managed all aspects of his employer’s business meticulously. At the age of twenty-four to land such an opportunity was fortuitous indeed!

After making all the necessary preparations, Muhammad joined his heavily laden camels and small crew to the great annual caravan, consisting of thousands of camels sponsored by many different types of investors and merchants, that wound its way northward to Syria. All throughout the journey, Muhammad husbanded Khadijah’s trade goods faithfully, and in the markets of southern Syria he conducted himself well and was able to return with a handsome profit.

Khadijah’s slave gave a glowing report of Muhammad’s manners, managerial style and fair dealing, and when Muhammad, himself, gave a full accounting of the journey and what he accomplished on her behalf, Khadijah found herself falling in love with the man, even though he was fifteen years younger than she. Khadijah later confided in her best friend, who took it upon herself to get the pair married. She succeeded, and Muhammad wed Khadijah some months later. In addition to finding love, Muhammad was also suddenly lifted from poverty and thrust into affluence, though he never seized control of his wife’s wealth, even though it was customary in those days. In fact, it was many years later that Khadijah, herself, publicly declared she was giving control over her wealth to him (after he had privately lamented to her that there were so many poor people he wanted to help, but he didn’t have any money to do so).

Muhammad was a model citizen and family man. Over the course of the next fifteen years he and his wife had four daughters and three sons, though each of the boys died as infants. He also regularly gave in charity and was renowned for his honesty. People would often entrust him with their money to hold, as if his house were a safety deposit box, for they knew he would safeguard it and not embezzle it. He even once solved a public dispute that could have thrust the city into civil war.

The Ka’bah had been damaged in a flood, and while it was being rebuilt an argument broke out among the local tribal clans as to who would have the honor of setting the fabled Black Stone back in its mounting on one corner, Muhammad was selected by chance to solve the dispute, which threatened to boil over into a fight, as each clan claimed the honor as its own. He devised the ingenious solution of letting the leaders of each clan hold the corner of a blanket, which was then used to carry the Black Stone to its place, then Muhammad lifted it into its setting with his own hands.

As the years wore on, however, Muhammad began to feel restless. From his youth he never believed in the idols. He had heard stories of monotheistic mystics of the desert called hanifs, such as Zayd ibn ‘Amr ibn Nufayl and others, who rejected idols in favor of the One True God and acted with charity towards all. Muhammad likewise adopted the opinion that man-made idols were patently false, and he, too, felt the urge to stand up for the downtrodden. His time alone in the countryside as a shepherd boy reinforced these views, as he was confronted daily with the vast panorama of the desert and the sky – even as he was an orphan from an early age in a cruel and callous land. Thus, as he grew older, he found himself frequently lost in thought and looking for answers. The injustice of his people didn’t sit well with him, for the poor were treated unjustly by the wealthy, orphaned children were abused and left to starve in many cases, and even the barbaric custom of burying unwanted newborn girls in the sand was accepted as a matter of everyday life in Arabia. How could such injustice happen? Where was God? Was there no way to bring kindness and morality to his people? Muhammad wanted to find answers to these vexing questions that gnawed at his mind. Most of all, he wanted to find God.

The Prophet of God

As he approached forty years of age, Muhammad found himself taking long walks in the hills outside the city. Perhaps it was in reminiscence of his days as a shepherd in the peaceful countryside, or it might have been a way to collect his thoughts in an out of the way place. However, as the days wore on he spent more of his time away from the hustle and bustle of town life.
He also began to have strange dreams that would come true when he was awake. He didn’t know what they meant, however, and he used his time alone to ponder and think. One day, he happened upon a tiny cave on the side of a small mountain, and he decided that it would be an excellent place to meditate and pray for guidance. His wife Khadijah understood his restlessness and would often pack food for him when he went out, knowing that he might be gone for the entire day or several days at a time. One night in the year 610, after several weeks  spent in deep thought and reflection, Muhammad happened to fall asleep while in the cave. He was startled awake upon hearing a powerful voice resonating within the very stone itself. “Read,” the voice said in a commanding tone. Bewildered, all Muhammad could manage to say  was, “I can’t read.” Suddenly a heavy weight slammed into his body like a powerful grip squeezing him. He felt the breath being knocked out of him. Just when he felt he couldn’t take it anymore, the unseen vice-grip loosened upon him, and he was commanded once more, “Read.” “But I can’t read!” He stammered, and the squeezing came upon him once more, forcing every molecule of air out of his lungs. He groaned in exasperation. When the grip released itself once more, the command to read came again. Not
wanting to risk a third assault, he desperately pleaded, “What should I Read?” Then it began, and the voice said:

“Read in the name of your Lord Who created – created human beings from a clinging thing.  Read, for your  Lord is Most Generous. He taught with the  pen – He taught human beings what they didn’t know (before.)”  [Quran 96:1-5]

Muhammad panicked. He did not know what was happening to him. He bolted from the cave, tripped and slid over the rocks outside. He looked up in the brilliant night sky, filled with stars as it was, and he saw the image of a figure, a being surrounded by light, standing as if a giant in the cosmos. “I am Gabriel,” it said, “and you, Muhammad, are the Messenger of God.” Muhammad felt his heart jump in his throat as he turned and ran all the way back to Mecca, scrambling and tripping in the dark. “Cover me! Cover me!” Muhammad cried as he burst in through his front door, shivering and bedraggled. His wife Khadijah, who was startled out of her bed, took her distraught husband by the hand and led him into the bedroom. She gently laid him down and covered him in a large blanket. He lay there trembling for some time, while she watched over him helplessly.

