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MUHAMMAD: Life Of The Man
Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, born approximately in 570 AD in the Arabian city of Mecca. He was orphaned at an early age; raised under the care of a paternal uncle, Abu Talib; following childhood, he primarily worked as a merchant.
Muhammad would retreat to a cave in the mountains for several days at a time, for seclusion and prayer; at age 40, he said it was at this cave, he was visited by the Angel, Gabriel, and received his first revelation from Allāh. Three years later, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that “Allāh is One,” that complete “surrender” to Him is the only way acceptable to Allāh, and that he (Muhammad) was a prophet and messenger of Allāh.
The next few years were years of upheaval and doubt; years of subjection, fighting, killing . . . and of conversions. After eight years of being at odds with the Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts.
In 632, Muhammad fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam, and Arabia had united into a single Muslim religious state.
The revelations, which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur’an, regarded by Muslims as the “Word of Allāh” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur’an, Muhammad’s teachings and practices, found in the Hadith literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as sources of Islamic law (Shari’a).
Muhammad’s Wives
The wives of Muhammad, were the women married to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Muslims use the term prominently before or after referring to them as a sign of respect. The term “Mothers of the Believers” is applied to them which is derived from Qur’an 33:6: “The Prophet is closer to the believers than their selves, and his wives are (as) their mothers.”
Muhammad was monogamous for 25 years. After his first wife Khadija bint Khuwaylid died, he proceeded to marry the wives listed below, and most of them were widows. Muhammad’s life is traditionally delineated as two epochs: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca, a city in western Arabia, from the year 570 to 622, and post-hijra in Medina, from 622 until his death in 632. All but two of his marriages were contracted after the Hijra (migration to Medina). Of Muhammad’s thirteen wives, at least two, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, were actually wives from his servants, however, there is debate among Muslims as to whether these two became his wives.
History
In Arabian culture, marriage was contracted in accordance with the larger needs of the tribe and was based on the need to form alliances within the tribe and with other tribes. Virginity at the time of marriage was emphasized as a tribal honor. All of Muhammad’s marriages had the political aspect of strengthening friendly relationships and were8 based on the Arabian custom. Some of Muhammad’s marriages were aimed at providing a livelihood for widows. He noted that remarriage was difficult for widows in a society that emphasized virgin marriages. Francis Edward Peters says that it is hard to make generalizations about Muhammad’s marriages: many of them were political, some compassionate, and some perhaps affairs of the heart. Muhammad’s first marriage lasted 25 years.
Objectives Of Muhammad’s Marriages
According to Islamic belief, the main objectives of Muhammad’s marriages can be divided into four.
- Helping out the widows of his companions.
- Creating family bonds between him and his companions (Muhammad married the daughters of Abu Bakr and Umar, whereas Uthman and Ali married his daughters. He therefore had family bonds with all the first four Caliphs).
- Spreading the message by uniting different clans through marriage.
- Increasing credibility and sources for conveying his private family life. If he only had one wife, then it would have been a tremendous responsibility on her to convey Muhammad’s private acts of worship and family life, and people would try to discredit her to destroy the credibility of these practices. However, with multiple wives, there were a lot more sources to the knowledge, making it more difficult to discredit. Therefore, his marriages gave more women the opportunity to learn and teach the matters of his private life.
Muhammad’s first marriage was at the age of 25 to the 40-year-old Khadijah. He was married to one woman until the age of 50, after which he is believed to have had multiple wives for the four reasons explained above. With the exception of Aisha, Muhammad only married widows and divorced women or captives.
Muhammad’s Marriages
Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
At the age of 25, Muhammad wed his wealthy employer, the 40-year-old merchant Khadija. In another narration, it is reported that she was only 28 years old, in given that she had four children with Muhammad after their marriage. This marriage, his first, would be both happy and monogamous; Muhammad would rely on Khadija in many ways, until her death 25 years later. They had two sons, Qasim and Abd-Allah (nicknamed al-Ṭāhir and al-Ṭayyib respectively), both died young, and four daughters—Zaynab, Ruqaiya, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. Shi’a scholars dispute the paternity of Khadija’s daughters, as they view the first three of them as the daughters from previous marriages and only Fatimah as the daughter of Muhammad and Khadija. During their marriage, Khadija purchased the slave Zayd ibn Harithah, then adopted the young man as her son at Muhammad’s request. According to Shi’a scholars Khadija was a virgin when she married Muhammad and she was not a widow. Abu Talib and Khadija passed away in the same year after living in Shaeb e Abi Talib with Muhammad. He declared the year as Aam ul Huzn (year of sorrow).
Hijra (Migration) To Medina
Sawda bint Zamʿa
Before he left for Medina, it was suggested by Khawlah bint Hakim that he marry Sawda bint Zamʿa, who had suffered many hardships after she became a Muslim. Prior to that, Sawda was married to a paternal cousin of hers named As-Sakran bin ‘Amr, and had five or six sons from her previous marriage. There are disagreements in Muslim tradition whether Muhammad first married Sawda or Aisha. In one account, he married Sawda in Shawwal, when Sawda was about 55 years old, in the tenth year of Prophethood, after the death of Khadija. At about the same period, Aisha was betrothed to him. As Sawda got older, and some time after Muhammad’s marriage to Umm Salama, some sources claim that Muhammad wished to divorce Sawda. Still other traditions maintain that Muhammad did not intend to divorce her, but only Sawda feared or thought that he would. As a compromise, or because of her old age, Sawda offered to give her turn of Muhammad’s conjugal visits to Aisha, stating that she “was old, and cared not for men; her only desire was to rise on the Day of Judgment as one of his wives.” While some Muslim historians cite this story as a reason of revelation for Qur’an 4:128, others like Rashid Rida dispute this whole account as “poorly supported.”
Aisha bint Abu Bakr
Aisha was the daughter of Muhammad’s close friend Abu Bakr. She was initially betrothed to Jubayr ibn Mut’im, a Muslim whose father, though pagan, was friendly to the Muslims. When Khawlah bint Hakim suggested that Muhammad marry Aisha after the death of Muhammad’s first wife (Khadija), the previous agreement regarding marriage of Aisha with ibn Mut’im was put aside by common consent.
The majority of traditional sources state that Aisha was betrothed to Muhammad at the age of six or seven, but she stayed in her parents’ home until the age of nine, or ten according to Ibn Hisham, when the marriage was consummated with Muhammad, then 53, in Medina. This timeline has been challenged by a number of scholars in modern times. Both Aisha and Sawda, his two wives, were given apartments adjoined to the Al-Masjid al-Nabawi mosque.
