Unit 5 · The Life of the Prophet as Context

Arabia is a big, dry land. About 1,400 years ago, most people there lived in a tribe. A tribe is a large family group. Your tribe kept you safe. If you had no tribe, you had no one to protect you. Tribes made deals with each other, and sometimes they fought.

Some tribes moved from place to place with their camels and sheep. Others lived in towns. Mecca was a town in a rocky valley. It had a well called Zamzam. Camel caravans stopped there to rest and trade. A caravan is a long line of camels carrying goods. Caravans carried spices, cloth and leather.

The strongest tribe in Mecca was called Quraysh. They ran the trade and took care of the town’s holy place. Muhammad was born into this tribe. Historians know these things from old poems, from later Muslim writers, and from what other lands wrote about Arabia.

In the middle of Mecca stood a square stone building called the Kaaba. It was old even then. Arab tribes believed it was a house for the gods. Muslim tradition says Ibrahim (Abraham) and his son Ismail (Ishmael) first built it for the one God, and that people forgot.

By Muhammad’s time, the Kaaba held many idols. An idol is a statue that people pray to. Tradition says there were hundreds. Each tribe had its own gods. Some people in Arabia were Jews or Christians and prayed to one God. Most people in Mecca prayed to many.

Every year, tribes came to Mecca to visit the Kaaba. They walked around it. They also bought and sold goods. This made Quraysh rich. Later, the Qur’an would say that the Kaaba should be for one God only. That idea would change the whole city.

Muslim tradition says Muhammad was born in Mecca in about the year 570. His father died before he was born. His mother died when he was small. His grandfather cared for him, and then his uncle Abu Talib did. As a boy he watched sheep and camels.

When he grew up, Muhammad traded goods for a rich woman named Khadijah. She saw that he was honest. People in Mecca called him al-Amin, "the trustworthy." Khadijah asked him to marry her. Tradition says he was about 25 and she was about 40. They had children together.

Muhammad did not like the idols or the greed of the city. He liked to walk to a cave on a mountain near Mecca. The cave is called Hira. There he sat alone and thought. Historians cannot check most of these early stories. But this is how Muslims have told them for a very long time.

Muslim tradition tells it this way. Muhammad was about 40 years old. He was alone in the cave of Hira. Suddenly an angel was there. Muslims name him Jibril (Gabriel). The angel said, "Read!" Muhammad answered that he could not read. The angel held him tight and said it again.

Then, Muslims believe, the first words of the Qur'an came. They are in Surah 96, called Al-’Alaq. In simple words they say: Read, in the name of your Lord who made people. Your Lord taught by the pen. He taught people what they did not know. This was in about the year 610.

Muhammad was afraid. He ran home to Khadijah and asked her to cover him. She calmed him. She believed him. Muslims call this the first revelation. A revelation is a message that Muslims believe came from God. More messages came for the next 23 years.

The first messages were short. Muslims say they came bit by bit over many years. Their biggest idea was this: there is only one God. Muslims call this tawhid. The idols in the Kaaba were nothing. This was a shock in a city full of idols.

The messages also said that people would answer to God for how they lived. They spoke about the Day of Judgment. On that day, Muslims believe, every person’s good and bad deeds are weighed. The rich could not buy their way out. This was a big idea for the poor of Mecca.

The Qur’an told Mecca to be fair. Surah 93 says not to push away the orphan. It says not to turn away a person who asks for help. Surah 107 says a person who pushes away the orphan does not really believe. The early Muslims heard this as a call to be kind and honest.

Muslims call a person who accepts the message a Muslim. The word means "one who gives in to God." Tradition says the very first Muslim was Khadijah, Muhammad’s wife. Next came Ali, his young cousin, who lived in his house. Ali was about ten years old.

A friend named Abu Bakr believed next. He was a trader, calm and kind. He told his friends about the message. Abu Bakr later used his money to buy enslaved people who had become Muslims and set them free. One of them was Bilal.