In halting words he told her what had happened to him, and he lamented that perhaps something bad was going to befall him. She thought for a moment and then told him that because he was always so kind and generous with others, God would never mean him any harm.

Khadijah left him there as he fell into a silent slumber, and she went out of the house seeking the home of her cousin Waraqah. Although he was very old and blind, he had been a closet Christian (for Christianity had been outlawed in Mecca some years before by the pagans) and knew some Hebrew. Khadijah hoped that with his greater learning and knowledge he might be able to tell her something about the incident. Waraqah listened to her story and said, “Holy! Holy! Holy! By the One Who has power over my soul, if you would believe me, Khadijah, the one who came to him is the same Holy Spirit who used to go to Moses. He’s going to be the prophet of this nation, so tell him to hold on steadfastly. He will be called a liar. He will be persecuted. He will have to fight, and if I’m alive then, God will see that I’ll give a good account of myself.”

Khadijah returned home, told her husband of her meeting with Waraqah, and conveyed his advice. She then took him in person to see Waraqah, and after he finished telling his tale, Waraqah forewarned Muhammad that his mission would be fraught with hardship and that his own people would exile him. When Muhammad expressed his fear at hearing unseen voices, Waraqah counseled him, “If you hear the hidden voice again, stay and listen to what it says.” Waraqah passed away a few weeks or months later, but his prophecy would prove to be true. There was a period of about six months when the Prophet received no further communications from God, and this absence distressed Muhammad greatly. One day, however, Khadijah found her husband asleep and noticed he was sweating and shivering slightly. Suddenly, he woke up and said the following words:

You there! The one wrapped up (in a blanket)! Arise and warn! Magnify your Lord! Keep your clothes clean and shun the idols. Don’t give (in charity) with the expectation of receiving anything back. For your Lord’s sake, be patient. [Quran 74:1-7]

Khadijah tried her best to convince Muhammad to lie back down, but he was adamant against it. He said, “No, Khadijah, the time for sleeping is over. Gabriel has ordered me to warn people and to call them to God. But whom shall I call? Who will listen to me?” Khadijah confidently told her husband that she believed in him and accepted his message. Thus, the first convert to this new way of life that Muhammad was asked to teach was his wife Khadijah, who trusted him completely. Thus, the ministry of the Prophet Muhammad began with the support of his beloved wife.

The Private Phase

Muhammad kept a low profile for the first three years of his mission. He spent his time meeting privately with friends and relatives, explaining what had happened to him and introducing the teachings of Islam. Among his first converts were his best friend, Abu Bakr, his young cousin ‘Ali, his daughters, his freed maidservant Barakah, and a handful of other men and women. The Quran, which began as only a few verses uttered to him in a mountain cave, slowly began to grow as new revelations, some of them quite lengthy, came to him. Sometimes he received the messages while he was dreaming; other times they came upon him when he was awake – which he later described as the ringing of a loud bell in one’s ears. Occasionally Angel Gabriel would come to him in person and recite verses to him, give him instructions or answer his questions. Through his private efforts, Muhammad succeeded in making nearly thirty converts from among his close friends and relatives. Some of his relatives, however, thought Muhammad was impulsive, and they dismissed him as a dreamer or a deluded poet who would soon lose interest in his new endeavor. Little did Muhammad realize how far the rejection of such people would carry.

The Persecution of the Meccans

By the year 613, Muhammad was known to frequent the Ka’bah to pray and meditate. He would also speak privately with small groups about his beliefs and teachings. The Meccan establishment reacted coolly to his presence at first, merely considering Muhammad to be stricken with a fad or passing fancy. Soon, a few of Muhammad’s followers, especially Abu Bakr, were eager to take his message to the general public. It was then that the resolve and strength of the new believers would be truly tested. Abu Bakr gave a speech near the Ka’bah, outlining the main tenets of Islam, and when he had finished, he was attacked and beaten so badly by the idol-worshipers that he had to be helped away from the scene. At this time, the Prophet also began speaking publicly, though he was from a more influential tribal clan than Abu Bakr, and so wasn’t an immediate target of violent persecution. However, as Muhammad continued speaking out for monotheism and attracting more and more followers, the Meccan leaders, including some of Muhammad’s own uncles and other relatives, took an increasingly harsher tone with him. They ordered him to stop his activities, as monotheism, they thought, would ruin the Meccan economy, which was based on the veneration of idols. When he refused, they  asked Muhammad’s uncle, Abu Talib, to silence him or convince him to take a cash payment to keep quiet. When questioned by Abu Talib, Muhammad said, “If they were to put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I would not refrain from my mission. I won’t give it up until either God proves my cause or I die trying.” Abu Talib looked upon his nephew thoughtfully and replied, “Do whatever you like, for by the Lord of the Ka’bah, I will not give you up.” The Meccans left the room in anger. As time passed, and the efforts of the Meccans to silence Muhammad failed, they became more violent in their suppression. Soon Muhammad began to endure insults in the streets. His detractors accused him of being possessed, of being a sorcerer or a wizard, of being a fortune-teller or a mere poet looking for fame. One woman took to throwing garbage in front of his door, while her husband would push the Prophet whenever he saw him praying near the Ka’bah. Worse still, gangs of youths would attack and beat up Muhammad’s less connected followers. Converted slaves were beaten savagely by their pagan masters, and in time even Muhammad was often punched and assailed with rocks when he left his house.