Per Sunni belief, Aisha was extremely scholarly and inquisitive. Her contribution to the spread of Muhammad’s message was extraordinary, and she served the Muslim community for 44 years after his death. She is also known for narrating 2,210 hadith, not just on matters related to Muhammad’s private life, but also on topics such as inheritance, pilgrimage, eschatology, among other subjects. She was highly regarded for her intellect and knowledge in various fields, including poetry and medicine, which received plenty of praise by early luminaries, such as the historian Al-Zuhri and her student Urawa ibn al-Zubayr.
Widows Of The War With Mecca
Hafsa bint Umar and Zaynab bint Khuzayma
During the Muslim war with Mecca, many men were killed leaving behind widows and orphans. Hafsa bint Umar, daughter of Umar (‘-Umar bin Al-Khattab), was widowed at battle of Badr when her husband Khunais ibn Hudhaifa was killed in action. Muhammad married her in 3 625 A.D. Zaynab bint Khuzayma was also widowed at the battle of Badr. She was the wife of ‘Ubaydah b. al-Hārith, a faithful Muslim and from the tribe of al-Muttalib, for which Muhammad had special responsibility. When her husband died, Muhammad aiming to provide for her, married her in 626 A.D. She was nicknamed Umm Al-Masakeen (roughly translates as the mother of the poor), because of her kindness and charity.
Close to Aisha’s age, the two younger wives Hafsa and Zaynab were welcomed into the household. Sawda, who was much older, extended her motherly benevolence to the younger women. Aisha and Hafsa had a lasting relationship. As for Zaynab, however, she became ill and died less than eight months after her marriage.
Hind bint Abi Umayya (Umm Salama)
The death of Zaynab coincided with that of Abu Salamah, a devout Muslim, as a result of his wounds from the Battle of Uhud. Abu Salamah’s widow, Umm Salama Hind bint Abi Umayya also a devoted Muslim, had none but her young children. Her manless plight reportedly saddened the Muslims, and after her iddah (the period a woman must observe after the death of her spouse or after a divorce) some Muslims proposed marriage to her; but she declined. When Muhammad proposed her marriage, she was reluctant for three reasons: she claimed to suffer from jealousy and pointed out the prospect of an unsuccessful marriage, her old age, and her young family that needed support. But Muhammad replied that he would pray to God to free her from jealousy, that he too was of old age, and that her family was like his family. She married Muhammad.
Rayhana bint Zayd
In 626, Rayhana bint Zayd, was a Jewish woman enslaved along with others after the defeat of the Banu Qurayza tribe. Her relationship with Muhammed is disputed. The sources regarding her status differ as to whether she was a concubine or whether she eventually married him.
After Muhammad’s final battle against his Meccan enemies, he diverted his attention to stopping the Banu Mustaliq’s raid on Medina. During this skirmish, Medinan dissidents, begrudging Muhammad’s influence, attempted to attack him in the more sensitive areas of his life, including his marriage to Zaynab bint Jahsh, and an incident in which Aisha left her camp to search for her lost necklace, and returned with a Companion of Muhammad.
Internal Dissension
Zaynab bint Jahsh
Zaynab bint Jahsh was Muhammad’s cousin, the daughter of one of his father’s sisters. In Medina Muhammad arranged the widowed Zaynab’s marriage to his adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah. Muhammad was determined to establish the legitimacy and right to equal treatment of the adopted. Zaynab disapproved of the marriage, and her brothers rejected it, because according to Ibn Sa’d, she was of aristocratic lineage and Zayd was a former slave. It’s not clear why Zaynab was unwilling to marry Zayd but some have alluded that Zaynab was an ambitious woman, and was already hoping to marry Muhammad. However, after the Qur’anic verse 33:36 (It is not for a believing man or a believing woman, when Allah and His Messenger have decided a matter, that they should [thereafter] have any choice about their affair. And whoever disobeys Allah and His Messenger has certainly strayed into clear error.) was revealed, Zaynab acquiesced and married Zayed.
Zaynab’s marriage was not a happy one. It’s almost certain that she was wanting a marriage with Muhammad. “Zaynab had dressed in haste when she was told ‘the Messenger of God is at the door.’ She jumped up in haste and excited the admiration of the Messenger of God, so that he turned away murmuring something that could scarcely be understood. However, he did say overtly: ‘Glory be to God the Almighty! Glory be to God, who causes the hearts to turn!’” Zaynab told Zayd about this, and he offered to divorce her, but Muhammad told him to keep her. Some scholars doubt the accuracy of this portion of the narrative, since it does not occur in the earliest source. Muhammad, fearing public opinion, was initially reluctant to marry Zaynab. The marriage would seem incestuous to their contemporaries because she was the former wife of his adopted son, and adopted sons were considered the same as biological sons. This “conception of incest was bound up with old practices belonging to a lower, communalistic level of familial institutions where a child’s paternity was not definitely known; and this lower level was in process being eliminated by Islam.” Muhammad’s decision to marry Zaynab was an attempt to break the hold of pre-Islamic ideas over men’s conduct in society. The Qur’an,33:37 however, indicated that this marriage was a duty imposed upon him by Allah. It implied that treating adopted sons as real sons was objectionable and that there should now be a complete break with the past. Thus Muhammad, confident that he was strong enough to face public opinion, proceeded to reject these taboos. When Zaynab’s waiting period was complete, Muhammad married her. An influential faction in Medina, called “Hypocrites” in the Islamic tradition, did indeed criticize the marriage as incestuous. Attempting to divide the Muslim community, they spread rumors as part of a strategy of attacking Muhammad through his wives. According to Ibn Kathir, the relevant Qur’anic verses were a “divine rejection” of the Hypocrites’ objections. Doubters argued the verses were in exact conflict with social taboos and favored Muhammad too much. The delivery of these verses, thus, did not end the dissent.
Necklace Incident
Aisha had accompanied Muhammad on his skirmish with the Banu Mustaliq. On the way back, Aisha lost her necklace which she had borrowed from her sister Asma Bint Abu Bakr (a treasured possession), and Muhammad required the army to stop so that it could be found. The necklace was found, but during the same journey, Aisha lost it again. This time, she quietly slipped out in search for it, but by the time she recovered it, the caravan had moved on. She was eventually taken home by Safw’an bin Mu’attal.
Rumors spread that something untoward had occurred although there were no witnesses to this. Disputes arose, and the community was split into factions. Meanwhile, Aisha had been ill, and unaware of the stories. At first, Muhammad himself was unsure of what to believe, but eventually trusted Aisha’s protestations of innocence. Eventually, verses of surah Nur were revealed, establishing her innocence, and condemning the slanders and the libel. Although the episode was uneasy for both Muhammad and Aisha, in the end, it reinforced their mutual love and trust.
