РефератыИностранный языкMuMuhammad Essay Research Paper MuhammadMuhammad was born

Muhammad Essay Research Paper MuhammadMuhammad was born

Muhammad Essay, Research Paper


Muhammad


Muhammad was born about AD 570 in the city of Mecca, an important


trading center in western Arabia. He was a member of the Hashim clan of the


powerful Quraysh tribe. Because Muhammad’s father, Abd Allah, died before he was


born and his mother, Amina, when he was 6 years old, he was placed in the care


of his grandfather and, after 578, of his uncle Abu Talib, who succeeded as head


of the Hashim clan. At the age of about 25, Muhammad entered the employ of a


rich widow, Khadijah, in her commercial enterprise. They were married soon after.


Two sons, both of whom died young, and four daughters were born. One of the


daughters, Fatima, acquired special prominence in later Islamic history because


of her marriage to Muhammad’s cousin Ali.


About 610, Muhammad, while in a cave on Mount Hira outside Mecca, had a


vision in which he was called on to preach the message entrusted to him by God.


Further revelations came to him intermittently over the remaining years of his


life, and these revelations constitute the text of the Koran. At first in


private and then publicly, Muhammad began to proclaim his message: that there is


but one God and that Muhammad is his messenger sent to warn people of the


Judgment Day and to remind them of God’s goodness.


The Meccans responded with hostility to Muhammad’s monotheism and


iconoclasm. As long as Abu Talib was alive Muhammad was protected by the Hashim,


even though that clan was the object of a boycott by other Quraysh after 616.


About 619, however, Abu Talib died, and the new clan leader was unwilling to


continue the protective arrangement. At about the same time Muhammad lost


another staunch supporter, his wife Khadijah. In the face of persecution and


curtailed freedom to preach, Muhammad and about 70 followers reached the


decision to sever their ties of blood kinship in Mecca and to move to Medina, a


city about 400 km (250 mi) to the north. This move, called the hegira, or hijra,


took place in 622, the first year of the Muslim calendar.


In Medina an organized Muslim community gradually came into existence


under Muhammad’s leadership. Attacks on caravans from Mecca led to war with the


Meccans. Muhammad’s followers obtained victory at Badr but were defeated at


Uhud a year later. In 627, however, they successfully defended Medina against a


siege by 10,000 Meccans. Clashes with three Jewish clans in Med

ina occurred in


this same period. One of these clans, the Banu Qurayza, was accused of plotting


against Muhammad during the siege of Medina; in retaliation all of the clan’s


men were killed and the women and children sold into slavery. Two years later,


in the oasis of Khaybar, a different fate befell another Jewish group. After


defeat they were allowed to remain there for the price of half their annual


harvest of dates.


Since AD 624, the Muslims of Medina had been facing Mecca during worship


(earlier, they had apparently turned toward Jerusalem). Mecca was considered of


primary importance to the Muslim community because of the presence there of the


Kaaba. This sanctuary was then a pagan shrine, but according to the Koran, it


had been built by Abraham and his son Ishmael and had therefore to be


reintegrated in Muslim society. An attempt to go on pilgrimage to Mecca in 628


was unsuccessful, but at that time an arrangement was made allowing the Muslims


to make the pilgrimage the next year, on condition that all parties cease armed


hostilities. Incidents in 629 ended the armistice, and in January 630, Muhammad


and his men marched on Mecca. The Quraysh offer to surrender was accepted with a


promise of general amnesty, and hardly any fighting occurred. Muhammad’s


generosity to a city that had forced him out 8 years earlier is often quoted as


an example of remarkable magnanimity.


In his final years Muhammad continued his political and military


involvements, making arrangements with nomadic tribes ready to accept Islam and


sending expeditions against hostile groups. A few months after a farewell


pilgrimage to Mecca in March 632 he fell ill. Muhammad died on June 8, 632, in


the presence of his favorite wife, Aisha, whose father, Abu Bakr, became the


first caliph.


God’s Messenger


According to Muslim belief, God sent Muhammad as a messenger from among


the Arabs, bringing a revelation in “clear Arabic” ; thus, as other peoples had


received their messengers, so the Arabs received theirs. As one who had lived “a


lifetime” among them before his calling, however, Muhammad was rejected by many


because he was simply a man among men and not an angelic being. As Moses had


brought the Law and Jesus had received the Gospel, the Prophet Muhammad was the


recipient of the Koran. He is “the Seal of the Prophets”, and the Koran is the


perfection of all previous revelations.

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