To protect his more vulnerable and less well connected followers, Muhammad sent two separate groups across the Red Sea to seek refuge in Christian Abyssinia. For his part, Muhammad continued to preach, especially to the members of incoming caravans, hoping to find fertile ground for his new faith from outside the city. The Meccans, however, continued to push the notion that Muhammad must have gone mad or had been possessed by a devil, and they warned incoming caravans to be on their guard against his words. The Meccans literally had no other explanation for the eloquent and poetic words of the Quran, words that were recited by Muhammad with ever increasing frequency and effect.

Soon the Meccans resorted to murder, and they cruelly killed a man and woman who professed belief in Islam. The situation was nearing a breaking point, and Muhammad’s cadre of followers, which now numbered nearly a hundred, were under constant strain, especially as their families disowned them or tried to force them to rejoin paganism. Muhammad became increasingly vulnerable, and the Meccans succeeded in exiling Muhammad’s entire clan and his followers from the city for three years. This cruel ‘boycott’ was only lifted after visiting Arabs shamed the Meccans into capitulating. Some time afterwards, Muhammad lost his beloved wife Khadijah and then his uncle and protector, Abu Talib. His sorrow was overwhelming.

Muhammad sought refuge in the nearby city of Ta’if but was rebuffed under a barrage of thrown stones. Even though his movement seemed assailed from all sides, he continued to offer Islam to everyone with whom he came into contact. (A large number of verses in the Quran even speak to Muhammad personally, telling him to persevere, to ignore the insults and to resist succumbing to depression.)

Eventually, Muhammad’s preaching to visitors would soon pay off. Some people from the northern oasis town of Yathrib converted to Islam and returned home only to make more converts. The following year a large group came to the same place just outside of Mecca (a sheltered byway named Aqabah) and met Muhammad in secret, pledging themselves to him and inviting him to join them in their city. The Prophet sent a couple of his close companions back with them to their own city to teach them the new faith, and thus Islam took root in Yathrib. A way out for  the Muslims had revealed itself. Muhammad began organizing secret departures of his followers in small groups. Any large-scale movement would have attracted the attention of the Meccan authorities who would have been sure to prevent the exodus. When only a few of his followers remained in the city, Muhammad asked his cousin, the teenaged boy ‘Ali, to return some funds that some neighbors had entrusted to him, and then Muhammad, accompanied by his trusty friend, Abu Bakr, escaped in the night.

It was good timing, for the Meccans had decided on a plan to assassinate the Prophet while he slept. When the young men chosen for the task found ‘Ali sleeping in the Prophet’s bed, they sounded the alarm, and soon the hunt was on. The man who could capture or kill Muhammad would receive 100 camels, and so every young man in Mecca who could carry a sword mounted his steed and took to scouring the countryside.

Initially, the fugitives headed south to throw off their foes, and then they took refuge in a cave for three days. (One day they were nearly discovered!) Abu Bakr’s teenaged daughter Asma’ brought them food and news, while a loyal shepherd pastured his flock in the vicinity of the cave
to obliterate all tracks. After playing cat and mouse with their pursuers, the Prophet eventually entered Yathrib to the cheers of hundreds.

This event was known as the Hijrah, or migration, and it took place in the year 622. Muhammad had preached for thirteen years in Mecca and now would call Yathrib his home. On account of his prominence, even the name of the city would eventually change, as people took to calling it the City of the Prophet or City, for short. (Medina is the Arabic word for city.)

In the City of the Prophet

When the Prophet entered Yathrib, henceforth to be called Medina, there were a lot of challenges from many quarters with which he had to contend. There were two large Arab tribes in the city, the Auws and Khazraj, who were constantly being played against each other by three small Jewish tribes that lived on the outskirts of the town.

The Arab tribes were mainly pagans, but both groups rapidly began to convert to the new faith. The general Muslim community would be made up of two large groups: the Arabs of Medina who converted to Islam, drawn from both the Auws and Khazraj tribes, who became known as the Ansar, or Helpers; while the poor immigrant Muslims from Mecca were called the Muhajireen, or Immigrants.

Muhammad’s status coming in was that of a religious leader, and he quickly moved to become a civic leader as well. His first task was to build a prayer hall, or mosque. Then, with the support of all the various communities of the city, the Prophet arranged the drafting of a constitution, the first in human history, that spelled out the rights and duties of each segment of society. The Arab tribes and the Jewish tribes accepted it, and thus Muhammad’s influence brought peace to a city prone to civil war. For their part, most of the Jews were initially cautious about Muhammad’s claim to prophethood. They generally took a wait-and-see attitude and felt that he would eventually join their religion, as they already had a well-established religious tradition stretching back to the days of the patriarchs. Their curiosity, however, turned to skepticism and eventually open hostility, as Muhammad began to preach that God’s favor was open to all and that the Jews were not faithfully holding to their trust with God. To make matters worse for the Prophet, there were a large number of Arab converts who only pretended to accept Islam in order not to appear out of step with the latest trend. The chief among them was a man named ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy, who was slated to be chosen as Medina’s first king, but whose ambition  was thwarted by the arrival of Muhammad. He and his followers began to be known as the hypocrites, and their activities consisted in conspiring against Muhammad in secret, undermining the confidence of the sincere believers and generally sowing discord and doubt among the community.

Their driving belief was that Muhammad and his followers were merely a passing fad and that one day they would be driven from the city. A large number of verses of the Qur’an speak directly about situations involving both the Jews and the hypocrites, as well as how sincere believers from all backgrounds must behave as brothers toward each other irrespective of their tribal affiliations.