Reconciliation
Juwayriyya bint al-Harith
One of the captives from the skirmish with the Banu Mustaliq was Juwayriyya bint al-Harith, who was the daughter of the tribe’s chieftain. Her husband, Mustafa bin Safwan, had been killed in the battle. She initially fell among the booty of one of Muhammad’s companions. Upon being enslaved, Juwayriyya went to Muhammad requesting that she – as the daughter of the lord of the Mustaliq – be released, however the Prophet refused. Meanwhile, her father approached Muhammad with ransom to secure her release, but Muhammed still refused to release her. Muhammad then offered to marry her, and she accepted. When it became known that tribes persons of Mustaliq were kinsmen of the prophet of Islam through marriage, the Muslims began releasing their captives. Thus, Muhammad’s marriage resulted in the freedom of nearly one hundred families whom he had recently enslaved.
Safiyya bint Huyeiy Ibn Akhtab
Safiyya bint Huyayy was a noblewoman, the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, chief of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir, who was killed at the Battle of the Trench. She had been married first to a poet, who had divorced her, and second to Kenana ibn al-Rabi, a commander. In 628, at the Battle of Khaybar, Banu Nadir was defeated, her husband was executed and she was taken as a prisoner. Muhammad freed her from her captor and proposed marriage, which Safiyya accepted. Muhammad had given Safiyya the choice of returning to the defeated Banu Nadir, or becoming Muslim and marrying him, and Safiyya opted for the latter choice.
According to a hadith, Muhammad’s contemporaries believed that due to Safiyya’s high status, it was only befitting that she be set free and married to Muhammad. Modern scholars believe that Muhammad married Safiyya as part of reconciliation with the Jewish tribe and as a gesture of goodwill, aimed at ending the enmity and hostility between Jews and Islam.
Muhammad convinced Safiyya to convert to Islam. Safiyyah was initially angry at Muhammad as both her father and husband had been killed. Muhammad explained “Your father charged the Arabs against me and committed heinous acts.” Eventually, Safiyyah got rid of her bitterness against Muhammad and came to appreciate the love and honor Muhammad gave her, and said, “I have never seen a good-natured person as the Messenger of Allah.” Safiyyah remained loyal to Muhammad until he died.
According to Islamic tradition, Safiyya was beautiful, patient, intelligent, learned and gentle, and she respected Muhammad as “Allah’s Messenger.” Muslim scholars state she had many good moral qualities. She is described as a humble worshiper and a pious believer. In addition, she was also very charitable and generous.
Upon entering Muhammad’s household, Safiyya became friends with Aisha and Hafsa, and she offered gifts to Fatima. She gave some of Muhammad’s other wives gifts from her jewels that she brought with her from Khaybar. However, some of Muhammad’s other wives spoke ill of Safiyya’s Jewish descent. Muhammad intervened, pointing out to everyone that Safiyya’s “husband is Muhammad, father is Aaron, and uncle is Moses”, a reference to revered prophets.
Muhammad once went to hajj with all his wives. On the way Safiyya’s camel knelt down, as it was the weakest in the caravan, and she started to weep. Muhammad came to her and wiped her tears with his dress and hands, but the more he asked her not to cry, the more she went on weeping. When Muhammad was terminally ill, Safiyya was profoundly upset. She said to him “I wish it was I who was suffering instead of you.”
Ramla bint Abi Sufyan (Umm Habiba)
In the same year, Muhammad signed a peace treaty with his Meccan enemies, the Quraysh effectively ending the state of war between the two parties. He soon married the daughter of the Quraysh leader, Abu Sufyan ibn Harb, aimed at further reconciling his opponents. He sent a proposal for marriage to Ramla bint Abi Sufyan, who, was in Abyssinia at the time when he learned her husband had died. She had previously converted to Islam (in Mecca) against her father’s will. After her migration to Abyssinia her husband had converted to Christianity. Muhammad dispatched ‘Amr bin a letter to the Negus (king), asking him for Umm Habiba’s hand — that was in Muharram, in the seventh year of Al-Hijra.
Maria al-Qibtiyya
Maria al-Qibtiyya was an Egyptian Coptic Christian, sent as a gift to Muhammad from Muqawqis, a Byzantine official. She bore him a son Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, who died in infancy.
Maymuna bint al-Harith
As part of the treaty of Hudaybiyah, Muhammad visited Mecca for the lesser pilgrimage. There Maymuna bint al-Harith proposed marriage to him. Muhammad accepted, and thus married Maymuna, the sister-in-law of Abbas, a longtime ally of his. By marrying her, Muhammad also established kinship ties with the banu Makhzum, his previous opponent. As the Meccans did not allow him to stay any longer, Muhammad left the city, taking Maymuna with him. Her original name was “Barra” but the Prophet called her “Maymuna,” meaning the blessed, as his marriage to her had also marked the first time in seven years when he could enter his hometown Mecca.
Muhammad’s Widows
According to the Qur’an, God forbade anyone to marry the wives of Muhammad, because of their respect and honour, after he died.
“Nor is it right for you that ye should annoy Allah’s Messenger, or that ye should marry his wives afterhim at any time.” [Qur’an 33:53]
The extent of Muhammad’s property at the time of his death is unclear. Although Qur’an [2.180] clearly addresses issues of inheritance, Abu Bakr, the new leader of the Muslim ummah, refused to divide Muhammad’s property among his widows and heirs, saying that he had heard Muhammad say:
We (Prophets) do not have any heirs; what we leavebehind is (to be given in) charity.
Muhammad’s widow Hafsa played a role in the collection of the first Qur’anic manuscript. After Abu Bakr had collected the copy, he gave it to Hafsa, who preserved it until Uthman took it, copied it and distributed it in Muslim lands.
Some of Muhammad’s widows were active politically in the Islamic state after Muhammad’s death. Safiyya, for example, aided the Caliph Uthman during his siege. During the first fitna, some wives also took sides. Umm Salama, for example, sided with Ali, and sent her son Umar for help. The last of Muhammad’s wives, Umm Salama lived to hear about the tragedy of Karbala in 680, dying the same year. The grave of the wives of Muhammed is located at al-Baqīʿ Cemetery, Medina.
Family Life
Muhammad and his family lived in small apartments adjacent the mosque at Medina. Each of these were six to seven spans wide (5.5 feet) and ten spans long (7.5 feet). The height of the ceiling was that of an average man standing. The blankets were used as curtains to screen the doors. According to an account by Anas bin Malik, “The Prophet used to visit all his wives in a round, during the day and night and they were eleven in number.”