Bilal came from Abyssinia, in Africa. His owner hurt him for believing in one God. Tradition says he would not give up. Abu Bakr freed him. A man named Zayd, whom Muhammad had adopted, believed too. The first Muslims were a small, mixed group: rich and poor, old and young, free and enslaved.

For about three years, tradition says, the message stayed among family and friends. Then, in about 613, Muhammad began to teach in the open. He stood near the Kaaba and told Mecca to leave its idols. Most people laughed. Some got angry.

The leaders of Quraysh had reasons to be angry. The idols brought visitors and money to Mecca. The message said the rich would be judged like everyone else. And it came from a man they knew, not a king. One of Muhammad’s own uncles, Abu Lahab, became his enemy.

The leaders could not hurt Muhammad much, because his uncle Abu Talib protected him. But they could hurt Muslims with no tribe to protect them. Enslaved Muslims like Bilal were punished. A woman named Sumayya was killed. Tradition remembers her as the first Muslim to die for the faith.

In about 615, tradition says, Muhammad told some Muslims to leave Mecca for a while. They crossed the Red Sea to Abyssinia, a land in Africa now called Ethiopia. Its king was a Christian. Muhammad had heard that he was fair to strangers.

The leaders of Quraysh sent men after them with gifts for the king. They asked him to send the Muslims back. The king called both sides in. A Muslim named Ja’far, Ali’s older brother, spoke for his group. He recited part of Surah 19, called Maryam, about Mary and the birth of Isa (Jesus).

Tradition says the king wept when he heard it. He said the Muslims could stay. He would not send them back. Muslims remember this as a time when a Christian ruler kept them safe. Historians note that the story comes from later Muslim writers, but they agree Muslims did go to Abyssinia.

The leaders of Quraysh tried a new plan. In about 616 they made a rule: no one could trade with Muhammad’s clan or marry into it. This is called a boycott. His clan, Banu Hashim, moved to a valley outside the town. Tradition says food was scarce for about three years.

The boycott ended in about 619. But that year brought more sadness. Khadijah died. She had believed in Muhammad first and stood by him for 25 years. Then his uncle Abu Talib died. Abu Talib had kept him safe. Muslims call this the Year of Sorrow.

Now no strong person in Mecca protected Muhammad. He went to the town of Ta’if to ask for help. Its leaders drove him out. Tradition says boys threw stones at him. He came back to Mecca sad but not ready to give up. The next years would bring a way out.

Muslims tell a story from about the year 620. One night, they say, the angel Jibril woke Muhammad. A winged animal called Buraq carried him from Mecca to Jerusalem. Muslims call this the Isra, the night journey. In Jerusalem, tradition says, he prayed with earlier prophets.

Then, the story goes, Muhammad rose up through the heavens. Muslims call this the Mi'raj, the ascent. Tradition says he met prophets like Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus). He came before God. Muslims believe that on this night the five daily prayers were given to them.

The Qur’an speaks of the journey in one ayah, at the start of Surah 17. It praises God, who took his servant by night from the holy place in Mecca to the far-off holy place. Muslims read this as Jerusalem. Some Muslims say the journey was in the body; some say it was a vision. Both readings are old.

Every year, people from all over Arabia came to Mecca to visit the Kaaba. Muhammad spoke to the visitors about one God. Most said no. But in about 620, a few men from Yathrib listened. They went home and told others. The next year, more came.

Yathrib was a farming town far to the north. Its two main Arab tribes had fought a long war. Many people there were tired of it. They wanted a fair person from outside to settle their fights. Some of them thought Muhammad could be that person.

In about 621 and again in 622, tradition says, groups from Yathrib met Muhammad at night near Mecca, at a place called Aqaba. They made a pledge, a serious promise. They promised to protect him as they would protect their own families. Now the Muslims had somewhere to go.

The move from Mecca to Yathrib is called the hijra. The word means "leaving" or "moving away." Muslims left in small groups. They did not want Quraysh to notice. Tradition says Quraysh leaders planned to kill Muhammad before he could go. Ali slept in his bed so they would think he was home.