On a personal note, Muhammad, who was alone since his beloved wife Khadijah died, began to marry women to solidify political relationships and also to support older widows whose husbands had passed away. This process would continue throughout his ministry, and his wives became known as the Mothers of the Believers, a title reflective of the fact that his wives became teachers and resources on Islam for the community. From A’ishah, the daughter of his close companion, Abu Bakr, to the Jewish lady Safiyah, Muhammad’s wives were paragons of virtue and are responsible for a great deal of the traditional knowledge we have of him.

The First Desperate Battle

Although the Muslims had escaped from Mecca, the pagans were not content to leave them alone in their new home in the north, especially since Medina lay on one of their main trading routes to Syria. The Immigrants from Mecca, whom Muhammad had ordered not to fight back in the face of the many provocations and assaults heaped upon them by the Meccans, were, in addition, impoverished, as the pagans had seized the land and property the fugitives had left behind. To alleviate this situation, Muhammad asked the Helpers to each adopt an Immigrant and divide their assets with them. The Medinan Muslims did so with remarkable cooperation, though this had the effect of decreasing their own resources considerably. Many Immigrants felt the unfair seizure of their goods by the pagans must be redressed. In addition, following typical Arab custom, small groups of young men from Mecca took to raiding the outskirts of Medina and to stealing from small desert tribes that had allied themselves with Muhammad. The constant attacks and murders distressed the Muslims greatly.

In the year 624, two years after completing the journey to Medina, a new revelation from the Quran exhorted the Muslims finally to fight back. Muhammad planned a daring raid on a large Meccan caravan returning from Syria. With a little over 300 men, he set off to intercept it at an oasis named Badr. Meccan scouts from the caravan got wind of the movement of Muhammad’s forces, and the headmaster of the slow moving camel train, Abu Sufyan, sent word ahead to Mecca for help. The Meccans mustered around a thousand men and headed off at top speed to  Badr. The Muslims arrived at the wells of Badr first and prepared themselves to intercept the caravan. Abu Sufyan, however, wisely guided his charge along another route and avoided Badr altogether. When the Meccan force learned that their caravan was safe, they decided to march on Badr anyway, in order to wipe out Muhammad and his movement forever.

When Muhammad saw the arrival of the much larger force, rather than retreat he ordered his men to bury the water wells, depriving the thirsty enemy of resources, and he organized his men into fighting ranks. He then retreated to a small tent that was erected for him, and he prayed, “God! I’m asking Youfor the fulfillment of Your covenant and promise. God, if it’s Your will (to let us be defeated), then You may never be worshiped again on this earth.”

Abu Bakr grabbed his hand and said, “Messenger of God! You’ve asked God well enough.” Then the Prophet left the tent while clad in his armor and began directing his men. The two sides stood in ranks facing each other and waited for the signal to attack. After some customary individual duals, which the Muslim fighters won handily, the enraged Meccans threw themselves at the Muslim lines. The more disciplined Muslims withheld the assault and actually turned the tide of battle, forcing the more numerous Meccans to flee. The Muslims won the day and returned to Medina with minimal losses. Captured Meccans were freed upon payment of a fine by their relatives or if they taught Muslim children how to read. The Meccans, for their part, were extremely embarrassed, and the poets of their city immediately began to call for revenge. Meanwhile, one of the Jewish tribes in Medina challenged the Muslims within days of their return, and open hostilities broke out. The Muslims blockaded the neighborhood of the tribe of Banu Qaynuqa and forced their surrender. The terms were quite generous, considering the fact that the tribe had violated its treaty with Muhammad. They were simply ordered to pack up all of their belongings and leave the city. The tribe eventually settled in Syria.

A Defeat for the Muslims

The Meccans nursed their humiliating defeat with rancor and bitterness. Their poets daily made a great show, in the Arab tradition, of calling for the restoration of honor through proper revenge. Many of Mecca’s top leaders had perished at Badr, leaving Abu Sufyan the paramount chief among the tribe of Quraysh. Visiting representatives of the Medinan Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir also made entreaties to the pagans to attack Muhammad and drive him from their city. Finally, in the year 625 a large Meccan force numbering some 3,000 men marched northwards towards Medina. When Muhammad learned of the impending attack, he mustered about 1,000 men and marched out to meet the foe. The two sides met beside a small mountain named Uhud a few hours’ march from Medina. However, just before the battle was to begin, 300 men under the command of the hypocrite, ‘Abdullah ibn Ubayy, suddenly withdrew, leaving the Muslim side with only 700 men! The Prophet steadied his demoralized men with reminders of God’s help to the faithful. Muhammad knew that the Meccans had brought a powerful cavalry contingent and that it was under the command of one Khalid ibn Walid, a renowned military genius. The cavalry would be unlikely to make a frontal assault, as the lances of the Muslims would decimate their horses, but there was the additional danger that while the outnumbered Muslims were engaged with the foot soldiers, Khalid might swing his troops behind and catch the Muslims in a vice. To guard against this, Muhammad placed fifty archers on a hill to guard the rear of his formation. When the battle began, the Muslims again proved that superior discipline would win out over the unorganized frontal assaults that were typical of Arab fighters in those days. The Muslims actually succeeded in not only holding off the more numerous forces of their foe, but they actually forced the Meccans into a disorganized retreat. It looked as if the Muslims would win a stunning victory again. As the Muslim foot soldiers pursued their enemies, the archers on the hill began to look longingly at the empty part of the battlefield. The Meccans had dropped many of their weapons and let loose their camels. There was a whole host of goods besides.