Although Muhammad’s wives had a special status as Mothers of _ Believers, he did not allow them to use his status as a prophet to obtain special treatment in public.
Qur’anic Names And Appellations
The name Muhammad means “praiseworthy” and appears four times in the Qur’an. The Qur’an addresses Muhammad in the second person by various appellations; prophet, messenger, servant of God (‘abd), announcer (bashir), [Qur’an 2:119] witness (shahid), [Qur’an 33:45] bearer of good tidings (mubashshir), warner (nathir), [Qur’an 11:2] reminder (mudhakkir), [Qur’an 88:21] one who calls [unto God] (dā’ī), [Qur’an 12:108] light personified (noor), [Qur’an 05:15] and the light-giving lamp (siraj munir), [Qur’an 33:46] Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he is referred to as the enwrapped (Al-Muzzammil) in Qur’an 73:1 and the shrouded (al-muddaththir) in Qur’an 74:1. In Sura Al-Ahzab 33:40 Allah singles out Muhammad as the “Seal of the prophets,” or the last of the prophets. The Qur’an also refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad “more praiseworthy” (Sura As-Saff 61:6).
The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, begins with the kunya Abū, which corresponds to the English, father of.
Qur’an
The Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad. The Qur’an, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammad’s chronological biography; most Qur’anic verses do not provide significant historical context.
Early Biographies
Important sources regarding Muhammad’s life may be found in the historic works by writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (AH – 8th and 9th century AD). These include traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad, which provide additional information about Muhammad’s life.
The earliest surviving written sira (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq’s Life of God’s Messenger written c. 767 CE (150 AH). Although the work was lost, this sira was used at great length by Ibn Hisham and to a lesser extent by Al-Tabari. However, Ibn Hisham admits in the preface to his biography of Muhammad that he omitted matters from Ibn Ishaq’s biography that “would distress certain people.” Another history source is the history of Muhammad’s campaigns by al-Waqidi (death 207 of Muslim era), and the work of his secretary Ibn Sa’d al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era).
Many scholars accept these early biographies as authentic, though their accuracy is unascertainable. Recent studies have led scholars to distinguish between traditions touching legal matters and purely historical events. In the legal group, traditions could have been subject to invention while historic events, aside from exceptional cases, may have been only subject to “tendential (biased, one-sided, prejudice) shaping.”
Hadith
Other important sources include the hadith collections, accounts of the verbal and physical teachings and traditions of Muhammad. However, Hadiths were compiled several generations after his death (and therefore less/un-verifiable) by followers including Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi, Abd ar-Rahman al-Nasai, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah, Malik ibn Anas, al-Daraqutni.
Some Western academics cautiously view the hadith collections as accurate historical sources. Some scholars do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in later periods, but judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures. Muslim scholars on the other hand typically place a greater emphasis on the hadith literature instead of the biographical literature, since hadiths maintain a verifiable chain of transmission (isnad); the lack of such a chain for the biographical literature makes it less verifiable in their eyes.
Pre-Islamic Arabia
The Arabian Peninsula was largely arid and volcanic, making agriculture difficult except near oases or springs. The landscape was dotted with towns and cities; two of the most prominent being Mecca and Medina. Medina was a large flourishing agricultural settlement, while Mecca was an important financial center for many surrounding tribes. Communal life was essential for survival in the desert conditions, supporting indigenous tribes against the harsh environment and lifestyle. Tribal affiliation, whether based on kinship or alliances, was an important source of social cohesion. Indigenous Arabs were either nomadic or sedentary. Nomadic groups constantly traveled seeking water and pasture for their flocks, while the sedentary settled and focused on trade and agriculture. Nomadic survival also depended on raiding caravans or oases; nomads did not view this as a crime.
In pre-Islamic Arabia, gods or goddesses were viewed as protectors of individual tribes, their spirits being associated with sacred trees, stones, springs and wells. As well as being the site of an annual pilgrimage, the Kaaba shrine in Mecca housed 360 idols of tribal patron deities. Three goddesses were associated with Allah, as his daughters: Allāt, Manāt and al-‘Uzzá. Monotheistic communities existed in Arabia, including Christians and Jews. Hanifs – native pre-Islamic Arabs who “professed a rigid monotheism” – are also sometimes listed alongside Jews and Christians in pre-Islamic Arabia, although their historicity is disputed among some scholars. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad himself was a Hanif and one of the descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham.
The second half of the sixth century was a period of political disorder in Arabia and communication routes were no longer secure. Religious divisions were an important cause of the crisis. Judaism became the dominant religion in Yemen while Christianity took root in the Persian Gulf area. In line with broader trends of the ancient world, the region witnessed a decline in the practice of polytheistic cults and a growing interest in a more spiritual form of religion. While many were reluctant to convert to a foreign faith, those faiths provided intellectual and spiritual reference points.
During the early years of Muhammad’s life, the Quraysh tribe he belonged to became a dominant force in western Arabia. They formed the cult association of hums, which tied members of many tribes in western Arabia to the Kaaba and reinforced the prestige of the Meccan sanctuary. To counter the effects of anarchy, Quraysh upheld the institution of sacred months during which all violence was forbidden, and it was possible to participate in pilgrimages and fairs without danger. Thus, although the association of hums was primarily religious, it also had important economic consequences for the city.
Life
Childhood And Early Life
Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim, was born about the year 570 and his birthday is believed to be in the month of Rabi’ al-awwal. He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan, part of the Quraysh tribe, and was one of Mecca’s prominent families, although it appears less prosperous during Muhammad’s early lifetime. Tradition places the year of Muhammad’s birth as corresponding with the Year of the Elephant, which is named after the failed destruction of Mecca that year by the Abraha, Yemen’s king, who supplemented his army with elephants. Alternatively some 20th century scholars have suggested different years, such as 568 or 569.
Muhammad’s father, Abdullah, died almost six months before his son’s birth. According to Islamic tradition, soon after birth he was sent to live with a Bedouin family in the desert, as desert life was considered healthier for infants; some western scholars reject this tradition’s historicity. Muhammad stayed with his foster-mother, Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, and her husband until he was two years old. At the age of six, Muhammad lost his biological mother Amina to illness and became an orphan. For the next two years, until he was eight years old, Muhammad was under the guardianship of his paternal grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, of the Banu Hashim clan until his death, and then came under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the new leader of the Banu Hashim. According to Islamic historian William Montgomery Watt there was a general disregard by guardians in taking care of weaker members of the tribes in Mecca during the 6th century, “Muhammad’s guardians saw that he did not starve to death, but it was hard for them to do more for him, especially as the fortunes of the clan of Hashim seem to have been declining at that time.
