The story of the growth of Islam is a remarkable one. In 610 CE, the Prophet Muhammad received the word of God on a lonely mountaintop just outside the holy city of Mecca in present-day Saudi Arabia. A century after his death in 632, belief in the message he had received had spread westward along the coast of North Africa as far as Spain, and in the opposite direction all the way to the Himalayas. At first Allah’s revelations to Muhammad were shared orally, but after his death they were written down as the Qur’an—a word that means “recitation.”
Muhammad was a merchant by profession, working in Mecca. The city had grown rapidly into a major trading post, a transformation that had brought with it social tensions. It was also a religious center, a place of pilgrimage or hajj, where Arabs would come to worship their various tribal gods. Though they knew of the Jewish and Christian traditions of having but one god, and felt no hostility to them, they preferred a vaguer spiritual code that gave tribal solidarity—called muruwah—a sacred value.
Muhammad believed that a coming together of beliefs would bring greater peace and justice. Once a year he would retreat to a cave outside Mecca to pray for guidance—and to distribute alms to the growing number of poor and marginalized in the city. In 610, when he was 40 years old, he was alone in the cave when, according to his own description, he was gripped by an overwhelming embrace. At first he thought he was being attacked by a djinn—or evil spirit—but it was in fact the Angel Gabriel speaking the words of a new Arabic scripture direct from God, or Allah.
Muhammad’s family
Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah, was older than him and a widow of independent means when they married. Though polygamy was the norm in Arabia at the time, Muhammad took no other wife while she was alive. They had at least six children—two sons, Al-Qasim and Abdullah, who died in infancy, and four daughters, Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum and Fatimah. Khadijah died in 619, in what Muhammad’s early biographers call his “year of sadness.” After that he married at least nine more times, often for political or humanitarian reasons. The homely Sawdah, for instance, another widow, was the cousin of a local tribal chief. His favorite wife, according to Sunni Muslims, was Aisha, who was only six years old when they were betrothed. After his death, she was involved in collecting his teachings in the Hadith. Another wife, Zaynab bint Jahsh, was first married to one of his adopted sons, but they divorced so Muhammad could wed her. Islam teaches that the Prophet was a helpful husband, sharing in household chores, and allowing his wives—by the standards of the time—an unusual degree of freedom. In the latter years of his life, however, his wives greeted visitors from behind a screen, and were required not to remarry should he die before them. This has subsequently been quoted as a reason why all Muslim women should wear the veil.
After that first “Night of Destiny,” Muhammad experienced similar revelations many times, and it was often a painful process. Yet his behavior illustrates the perfect surrender (islam in Arabic) that every human being should make to the divine.
Day of reckoning At first Muhammad was cautious about speaking publicly of what had happened, but as the news spread, Allah’s words about inner transformation, social equality, unity, mutual respect and peace won many devotees. This was an age when ongoing war between Persia and Byzantium and between local tribes caused many in Arabia to fear for the future of humankind.
As Muhammad recited each new revelation, his followers would learn it by heart. Those who were literate wrote it down. A key message was that there was only one God, Allah, and that people would one day be called before him to account for their actions. There would be a day of reckoning—yawn ad-din, an Arabic term that also conveys “moment of truth.”
“At that time people will straggle forth To be shown what they have done Whoever does a mote’s weight good will see it Whoever does a mote’s weight wrong will see it.”
Qur’an 99:6-9
Hijrah Muhammad’s teaching proved unpopular, and though he was anxious to avoid confrontation at all costs, he and his followers were attacked in Mecca. There were fears Muhammad would be assassinated. At times he was close to despair, but he was strengthened by his faith in Allah and by the continuing revelations—notably a dream-like night journey when he was conveyed by Gabriel to Jerusalem. In 622, he led around 70 followers, plus their families, on a hijrah (migration) to Medina to escape the tensions in Mecca.
“Never once did I receive a revelation without thinking that my soul had been torn away from me… Sometimes it comes unto me like the reverberations of a bell, and that is the hardest upon me; the reverberations abate when I am aware of their message.”
Muhammad, 570–632
The hostility between Muhammad and the people of Mecca finally spilled over into open warfare. Although Muhammad was not a pacifist, he did see violence as a last resort. A revelation told him not to kill those his followers took prisoner, as was the custom, but to release or ransom them. In 627 he defeated a siege at Medina by an army from Mecca. This proved to be a turning point. In 630 he returned to Mecca in triumph. His victories had united the tribes of Arabia and unleashed a wave of converts throughout the peninsula and beyond.
Muhammad died in the arms of his wife Aisha on 8 June 632. His “Final Sermon” was delivered shortly before his death to a gathering of 120,000 pilgrims at Mount Arafat. A summarized text of this sermon is found in mosques all around the world. In it, he instructed his hearers to abandon feuds and in-fighting and preached tolerance. “An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab; a white has no superiority over a black, nor a black over a white, except by piety and good deeds.”
the condensed idea
Muhammad was God’s final prophet
| timeline | |
|---|---|
| 570 | Birth of Muhammad |
| 595 | Marries Khadijah |
| 610 | Night of Destiny |
| 622 | Hijrah |
| 630 | Defends Mecca |
| 632 | Death of Muhammad |