Disobeying their orders, around forty of the archers descended from the hill and began to collect the booty off of the battlefield. This was also a well established Arab tradition, one that Muhammad had already tried to change after Badr. Seeing his opportunity, the Meccan cavalry leader swung his men into action. They disappeared behind a hill and reemerged through a small pass, completely taking the few remaining archers by surprise. After killing them, the Meccans attacked the advancing Muslim line from the rear. It was a complete disaster. The confused Muslims were scattered and dozens were killed. The Meccan infantry also turned and renewed their attack. The Prophet ordered a hasty retreat up the side of Mount Uhud and narrowly escaped death. Several powerful Meccan warriors surrounded him, and one struck his helmet so forcefully that it drove part of the armor into his cheek. A cordon of Muslim defenders, including a woman with a bow and a sword, quickly made a defensive formation around the Prophet and helped him up the mountain under a withering assault. By the time the bulk of the Muslims reached the safety of the mountain slope, over seventy of their fellows lay dead on the battlefield. The jubilant Meccans began to celebrate, even as they took up the ghastly chore of mutilating the dead and torturing the wounded, as their traditions dictated. Later, the two sides withdrew back to their respective camps, and the Muslims of Medina took to mourning. When they asked how they could have lost, seeing that they had God’s favor, the Qur’an answered their question by telling them God was helping them, but by their own disobedience (i.e., the archers) they failed themselves.

The next day the Prophet gathered as many of his men as he could, a number that was less than five hundred able bodied men (for many men were wounded and could not march again), and he led them back out to Uhud. They made camp and sent messages to the Meccans challenging them once more. The Meccans decided to keep their bragging rights intact rather than risk another confrontation, and they withdrew to Mecca. Some time after the Muslims returned to Medina, hostilities broke out between the Muslims and the second Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir. A foiled assassination plot against the Prophet was the main catalyst, and soon the Banu Nadir’s neighborhood was under siege. The hypocrites had made a secret pact with the Jews to defend them against the Muslims if fighting broke out, but the forces of Abdullah ibn Ubayy never materialized. The pattern was similar to that of the previously expelled Banu Qaynuqa tribe: the pressure from the Muslim blockade forced the surrender of the rebels. The Banu Nadir also received the same penalty: packing and leaving the city. The bulk of the tribe went to live in Syria, while a remnant took up residence in the Jewish fortress city of Khaybar, some days march further north.

The defeat at Uhud was a blow to the reputation of the Muslims, and many bedouin raiders boldly began to hammer away at tribes that allied with the Prophet, even brazenly attacking Muhammad’s own emissaries and missionaries. In one incident, nearly eighty peaceful men were murdered while encamped in a neighboring territory under a false pledge of safe passage from its chief. Clearly, the mood in Arabia was turning towards greater boldness and hostility.

The Siege of Medina

The Banu Nadir Jews who settled in Khaybar with their Jewish cousins didn’t forget their defeat and exile. Representatives of the tribe traveled to Mecca to goad the Quraysh into attacking the Muslims again. They also contacted many other tribes all over central Arabia and succeeded in cobbling together a grand alliance whose purpose would be to invade Medina and wipe out Islam once and for all 

In the year 627 men from all over Arabia began to assemble, and it would be the largest army of Arabs ever fielded – some ten thousand men. At that time, the total number of Muslim fighters amounted to no more than about two or three thousand, including the women and children. When word of the impending assault reached Medina, the hypocrites tried to spread panic among the populace. For his part, Muhammad held a meeting to get suggestions from his followers as to what they should do. Some suggested going out to meet the invaders, while others spoke of a strategy of house-to-house fighting. A Muslim convert from Persia, Salman
al Farsi, suggested fortifying the rear of the city while digging a large trench in the open plain from where the Alliance would have to attack. His idea was adopted, and the Muslims set frantically to work. Even Muhammad, a man in his late fifties, went out and dug with the rest, singing songs with the other men as they worked. The defenses were completed in the nick of time as the fearsome Alliance arrived with the grim determination to slaughter and enslave the Muslims en masse. The Arab forces were confused by the trench, however, for it was an unknown stratagem in the peninsula. Their first attempts at an infantry assault were beaten back, as the men struggling to climb through the wide and deep trench were picked off easily by the squads of Muslim archers on the other side. Cavalry was all but useless, as well. After some days of fruitless action, the Alliance leaders decided to lay siege to the city in the hopes of starving it into submission.

After the passage of more than two weeks, the various tribal leaders of the Alliance began to grumble. Their men were getting restless, and it wasn’t in the character of Arab bedouins to wait aimlessly for long periods of time. The Meccan leaders under Abu Sufyan’s command also began to doubt their strategy. Huyyay, the chief of the Banu Nadir, then took it into his own hands to break the stalemate. He secretly entered the Jewish fortress of the Banu Qurayzah, whose fortified area made up part of Medina’s rear defenses.