In his teens, Muhammad accompanied his uncle on Syrian trading journeys to gain experience in commercial trade. Islamic tradition states that when Muhammad was either nine or twelve while accompanying the Meccans’ caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk or hermit named Bahira who is said to have foreseen Muhammad’s career as a prophet of God.
Little is known of Muhammad during his later youth; available information is fragmented, making it difficult to separate history from legend. It is known that he became a merchant and “was involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.” Due to his upright character he acquired the nickname “al-Amin,” meaning “faithful, trustworthy” and “al-Sadiq” meaning “truthful” and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator. His reputation attracted a proposal in 595 from Khadijah, a 40-year-old widow. Muhammad consented to the marriage, which by all accounts was a happy one.
Beginnings Of The Qur’an
Muhammad began to pray alone in a cave named Hira on Mount Jabal al-Nour, near Mecca for several weeks every year. Islamic tradition holds that during one of his visits to that cave, in the year 610 the angel Gabriel appeared to him and commanded Muhammad to recite verses that would be included in the Qur’an. Consensus exists that the first Qur’anic words revealed were the beginning of Surah 96:1. Muhammad was deeply distressed upon receiving his first revelations. After returning home, Muhammad was consoled and reassured by Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraka ibn Nawfal. He also feared? that others would dismiss his claims as being possessed. Shi’a tradition states Muhammad was not surprised or frightened at Gabriel’s appearance; rather he welcomed the angel, as if he was expected. The initial revelation was followed by a three-year pause (a period known as fatra) during which Muhammad felt depressed and further gave himself to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: “Thy Guardian-Lord hath not forsaken thee, nor is He displeased.”
Muhammad described his revelations as “sometimes it is (revealed) like the ringing of a bell.” Aisha reported, “I delivered verses that condemned idol worship and the polytheism practiced by the Meccan forefathers. However, the Qur’anic exegesis maintains that it began as Muhammad started public preaching. As his followers increased, Muhammad became a threat to the local tribes and rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the Ka’aba, the focal point of Meccan religious life that Muhammad threatened to overthrow. Muhammad’s denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka’aba. Powerful merchants attempted to convince Muhammad to abandon his preaching; he was offered admission to the inner circle of merchants, as well as an advantageous marriage. He refused both of these offers.
Tradition records at great length the persecution and ill-treatment towards Muhammad and his followers. Sumayyah bint Khayyat, a slave of a prominent Meccan leader Abu Jahl, is famous as the first martyr of Islam; killed with a spear by her master when she refused to give up her faith. Bilal, another Muslim slave, was tortured by Umayyah ibn Khalaf who placed a heavy rock on his chest to force his conversion.
In 615, some of Muhammad’s followers emigrated to the Ethiopian Kingdom of Aksum and founded a small colonyo under the protection of the Christian Ethiopian emperor Aṣḥama ibn Abjar. Ibn Sa’ad mentions two separate migrations. According to him, most of the Muslims returned to Mecca prior to Hijra, while a second group rejoined them in Medina. Ibn Hisham and Tabari, however, only talk about one migration to Ethiopia. These accounts agree that Meccan persecution played a major role in Muḥammad’s decision to suggest that a number of his followers seek refuge among the Christians in Abyssinia. According to the famous letter of ʿUrwa preserved in al-Tabari, the majority of Muslims returned to their native town as Islam gained strength and high ranking Meccans, such as Umar and Hamzah converted.
However, there is a completely different story on the reason why the Muslims returned from Ethiopia to Mecca. “ According to this account — initially mentioned by Al-Waqidi then rehashed by Ibn Sa’ad and Tabari, but not by Ibn Hisham and not by Ibn Ishaq Muhammad, desperately hoping for an accommodation with his tribe, pronounced a verse acknowledging the existence of three Meccan goddesses considered to be the daughters of Allah. Muhammad retracted the verses the next day at the behest of Gabriel, claiming that the verses were whispered by the devil himself. Instead, a ridicule of these gods was offered. This episode, known as “The Story of the Cranes,” is also known as “Satanic Verses”. According to the story, this led to a general reconciliation between Muḥammad and the Meccans, and the Abyssinia Muslims began to return home. When they arrived Gabriel had informed Muḥammad the two verses were not part of the revelation, but had been inserted by Satan. Notable scholars at the time argued against the historic authenticity of these verses and the story itself on various grounds. Al-Waqidi was severely criticized by Islamic scholars such as Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi’i, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Al-Nasa’i, al-Bukhari, Abu Dawood, Al-Nawawi and others as a liar and forger. Later, the incident received some acceptance among certain groups, though strong objections to it continued onwards past the tenth century. The objections continued until rejection of these verses and the story itself eventually became the only acceptable orthodox Muslim position.
In 617, the leaders of Makhzum and Banu Abd-Shams, two important Quraysh clans, declared a public boycott against Banu Hashim, their commercial rival, to pressure it into withdrawing its protection of Muhammad. The boycott lasted three years but eventually collapsed as it failed in its objective. During this time, Muhammad was only able to preach during the holy pilgrimage months in which all hostilities between Arabs was suspended.
Isra And Mi’raj (the two parts of a Night Journey that, according to Islam, Muhammad took during a single night around the year 621 CE.).
The Al-Aqsa Mosque, part of the al-Haram ash-Sharif complex in Jerusalem and built in 705, was named the “farthest mosque” to honor the possible location to which Muhammad travelled in his night journey.
Islamic tradition states that in 620, Muhammad experienced the Isra and Mi’raj, a miraculous night-long journey said to have occurred with the angel Gabriel. At the journey’s beginning, the Isra, he is said to have traveled from Mecca on a winged steed to “the farthest mosque.” Later, during the Mi’raj, Muhammad is said to have toured heaven and hell, and spoke with earlier prophets, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Ibn Ishaq, author of the first biography of Muhammad, presents the event as a spiritual experience; later historians, such as Al-Tabari and Ibn Kathir, present it as a physical journey.
Some western scholars hold that the Isra and Mi’raj journey traveled through the heavens from the sacred enclosure at Mecca to the celestial al-Baytu l-Maʿmur (heavenly prototype of the Kaaba); later traditions indicate Muhammad’s journey as having been from Mecca to Jerusalem.
Last Years Before Hijra
Qur’anic inscriptions on the Dome of the Rock. It marks the spot Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven.