Muhammad and Abu Bakr slipped out and hid in a cave on a mountain called Thawr. Tradition tells that a spider spun a web across the cave’s mouth. The men hunting them saw the web and did not look inside. After three days, the two friends rode north. The trip took about ten days.

The hijra happened in the year 622. It was such a big change that Muslims count years from it. Their calendar is called the Hijri calendar. Its years are marked AH. Muslim tradition says the second caliph, Umar, set the calendar this way some years after the Prophet died. Hijri years follow the moon, so they are a little shorter than ours.

The first thing the Muslims built was a mosque, a place for prayer. Tradition says Muhammad stopped first at a village called Quba and built a small mosque there. In Yathrib itself he built one where his camel had knelt. It had mud walls and a roof of palm branches.

The mosque was not only for prayer. People met there, ate there and settled fights there. Muhammad’s own rooms were beside it. Poor Muslims with no home slept on a bench along one wall. Muslims believe this simple building was the model for every mosque after it.

The Muslims who moved from Mecca were called the Muhajirun. The word means "the ones who moved." The people of Yathrib who helped them were the Ansar, "the helpers." Tradition says Muhammad paired each newcomer with a helper. They were to be like brothers. Helpers shared their homes and land. Together they were the ummah, the community.

Medina had many groups: the Muslims from Mecca, the helpers, people who had not become Muslims, and several Jewish tribes. Tradition says Muhammad made a written agreement with them. Later writers called it the Constitution of Medina. Historians think it is very old, though its exact words are debated.

The agreement said the groups of Medina were one community for defense. If an enemy attacked the city, all would defend it together. Each group kept its own faith. In simple words it said: the Jews have their religion, and the Muslims have theirs. Fights were to be brought to Muhammad to settle.

The peace did not last with every group. Over the next years, tradition says, three Jewish tribes and the Muslims fell out, one after another. Two tribes were made to leave the city. After a great battle in 627, the third was punished very harshly, and many of its men were killed. Historians study these events with care. They are a hard part of the story, and Muslims and scholars discuss them today.

Muslims face one direction when they pray. That direction is called the qibla. In Medina, tradition says, Muslims at first faced north, toward Jerusalem. Jews in Medina also prayed toward Jerusalem. For over a year, the two groups faced the same way.

Then, in about 624, Muslims believe a new verse came. It is in Surah 2, ayah 144. In simple words it says: turn your face toward the holy mosque in Mecca. Tradition says it came in the middle of a prayer. The people turned around while praying. A mosque in Medina is still called the Mosque of the Two Qiblas.

From then on, Muslims everywhere have faced the Kaaba. In Chicago, that means facing a little north of east, over the curve of the earth. Muslims read the change as a sign that their community had its own path. It also tied every prayer to the city they had left.

In Mecca, the surahs were short and mostly about God and the Last Day. In Medina, Muslims say, longer surahs came. They gave rules. A rule says what people must do. Now the Muslims were not a small group hiding from Quraysh. They were a town. A town needs rules about food, money, family and fairness.

One rule was fasting. Surah 2, ayah 183, says that fasting was set for the believers, as it was for people before them. Muslims fast in the month of Ramadan. They do not eat or drink from dawn to sunset. Tradition says this rule came in Medina, in the second year after the hijra.

Other verses told Muslims to give a share of their wealth to the poor. This is called zakat. Verses gave rules about marriage, about debts and about being honest in trade. Scholars call these the Medinan surahs. In this course you will read some of them closely in later grades.

Quraysh and the Muslims were still enemies. In 624, tradition says, the Muslims went out to stop a rich Quraysh caravan. Quraysh sent an army to protect it. The two sides met at a well called Badr. The Muslims had about 300 men. Quraysh had about 1,000.

The Muslims won. Several leaders of Quraysh were killed. Muslims believe angels helped them, and Surah 8 speaks of the day. Tradition says Bilal saw his old owner among the enemy. The battle made the Muslims stronger and gave them hope.