After heated discussions, he convinced the Banu Qurayzah to betray the Muslims and join in a coordinated assault whose date would be decided upon later. When he returned to the Alliance camp, Huyyay related the news of his success, and the emboldened pagans began to make preparations for the combined assault. Muhammad found out about the treachery of the Banu Qurayzah and engaged a double agent in a desperate attempt to sow discord among the Alliance members. The agent made the Meccans doubt the sincerity of the Jews, causing the Meccans to order the Jews to attack on a Saturday, which caused the Jews to hesitate. Then Muhammad sent an offer to the powerful tribe of Ghatafan, effectively buying them off. Finally, the secret agent entered among the Banu Qurayzah and made them doubt the loyalty of the Meccans. The bold gambit would soon pay off. In the days just prior to the Alliance attack, the Banu Qurayzah suddenly cut off all food supplies to the Muslims, as planned by Huyyay, and then the tribe’s warriors began to encroach into various parts of the city where the Muslim women and children were quartered. When the Arab forces outside the city were to attack, however, due to their mutual mistrust, their tribal chiefs were paralyzed with inaction as each faction suspected the other of secretly siding with Muhammad. That night a fierce sandstorm erupted out of the desert, blowing tents and scattering the bedouins. The Alliance crumbled, and all sides returned back to their home territories. The Muslims were overjoyed at their nearly bloodless victory, but the question of the Banu Qurayzah, now barricaded behind their walls, remained. Muhammad ordered an immediate siege of their fortresses, and the blockade went on for some days, punctuated by bouts of fighting. Eventually, the Banu Qurayzah realized they could not win, but they were fearful of surrendering to the Muslims whom they had betrayed in their most dire hour. Their best hope was in receiving the same punishment of exile that their two fellow Jewish tribes got, but the situation was different this time, and they knew it. The Banu Qurayzah sent a message to Muhammad agreeing to surrender, but only if they could chose the
man who was to decide their fate. Muhammad agreed to the terms, and the Jews selected the chief of the Auws tribe, with whom they had been friendly in the past. Quite unexpectedly for them, the chief asked the leaders of the Banu Qurayzah what the punishment was for betrayal according to their own religion. It was, of course, death. So the Auws chief decreed that the leaders and chief instigators were to be executed, while the rest of the men, women and children were to be taken as bonded servants.

The Prophet acceded to the chief’s decision – but added that no mothers were to be separated from their children. Any of the condemned leaders could escape their harsh judgment by converting, though only two men did, and they were thus freed. Of the captives, the civilians of the Banu Qurayzah were parceled out to various Muslim retainers and took on their new roles as bonded servants. Although individual Jewish families would continue to live freely in Medina for centuries to follow, there would no longer be any organized political force to rival Muslim power in the city. Even the hypocrites stood down and no longer seriously troubled the Muslims as long as the Prophet was alive. To punish the people of Khaybar, from where the Alliance plot was hatched, the Prophet marched a force there and, after a series of pitched battles, made the residents agree to a peace treaty and the payment of an annual tribute. Other than that, Khaybar would remain a semiautonomous Jewish settlement until the time of the second caliph, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, who ordered the Jewish residents of the town to resettle in Syria.

A Bold Move

Late in the year 628, Muhammad saw in a dream that he was going on a pilgrimage to Mecca. This, of course, was an unusual vision, for just one year prior to that the Meccans had marched with a grand alliance of Arabs and Jews to wipe out the Muslims in Medina forever. But Muhammad, who believed that dreams were also a means of divine revelation, announced to his followers that he intended to don the pilgrim’s clothes and lead a sacred procession to Mecca. It was a truce month in Arabia, a time when all hostilities were supposed to cease to allow religious journeys. The Prophet would be taking advantage of this custom, and the Meccans would be tested in their allegiance to their age-old traditions. Accordingly, Muhammad set out with 1400 unarmed followers, both male and female, and headed for Mecca. When the Meccans received word that Muhammad was leading a pilgrimage to their city, they were shocked. They attempted to intercept the Muslims with a cavalry expedition, but the Muslim party eluded them and finally made camp in the hills just outside Mecca at a place named Hudaybiyyah. Then the Prophet sent one of his trusted companions into Mecca to begin negotiations.

In time, a delegation from Mecca entered into the Muslim camp, and after heated discussions a deal was hammered out for a ten-year truce. The exact terms of the deal seemed very unfavorable to the Muslim side, and it even stipulated that the Muslims would not be able to complete their pilgrimage that year. However, even with the shortcomings, the Prophet accepted the treaty. His community needed time to recover from all the attacks of the Meccans in the past, and it also gave him room to maneuver and increase the number of tribal alliances he had formed.

Muhammad’s companions were despondent, feeling their long journey had been for naught. The Prophet felt their disappointment and ordered them to complete their pilgrimage rites there at Hudaybiyyah. The wisdom of accepting the truce with Mecca, however, would soon become apparent to all.

The Fall of Mecca

One of the terms of the truce deal stipulated that each side was responsible for what its allies did. The Meccans thought this would put the Muslims at a further disadvantage, but it was the Meccans who got caught in the trap. For the first several months of the armistice, the Muslims were succeeding in making more alliances and converts than even they might have imagined. The Meccans, still living under the illusion of their ascendancy, conspired with a client tribe to attack and murder a group of men from a tribe that was allied with Medina. After the brutal massacre, the Meccans took a hard look at the political map and realized that it was now they who were at a disadvantage. The Meccans sent a hasty delegation to Medina to plead for the continued observance of the treaty, but Muhammad refused to meet with them. The Meccans had broken the treaty, and they would have to pay the price. The people of Mecca waited for several weeks, constantly hearing rumors of Muhammad’s mustering of all his followers to march down upon them. They did not have to wait long.

In the year 630, Muhammad, at the head of an army ten thousand strong, made his way southward towards Mecca. When the massive force, which symbolically equaled the size of the Meccan Alliance that had besieged Medina just two years before, encamped above the hills of Mecca, Abu Sufyan visited the Prophet and surrendered the city to him, even as he pledged himself to Islam. The next morning, three massive columns of men entered the city from three different sides in a grand procession. The Meccans did not resist, and the Muslims took no offensive action. When Muhammad reached the center of town, he asked the gathered throngs of Mecca what they thought he would do to them. (It must be remembered that the Meccans had engaged in brutality, murder, raiding, torture and all out war against the Prophet and his followers.) “Only goodness,” the people answered hopefully. Muhammad then told everyone that they were forgiven and free. This display of mercy and forgiveness, reminiscent of Abraham Lincoln’s line, “…with malice towards none and charity for all,” so stunned the Meccans that nearly the entire population converted to Islam within days.