Muhammad’s wife Khadijah and uncle Abu Talib both died in 619, the year thus being known as the “Year of Sorrow.” With the death of Abu Talib, leadership of the Banu Hashim clan passed to Abu Lahab, a tenacious enemy of Muhammad. Soon afterward, Abu Lahab withdrew the clan’s protection over Muhammad. This placed Muhammad in danger; the withdrawal of clan protection implied that blood revenge for his killing would not be exacted. Muhammad then visited Ta’if, another important city in Arabia, and tried to find a protector, but his effort failed and further brought him into physical danger. Muhammad was forced to return to Mecca. A Meccan man named Mut’im ibn Adi (and the protection of the tribe of Banu Nawfal) made it possible for him to safely re-enter his native city.
Many people visited Mecca on business or as pilgrims to the Kaaba. Muhammad took this opportunity to look for a new home for himself and his followers. After several unsuccessful negotiations, he found hope with some men from Yathrib (later called Medina). The Arab population of Yathrib were familiar with monotheism and were prepared for the appearance of a prophet because a Jewish community existed there. They also hoped, by the means of Muhammad and the new faith, to gain supremacy over Mecca; the Yathrib were jealous of its importance as the place of pilgrimage. Converts to Islam came from nearly all Arab tribes in Medina; by June of the subsequent year, seventy-five Muslims came to Mecca for pilgrimage and to meet Muhammad. Meeting him secretly by night, the group made what is known as the “Second Pledge of al-‘Aqaba”, or, in Orientalists’ view, the “Pledge of War.” Following the pledges at Aqabah, Muhammad encouraged his followers to emigrate to Yathrib. As with the migration to Abyssinia, the Quraysh attempted to stop the emigration. However, almost all Muslims managed to leave.
The Hijra is the migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622 CE. In June 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly slipped out of Mecca and moved his followers to Medina, 450 kilometers (280 miles) north of Mecca.
Migration To Medina
A delegation, consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina, invited Muhammad to serve as chief arbitrator for the entire community; due to his status as a neutral outsider. There was fighting in Yathrib: primarily the dispute involved its Arab and Jewish inhabitants, and was estimated to have lasted for around a hundred years before 620. The recurring slaughters and disagreements over the resulting claims, especially after the Battle of Bu’ath in which all clans were involved, made it obvious to them that the tribal concept of blood-feud and an eye for an eye were no longer workable unless there was one man with authority to adjudicate in disputed cases. The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellow-citizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as one of themselves.
Muhammad instructed his followers to emigrate to Medina, until nearly all his followers left Mecca. Being alarmed at the departure, according to tradition, the Meccans plotted to assassinate Muhammad. With the help of Ali, Muhammad fooled the Meccans watching him, and secretly slipped away from the town with Abu Bakr. By 622, Muhammad emigrated to Medina, a large agricultural oasis. Those who migrated from Mecca along with Muhammad became known as muhajirun (emigrants).
Establishment Of A New Polity
Among the first things Muhammad did to ease the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was to 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; this specified rights and duties of all citizens, and the relationship of the different communities in Medina (including the Muslim community to 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 converts to Islam in Medina were the clans without great leaders; these clans had been subjugated by hostile leaders from outside. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, with some exceptions. According to Ibn Ishaq, this was influenced by the conversion of Sa’d ibn Mu’adh (a prominent Medinan leader) to Islam. Medians who converted to Islam and helped the Muslim emigrants find shelter became known as the ansar (supporters). Then Muhammad instituted brotherhood between the emigrants and the supporters and he chose Ali as his own brother.
Beginning Of Armed Conflict
Following the emigration, the people of Mecca seized property of Muslim emigrants to Medina. War would later break out between the people of Mecca and the Muslims. Muhammad delivered Qur’anic verses permitting Muslims to fight the Meccans (see sura Al-Hajj, Qur’an 22:39–40). According to the traditional account, on 11 February 624, while praying in the Masjid al-Qiblatayn in Medina, Muhammad received revelations from God that he should be facing Mecca rather than Jerusalem during prayer. Muhammad adjusted to the new direction, and his companions praying with him followed his lead, beginning the tradition of facing Mecca during prayer.
In March 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the caravan at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded the Muslims. A Meccan force was sent to protect the caravan and went on to confront the Muslims upon receiving word that the caravan was safe. The Battle of Badr commenced. Though outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans with fourteen Muslims dead. They also succeeded in killing many Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Seventy prisoners had been acquired, many of whom were ransomed. Muhammad and his followers saw the victory as confirmation of their faith and Muhammad ascribed the victory as assisted from an invisible host of angels. The Qur’anic verses of this period, unlike the Meccan verses, dealt with practical problems of government and issues like the distribution of spoils.
The victory strengthened Muhammad’s position in Medina and dispelled earlier doubts among his followers. As a result, the opposition to him became less vocal. Pagans who had not yet converted were very bitter about the advance of Islam. Two pagans, Asma bint Marwan of the Aws Manat tribe and Abu ‘Afak of the ‘Amr b. ‘Awf tribe, had composed verses taunting and insulting the Muslims. They were killed by people belonging to their own or related clans, and Muhammad did not disapprove of the killings. This report, however, is considered by some to be a fabrication. Most members of those tribes converted to Islam, and little pagan opposition remained.
Muhammad forced Banu Qaynuqa, one of three main Jewish tribes, to leave Medina, but some historians contend that the expulsion happened after Muhammad’s death. According to al-Waqidi, after Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy spoke for them, Muhammad refrained from executing them and commanded that they be exiled from Medina. Following the Battle of Badr, Muhammad also made mutual-aid alliances with a number of Bedouin tribes to protect his community from attacks from the northern part of Hejaz.
Conflict With Mecca
The Meccans were eager to avenge their defeat. To maintain economic prosperity, the Meccans needed to restore their prestige, which had been reduced at Badr. In the ensuing months, the Meccans sent ambush parties to Medina while Muhammad led expeditions against tribes allied with Mecca and sent raiders onto a Meccan caravan. Abu Sufyan gathered an army of 3000 men and set out for an attack on Medina.