The next year, 625, Quraysh came back with a bigger army. The sides met near a hill called Uhud, close to Medina. This time the Muslims were badly hurt. Muhammad’s uncle Hamza was killed. Muhammad himself was wounded. Surah 3 talks about the loss and asks the believers to learn from it.

In 627, Quraysh and their allies came with a very large army. Tradition says a Persian Muslim named Salman had an idea. Dig a trench, a deep ditch, across the open side of Medina. Horses could not cross it. The army waited for weeks, then went home. Muslims call this the Battle of the Trench.

The next year, in 628, Muhammad set out for Mecca with many Muslims. They wanted to visit the Kaaba, not to fight. Quraysh stopped them at a place called Hudaybiyyah. After long talks, the two sides signed a treaty. A treaty is a written peace deal.

The treaty said there would be no fighting for ten years. The Muslims would go home now and come back to visit the Kaaba the next year. Some Muslims were upset. It felt like giving in. But tradition says Muhammad accepted it, and Surah 48 calls it a clear victory. Peace let the message spread.

The peace did not last ten years. In 630, tradition says, allies of Quraysh attacked allies of the Muslims. This broke the treaty. Muhammad gathered a very large group, about 10,000 people, and marched to Mecca. Quraysh saw they could not win.

Most of Mecca gave in without a fight. Tradition says Muhammad forgave nearly everyone, even old enemies. He then went to the Kaaba. Muslims say he broke the idols inside it and had them carried out. He said the Kaaba was now for the one God only, as Ibrahim had built it.

Bilal climbed to the top of the Kaaba and gave the call to prayer. Tradition says some of Quraysh’s old leaders became Muslims that day. Many tribes across Arabia then joined the Muslims. Within two years, Muslims say, most of Arabia had accepted the message.

In 632, Muhammad made a pilgrimage to Mecca. A pilgrimage is a holy trip. Muslims call this one the Farewell Pilgrimage, because it was his last. Tradition says he spoke to a huge crowd on a plain near Mecca. Muslims call the speech the Farewell Sermon.

Tradition reports his words this way. He said every Muslim is a brother to every other Muslim. He said an Arab is not better than a non-Arab, and a non-Arab is not better than an Arab. He said no one is better because of skin color. Only good deeds make a person better.

He told the crowd to treat women well. He told them to be fair about money and debts. He asked if he had passed on the message. The crowd said yes. Muslims connect this speech to Surah 49, ayah 13. That ayah says God made nations and tribes so people could know one another. The exact words come from later reports, so versions differ a little.

A few months after the pilgrimage, Muhammad became ill. He died in Medina in the year 632. Tradition says he was about 63. He was buried in his wife Aisha’s room, next to the mosque. Today that spot is inside the Prophet’s Mosque, under a green dome.

Many Muslims could not believe he was gone. Tradition says Abu Bakr stood up and spoke. He said: whoever worshipped Muhammad, know that Muhammad has died. Whoever worships God, know that God lives and does not die. Then he read an ayah, 3:144, which says Muhammad is only a messenger, and messengers before him have died.

The Muslims chose Abu Bakr as their leader. His title was caliph, which means "one who comes after." Not all Muslims agreed on who should lead. Shia Muslims believe Ali should have led first. This is one root of the difference between Sunni and Shia Muslims today. Muslims believe no new revelation came after Muhammad.

During Muhammad’s life, the Qur’an lived mostly in people’s memory. Many Muslims knew it by heart. Some parts were also written down by a scribe on bones, leather, palm stalks and flat stones. Tradition names Zayd ibn Thabit as one of the scribes who wrote the words down as they came.

In a battle soon after Muhammad died, many of the men who knew the Qur’an by heart were killed. Tradition says Umar worried the book could be lost. Abu Bakr asked Zayd to gather every part. Zayd collected the written pieces and checked them against what people had memorized. He made one set of pages.

About twenty years later, in about 650, Muslims had spread to many lands. People read some words a little differently. The third caliph, Uthman, asked Zayd and others to make one standard copy. Copies were sent to the main cities. Muslims believe the Qur’an read today is the same text. Scholars study very old copies to learn how it was written.