Muhammad’s first official act was to order the removal of all of the idols from inside the Ka’bah. Then he asked his trusted companion, Bilal the African, to climb on the roof of the Ka’bah and call the faithful to prayer. (No one has ever had that honor since). Muhammad’s victory over idolatry was nearly complete, but the remaining pagans of central Arabia would make one last attempt at defeating the Muslims, and it nearly undid all the progress they had made, as we shall see. 

The Battle of Hunayn

Alarmed that Mecca had embraced Muhammad, the leaders of the nearby powerful city of Ta’if organized another grand alliance of Bedouins and other pagans to attack the Muslims. Muhammad learned of this and mustered his own forces. The people of Taif even decided to bring their women and children with them to the battlefield as a way to encourage their warriors to fight harder. The two armies met in a valley near a place named Hunayn in the middle of the year 630.

The Ta’if forces successfully executed an ambush on the Muslims as they passed through the valley, and for a moment, the Muslims were in retreat. Oddly enough, it was Abu Sufyan, along with a few of Muhammad’s most ardent companions, who shielded the Prophet and held off the attackers long enough for the Muslim forces to return. The more disciplined Muslims wound up pushing the enemy forces back, and soon a full-scale rout was in progress. The pagans even ran past their own families and retreated in a panic back into their main fortress at Ta’if. The Muslims captured the women and children and held them while laying siege to the city. Eventually, Muhammad lifted the siege, and his forces returned to Mecca. The men of Ta’if sent a delegation to the Prophet the following year, beseeching his mercy, and the Prophet then freed their women and children (who were being looked after by the community in Medina). This act of charity caused the remaining pagans in central Arabia to adopt Islam, and thus Muhammad’s reputation for compassion became one of his greatest assets in the promotion of his religion.

The Mission Comes to a Close

Muhammad now turned his attention to affairs outside of Arabia. He had been contracting alliances with towns, cities, tribes and settlements all over northern and southern Arabia. In fact, he made it his habit to send ambassadors with personal invitations to join Islam to all the known power centers of the day. He even sent emissaries to the Byzantine Roman Emperor Heraclius and the Persian monarch, inviting them to accept his prophethood and message. The Persian tyrant ripped up Muhammad’s letter, and when he learned of it Muhammad predicted the same would happen to the Persian Empire. Heraclius, for his part, began to make moves against

Muslim interests in northern Arabia. After receiving pleas for help from his northern allies, Muhammad organized an army near the end of the year 630 and marched northward to meet the Byzantine threat. Miraculously, the Byzantines withdrew their forces before Muhammad ever arrived, and thus the Prophet spent a month touring southern Syria completing more alliances. The Muslims arrived back in Medina to great acclaim for the success of the mission. For the next year and a half, Muhammad spent his time busily organizing his administration in Medina (for he promised the people of that city many years before at ‘Aqabah that he
would live with them forever) and engaging in diplomatic discussions with the many emissaries who arrived weekly.

In the year 632, Muhammad even lead one, last pilgrimage to Mecca on a grand scale. It was in this pilgrimage that people began to see signs that the Prophet would soon take his leave of the world. The Prophet gave a major address during the pilgrimage rites, and an unexpected revelation came to him, which he recited to the gathered crowd of 100,000 men and women:
“This day, those who cover over (the truth of God) have given up all hope of (destroying) your way of life. So don’t be afraid of them; rather,fear only Me. This day I have perfected your way of life for you, completed My favor upon you and have chosen for you Islam as your way of
life.” [Quran 5:3]
Abu Bakr and others began to suspect the meaning, and he, for one, wept when he heard these words. Indeed, the Qur’an was declaring it was complete and the victory of Islam was accomplished. The Prophet, who was over sixty years old, began to hint in public and in private that God would soon call him home. In addition, he became increasingly frail and often would need rest from his exertions.

The Passing of a Prophet

One night, the Prophet suffered from insomnia and decided to take a walk in the midnight air of Medina. Accompanied by an attendant, he headed for the graveyard and stared at the silent graves. When he arrived, Muhammad said, “Peace be upon you, 0 people of the graves. You are blessed in your present condition to which you have come, which is not the same condition as the people who still live in the world must endure. Assaults (the effects of aging) are falling one after another (against my health) like waves of darkness, each worse than the one before.”  After praying for the souls of the dead, the Prophet said to his attendant, “Abu Muwayhibah! I’ve been given the keys of this world and eternity in it, and now I’m being offered Paradise and meeting with God. I’ve been asked to choose between them.” His attendant cried out, “I would give everything for your sake, Oh Messenger of Allah. Isn’t it possible to have both? Please take the keys of this world, eternity in it, as well as Paradise.”
The Prophet answered, “No, by God, Abu Muwayhibah. I’ve chosen Paradise and meeting with my Lord.”
A few days later, the Prophet began to suffer a particularly severe fever, and he found it increasingly arduous to meet with people. When the Prophet’s condition worsened, he asked that Abu Bakr take charge of leading the prayers for him. This subtle hint signaled to many Muslims that the Prophet was tapping Abu Bakr to lead after him. Even when he felt strong enough to come into the mosque for prayer, he still allowed Abu Bakr to continue leading the prayers while he himself would pray behind him in the rows.