A scout alerted Muhammad of the Meccan army’s presence and numbers a day later. The next morning, at the Muslim conference of war, a dispute arose over how best to repel the Meccans. Muhammad and many senior figures suggested it would be safer to fight within Medina and take advantage of the heavily fortified strongholds. Younger Muslims argued that the Meccans were destroying crops, and huddling in the strongholds would destroy Muslim prestige. Muhammad eventually conceded to the younger Muslims and readied the Muslim force for battle. Muhammad led his force outside to the mountain of Uhud (the location of the Meccan camp) and fought the Battle of Uhud on 23 March 625. Although the Muslim army had the advantage in early encounters, lack of discipline on the part of strategically placed archers led to a Muslim defeat; 75 Muslims were killed including Hamza, Muhammad’s uncle who became one of the best known martyrs in the Muslim tradition. The Meccans did not pursue the Muslims, instead, they marched back to Mecca declaring victory. The announcement is probably because Muhammad was wounded and thought dead. When they discovered that Muhammad was alive, the Meccans did not return due to false information about new forces coming to his aid. The attack had failed to achieve their aim of completely destroying the Muslims. The Muslims buried the dead and returned to Medina that evening. Questions accumulated about the reasons for the loss; Muhammad delivered Qur’anic verses 3:152 indicating that the defeat was twofold: partly a punishment for disobedience, partly a test for steadfastness.
Abu Sufyan directed his effort towards another attack on Medina. He gained support from the nomadic tribes to the north and east of Medina; using propaganda about Muhammad’s weakness, promises of booty, memories of Quraysh prestige and through bribery.
Muhammad’s new policy was to prevent alliances against him. Whenever alliances against Medina were formed, he sent out expeditions to break them up. Muhammad heard of men massing with hostile intentions against Medina, and reacted in a severe manner. One example is the assassination of Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, a chieftain of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir. Al-Ashraf went to Mecca and wrote poems that roused the Meccans’ grief, anger and desire for revenge after the Battle of Badr. Around a year later, Muhammad expelled the Banu Nadir from Medina forcing their emigration to Syria; he allowed them to take some possessions, as he was unable to subdue the Banu Nadir in their strongholds. The rest of their property was claimed by Muhammad in the name of God as it was not gained with bloodshed. Muhammad surprised various Arab tribes, individually, with overwhelming force, causing his enemies to unite to annihilate him. Muhammad’s attempts to prevent a confederation against him were unsuccessful, though he was able to increase his own forces and stopped many potential tribes from joining his enemies.
Siege Of Medina
With the help of the exiled Banu Nadir, the Quraysh military leader Abu Sufyan mustered a force of 10,000 men. Muhammad prepared a force of about 3,000 men and adopted a form of defense unknown in Arabia at that time; the Muslims dug a trench wherever Medina lay open to cavalry attack. The idea is credited to a Persian convert to Islam, Salman the Persian. The siege of Medina began on 31 March 627 and lasted two weeks. Abu Sufyan’s troops were unprepared for the fortifications, and after an ineffectual siege, the coalition decided to return home. The Qur’an discusses this battle in sura Al-Ahzab, in verses 33:9–27. During the battle, the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, located to the south of Medina, entered into negotiations with Meccan forces to revolt against Muhammad. Although the Meccan forces were swayed by suggestions that Muhammad was sure to be overwhelmed, they desired reassurance in case the confederacy was unable to destroy him. No agreement was reached after prolonged negotiations, partly due to sabotage attempts by Muhammad’s scouts. After the coalition’s retreat, the Muslims accused the Banu Qurayza of treachery and besieged them in their forts for 25 days
The Banu Qurayza eventually surrendered; according to Ibn Ishaq, all the men apart from a few converts to Islam were beheaded, while the women and children were enslaved. Walid N. Arafat and Barakat Ahmad have disputed the accuracy of Ibn Ishaq’s narrative. Arafat believes that Ibn Ishaq’s Jewish sources, speaking over 100 years after the event, inflated this account with memories of earlier massacres in Jewish history; he notes that Ibn Ishaq was considered an unreliable historian by his contemporary Malik ibn Anas, and a transmitter of “odd tales” by the later Ibn Hajar. Ahmad argues that only some of the tribe were killed, while some of the fighters were merely enslaved.
In the siege of Medina, the Meccans exerted the available strength to destroy the Muslim community. The failure resulted in a significant loss of prestige; their trade with Syria vanished. Following the Battle of the Trench, Muhammad made two expeditions to the north, both ended without any fighting. While returning from one of these journeys (or some years earlier according to other early accounts), an accusation of adultery was made against Aisha, Muhammad’s wife. Aisha was exonerated from accusations when Muhammad announced he had received a revelation confirming Aisha’s innocence and directing that charges of adultery be supported by four eyewitnesses (sura 24, An-Nur).
Truce Of Hudaybiyyah
Although Muhammad had delivered Qur’anic verses commanding the Hajj, the Muslims had not performed it due to Quraysh enmity. In the month of Shawwal 628, Muhammad ordered his followers to obtain sacrificial animals and to prepare for a pilgrimage (umrah) to Mecca, saying that God had promised him the fulfillment of this goal in a vision when he was shaving his head after completion of the Hajj. Upon hearing of the approaching 1,400 Muslims, the Quraysh dispatched 200 cavalry to halt them. Muhammad evaded them by taking a more difficult route, penabling his followers to reach al-Hudaybiyya just outside Mecca. Although Muhammad’s decision to make the pilgrimage was based on his dream, he was also demonstrating to the pagan Meccans that Islam did not threaten the prestige of the sanctuaries, that Islam was an Arabian religion.
Negotiations commenced with emissaries traveling to and from Mecca. While these continued, rumors spread that one of the Muslim negotiators, Uthman bin al-Affan, had been killed by the Quraysh. Muhammad called upon the pilgrims to make a pledge not to flee (or to stick with Muhammad, whatever decision he made) if the situation descended into war with Mecca. This pledge became known as the “Pledge of Acceptance” or the “Pledge under the Tree.” News of Uthman’s safety allowed for negotiations to continue, and a treaty scheduled to last ten years was eventually signed between the Muslims and Quraysh. The main points of the treaty included: cessation of hostilities, the deferral of Muhammad’s pilgrimage to the following year, and agreement to send back any Meccan who emigrated to Medina without permission from their protector.
Many Muslims were not satisfied with the treaty. However, the Qur’anic sura “Al-Fath” (The Victory) (Qur’an 48:1–29) assured them that the expedition must be considered a victorious one. It was later that Muhammad’s followers realized the benefit behind the treaty. These benefits included the requirement of the Meccans to identify Muhammad as an equal, cessation of military activity allowing Medina to gain strength, and the admiration of Meccans who were impressed by the pilgrimage rituals.
After signing the truce, Muhammad assembled an expedition against the Jewish oasis of Khaybar, known as the Battle of Khaybar. This was possibly due to housing the Banu Nadir who were inciting hostilities against Muhammad, or to regain prestige from what appeared as the inconclusive result of the truce of Hudaybiyya. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad also sent letters to many rulers, asking them to convert to Islam (the exact date is given various). He sent messengers (with letters) to Heraclius of the Byzantine Empire (the eastern Roman Empire), Khosrau of Persia, the chief of Yemen and to several others. In the years following the truce of Hudaybiyya, Muhammad directed his forces against the Arabs on Transjordanian Byzantine soil in the Battle of Mu’tah (fought in September 629 C.E., near the village of Mu’tah, east of the Jordan River and Karak.
Final Years
Conquest Of Mecca
The truce of Hudaybiyyah was enforced for two years. The tribe of Banu Khuza’a had good relations with Muhammad, whereas their enemies, the Banu Bakr, had allied with the Meccans. A clan of the Bakr made a night raid against the Khuza’a, killing a few of them. The Meccans helped the Banu Bakr with weapons and, according to some sources, a few Meccans also took part in the fighting. After this event, Muhammad sent a message to Mecca with three conditions, asking them to accept one of them. These were:
- Either the Meccans would pay blood money for the slain among the Khuza’ah tribe;
- They disavow themselves of the Banu Bakr; or,
- They should declare the truce of Hudaybiyyah null.
The Meccans replied that they accepted the last condition. Soon they realized their mistake and sent Abu Sufyan to renew the Hudaybiyyah treaty, a request that was declined by Muhammad.
Muhammad began to prepare for a campaign. In 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with 10,000 Muslim converts. With minimal casualties, Muhammad seized control of Mecca, declared an amnesty for past offenses, except for ten men and women who were “guilty of murder or other offenses or had sparked off the war and disrupted the peace.” Some of these were later pardoned. Most Meccans converted to Islam and Muhammad proceeded to destroy all the statues of Arabian gods in and around the Kaaba. According to reports collected by Ibn Ishaq and al-Azraqi, Muhammad personally spared paintings or frescos of Mary and Jesus, but other traditions suggest that all pictures were erased. The Qur’an discusses the conquest of Mecca.
Conquest Of Arabia
Following the conquest of Mecca, Muhammad was alarmed by a military threat from the confederate tribes of Hawazin who were raising an army double the size of Muhammad’s. The Banu Hawazin were old enemies of the Meccans and were joined by the Banu Thaqif (inhabiting the city of Ta’if) who adopted an anti-Meccan policy due to the decline of the prestige of Meccans. Muhammad defeated the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes in the Battle of Hunayn.
In the same year, Muhammad organized an attack against northern Arabia because of their previous defeat at the Battle of Mu’tah and reports of hostility adopted against Muslims. With great difficulty he assembled 30,000 men; half of whom on the second day returned with Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy, untroubled by the damning verses which Muhammad hurled at them. Although Muhammad did not engage with hostile forces at Tabuk, he received the submission of some local chiefs of the region.
He also ordered the destruction of any remaining pagan idols in Eastern Arabia. The last city to hold out against the Muslims in Western Arabia was Taif. Muhammad refused to accept the city’s surrender until they agreed to convert to Islam and allowed men to destroy the statue of their goddess Al-Lat.
A year after at the Battle of Tabuk, the Banu Thaqif sent emissaries to surrender to Muhammad and adopt Islam. Many bedouins submitted to Muhammad to safeguard against his attacks and to benefit from the spoils of war. However, the bedouins were alien to the system of Islam and wanted to maintain independence: namely their code of virtue and ancestral traditions. Muhammad required a military and political agreement according to which they “acknowledge the suzerainty of Medina, to refrain from attack on the Muslims and their allies, and to pay the Zakat, the Muslim religious levy” or tax.
Farewell Pilgrimage
In 632, at the end of the tenth year after migration to Medina, Muhammad completed his first true Islamic pilgrimage, setting precedence for the annual Great Pilgrimage, known as Hajj. On the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah Muhammad delivered his Farewell Sermon, at Mount Arafat east of Mecca. In this sermon, Muhammad advised his followers not to follow certain pre-Islamic customs. For instance, he said a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black has any superiority over a white except by piety and good action. He abolished old blood feuds and disputes based on the former tribal system and asked for old pledges to be returned as implications of the creation of the new Islamic community. Commenting on the vulnerability of women in his society, Muhammad asked his male followers to “be good to women, for they are powerless captives (awan) in your households. You took them in God’s trust, and legitimated your sexual relations with the Word of God, so come to your senses people, and hear my words . . .” He told them that they were entitled to discipline their wives but should do so with kindness. He addressed the issue of inheritance by forbidding false claims of paternity or of a client relationship to the deceased and forbade his followers to leave their wealth to a testamentary heir. He also upheld the sacredness of four lunar months in each year. According to Sunni tafsir, the following Qur’anic verse was delivered during this event: “Today I have perfected your religion, and completed my favors for you and chosen Islam as a religion for you” (Qur’an 5:3). According to Shi’a tafsir, it refers to the appointment of Ali ibn Abi Talib at the pond of Khumm as Muhammad’s successor, this occurring a few days later when Muslims were returning from Mecca to Medina.
Death And Tomb
A few months after the farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and suffered for several days with fever, head pain, and weakness. He died on Monday, 8 June 632, in Medina, at the age of 62 or 63, in the house of his wife Aisha. With his head resting on Aisha’s lap, he asked her to dispose of his last worldly goods (seven coins), then spoke his final words:
O Allah, to Ar-Rafiq Al-A’la (exalted friend, highest Friend or the uppermost, highest Friend in heaven).— Muhammad
According to Encyclopedia of Islam, Muhammad’s death may be presumed to have been caused by Medinan fever exacerbated by physical and mental fatigue.
He was buried where he died in Aisha’s house. During the reign of the Umayyad caliph al-Walid I, al-Masjid an-Nabawi (the Mosque of the Prophet) was expanded to include the site of Muhammad’s tomb. The Green Dome above the tomb was built by the Mamluk sultan Al Mansur Qalawun in the 13th century, although the green color was added in the 16th century, under the reign of Ottoman sultan Suleiman the Magnificent. Among tombs adjacent to that of Muhammad are those of his companions (Sahabah), the first two Muslim caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar, and an empty one that Muslims believe awaits Jesus. When bin Saud took Medina in 1805, Muhammad’s tomb was stripped of its gold and jewel ornaments. Adherents to Wahhabism, bin Saud’s followers, destroyed nearly every tomb dome in Medina in order to prevent their veneration, and the one of Muhammad is said to have narrowly escaped. Similar events took place in 1925 when the Saudi militias retook — and this time managed to keep — the city. In the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, burial is to take place in unmarked graves. Although frowned upon by the Saudis, many pilgrims continue to practice a ziyarat — a ritual visit — to the tomb.
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