The Whisper to Fatimah

One day, while his daughter Fatimah was attending to him, the Prophet whispered something into her ear that made her cry. Then he whispered something that made her smile. A’ishah, one of Muhammad’s wives, asked her what he said, but Fatimah refused to tell what she regarded as a personal secret. Meanwhile, the fever continued to burn in Muhammad’s forehead, and his body shivered with chills. The Prophet overheard Fatimah lamenting, “Oh, the terrible pain  my father is suffering!” The Prophet opened his eyes and said to her, ‘‘Your father will suffer no more pain after this day.” The anxious Muslims filed in and out of his apartment throughout the day, some offering medicines and others praying. Everyone felt confused and alarmed for the safety of their beloved Prophet. In his last hour, as his head was resting on A’ishah’s lap, the Prophet  called out his last words. As A’ishah tells the story:
“The Prophet’s head was growing heavier in my lap. I looked at his face and found that his eyes were still. I heard him murmur, ‘Rather, God on High and Paradise.’ I said to him, ‘By Him Who sent you as a prophet to teach the truth, you’ve been given the choice, and you chose well.’ “The Prophet of God passed away while his head was on my side between my chest
and my heart. It was my youth and inexperience that made me let him die in my lap. I then placed his head on the pillow and got up to bemoan my fate and to join the other women in our sadness and sorrow.”

It was June 8th in the year 632. He was buried where he lay. Later on, Fatimah told A’ishah what was whispered to her. She said, “The first time he told me that he would not recover from
his illness, so I cried. The second time he told me I would be the first from his family to join him, so I smiled.” This prediction would soon come true as Fatimah passed away six months later, leaving behind her grieving husband ‘Ali.

With the Prophet having left this world, the new Muslim community had to try to make sense out of what his mission meant and how they were to get along without him. When the Prophet was alive and with them, there were no doubts or uncertainties. All a person had to do was ask for his guidance, and he or she would be sure to receive an answer that was both wise and practical – but now he was gone. When Umar, one of Muhammad’s closest companions, heard the news of the Prophet’s death, he came running to his front door and drew his sword in anger.
He swore that he didn’t believe the Prophet was gone and that he’d fight anyone who said otherwise. Obviously, he was overcome with great stress at the thought of losing his beloved friend and guide.
Abu Bakr came on the scene, and when he saw the distraught ‘Umar, he went to his friend and announced to the gathered crowd, “If anyone worships Muhammad, know that Muhammad has died. But if anyone worships God, then know that He is alive and cannot die.’’ Then Abu Bakr recited the following verse from the Qur’an to drive the point home:

“Muhammad is no more than a messenger. There were many messengers who passed away before him. If he dies or is killed, would you then turn and run away? Anyone who runs away does no harm to God in the least, and God will quickly reward (those who serve Him) in gratitude.” [Quran 3:144]

Umar accepted the wisdom of his friend’s speech, slumped down into his arms and wept at his heart-felt loss. Eventually, Abu Bakr was chosen as the first caliph, or leader of the Muslim community. During his acceptance speech, he addressed the crowds of Muslims as they gathered after his election. His address is one of the most noble ever given by any ruler in all of human history. In it, he spoke of his duties as a leader and the rights of the people. He didn’t talk about power or wealth or glory. He spoke as a true Muslim who recognized the huge responsibility that now rested upon his shoulders. Part of his speech is recorded below.
“O people, I’ve been elected your leader, even though I’m no better than any of you. If I do right, help me. If I do wrong, correct me. Listen well; truth is a trust, and lies are treason. The weak among you shall be strong with me until I secure their rights. The powerful among you shall be weak with me until, if God wills, I’ve taken what is due from them. Listen well; if people give up striving in the cause of God, He will send disgrace upon them. If a people become wrongdoers, God will send disasters down upon them. Obey me as long as I obey God and His Messenger. If I disobey God and His Messenger, then you are free to disobey me.” 

Reflections on the Life of the Last Prophet of God

Prophet Muhammad was a truly humane and farsighted man. He exemplified the best virtues of a religious leader and stood for monotheism at a time when much of the world was assailed by darkness and ignorance. He was the best model of a husband, father, leader and friend. He was gracious to all and patient even with those who mocked him and persecuted him. He never laid a hand in anger upon any woman or child and was always compassionate and respectful towards others. When he finally had the pagans of Mecca in his power, after so many years of living in fear of them, instead of taking the revenge to which we would all say he was entitled, he forgave them and let them go on their way. He was so concerned with the welfare of others that he even forbade people to hurt animals wantonly or use them unjustly. He loved children and counseled people to be affectionate towards them. He also taught people that men and women were equal in the sight of God at a time when women were thought of as mere objects for men’s enjoyment. Even when all of Arabia and some of Syria were completely in his control, he did not behave like a king or a tyrant. He didn’t build palaces or wear fancy clothes or make people bow to him. Instead, he wore regular clothes, lived in a small apartment, ate little and treated all men and women as his brothers and sisters.

When he died, the sum total of all his worldly possessions consisted of a reed mat for sleeping, a wooden bowl and a handful of barley. Barakah, his nursemaid from his youth, who was by then over seventy years old, took to visiting his grave everyday and crying softly. Once she replied to a person who asked why she went there so often, “By God, I knew that the Messenger of God would die, but I cry now because the revelation from on high has come to an
End for us.”

Even though the Quranic revelation came to an end, its power and influence would live on long after, even unto our own times. You have here before you now the Quran – the message that was revealed to a prophet over the course of twenty-three long years, in times of sadness and joy, triumph and heartache, but always resonating with the message of hope: surrender yourself to God and you shall achieve eternal life in Paradise. This message, which was revealed 1400 years ago, is here for your consideration today.