Download The Rise of Islam

Lesson # 2
Subject: History
Class: Form 3
Date:
Time and Duration: 1:30 – 2:10 pm
(40 minutes)
Topic: The Rise of Islam
Rationale: Most students in Malawi are exposed to Islam as a religion. Almost everyday
they see and interact with Muslims. However, they do not know much about how the
religion started. Due to this little knowledge, they tend to have negative stereotypes about
Muhammad and the beginning of his religion. In comparison with Christianity of which
most know a lot about, they tend to look at Islam as an uninspired and less
important/fanatic religion without a strong background history of its origin and
foundation. This lesson therefore will help students to appreciate and understand who
Muhammad was as both a person and prophet and how he founded his religion in Mecca,
spread it to Medina and consolidated it in the whole of Arabia.
Prior Knowledge: Students already know the pre-Islamic religions of Arabia as well as
the social, economic and political life of Arabia before Islam.
Objectives: SWBAT:
o explain the background of Muhammad the Prophet
o analyze the foundation of Islam in Arabia.
o appreciate the importance of the Hegira in Islam.
Teaching/learning materials
o A map covering part of Africa, Europe and Asia showing Arabia and two
important cities, Mecca and Medina.
o A chart representing the first revelation of Muhammad
o Handouts of Muhammad’s revelations and early converts.
o Handouts of the Hegira
o Textbooks
Presentation
1. Anticipatory Set/Introduction (4minutes)
Ask students to share with the whole class what they know and have heard about
Muhammad. Get views from both Christians and Muslims. Then introduce the topic of
the lesson.
2. Development
Step Teacher Activity
1.
a) Ask students to read their
textbooks and discuss the
background of the prophet
Muhammad.
b)
Supervise
students’
discussions
c) After the discussion ask
students the following questions:
- When and where was
Muhammad born
- Why did his uncle raise him
Student Activity
a) Reading
their
textbooks
and
discussing in groups
the background of
Muhammad.
b) Answering oral
questions
c)
Studying
and
identifying Mecca on
the map.
Materials
a)
Textbooks
b) Map
Time
8
minutes
2.
up?
-Explain bad experiences that
happened to Muhammad during
his youth.
-What was the initial and later
relationship between Muhammad
and khadijah?
-To which tribe did Muhammad
belong and how influential was
the clan?
d) Display the map and ask
students to study and identify
Mecca by using the key.
a) Ask students to form groups
of 6 to 8 and assign half the
groups to read handouts on
“Early revelations of Muhammad
and preaching and organize role
plays. The other half to read
handouts on the Hegira and
return to Mecca and organize
role-plays.
b) Ask students to present their
role-plays and the other students
to take down notes as the roleplays are presented.
a) Reading handouts
and organizing roleplays in their groups.
b) Groups presenting
their role-plays in
turns.
c) Taking notes as the
role-plays are being
presented.
a) A chart 25
representing minutes
the
first
revelations
to be used in
role-plays.
b) Handouts
of
the
revelations
and
early
preaching of
Muhammad.
c) Handouts
of the hegira
and
the
return
to
Mecca.
Conclusion (3 minutes)
Through a brief summary hinting on major issues e.g. background, revelations and early
converts, flight to Medina and return to Mecca.
Consolidation/assessment
Assign students to write a time chart of the major events of the rise of Islam in Arabia for
their homework assignment.
Evaluation
Teaching resources/Materials for the lesson
Handouts
1. Muhammad’s first revelations and early preaching
Muhammad had taken up the habit of retiring for personal meditation and spiritual
cultivation to a hill in a mountainside outside Mecca. He would pack enough provisions
for a few days’ retreat, after which he would return home for more, in order to pass
additional days and nights at Mount Hira.
One night as he was lying asleep, the angel Gabriel appeared to him. Covering
him with a brocaded coverlet on which there was some writing he commanded
Muhammad: “Read!” He answered, “I cannot read.” The voice said again: “Read!” He
answered: “I do not know how to read.” Once more, this time with a terrible force, the
voice said: “Read!” He answered: “What can I read?” The voice thundered:
Read: In the name of thy Lord who created,
created man of a blood clot.
Read: And thy Lord is most generous, who taught
by the pen, taught man that he knew not.
These are the first verses of the Quran to be revealed.
In this vision Muhammad was shown a scroll, which seemed to be of silk with
letters of fire written on it. He read the words, though he had never read before, and when
he awoke, he remembered them, for they were “as though written upon his heart.”
Trembling he went out of the cave onto the hillside, not knowing what had happened to
him, and afraid he must be a shair or possessed. He was in such agony of mind that he
thought of throwing himself off a precipice, and then he heard a voice from heaven
saying: “O Muhammad, you are Allah’s messenger, and I am Gabriel!” Lifting up his
eyes, he saw about two bowshots away “the figure of an angel standing in the sky.” He
was rooted on the spot dazzled by the brightness of the angelic eyes, and once more he
heard the voice. He turned away, but everywhere he turned he saw the angel standing
before him, until at last the angel vanished, and he was alone with the beating of his
heart.
Later in the morning, terrified by the visitation, he hurried back to Mecca and told
Khadijah what he had seen. He was afraid he was going mad, she reassured him.
‘Rejoice”, she said, “for truly you have seen a visitor from heaven, and no harm can
come to you!” Sometime later, she asked Waraqa, now close to death and quite blind,
about the strange meeting in a cave. The old man answered that the angel who appeared
to Muhammad was the same who came to Moses, the son of Amram: there was no doubt
that a revelation was at hand.
Muhammad then began preaching. His first converts were his wife, Ali, his cousin
and son-in-law, and Abu Bakr his close friend. In the early years there were only a few
Muslims, and they were from the poor classes, with the exception of Uthman, the sole
convert from Mecca’s Oligarchy in the Meccan years. Muhammad’s early preaching was
warning, and the Quran gives one of his titles as “warner.” His warnings of the coming
judgment and of the woes of those who refused to believe and do good works were
apparently received at first with good-natured indifference. But when Muhammad began
attacking the Meccan divinities, and through them, the old religious establishment, which
was as profitable as it was deeply rooted, the situation became increasingly tense.
Sources: Denny, F. M. (1994). An introduction to Islam. New York: Macmillan.
Payne, R. (1959). The holy sword. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers.
2. The hegira and return to Mecca
Muhammad met opposition from the Quraish rich merchants because of his
preaching/message. Consequently, Muhammad and his early followers began to be
persecuted. When he realized how dangerous it was for him and his followers to remain
in Mecca, Muhammad began to plan carefully for his departure. Finding that possible
havens near Mecca were insecure, he eventually picked Medina when about 75 of its men
invited him to come to their oasis and pledged themselves to his defense. In 622,
accordingly, Muhammad secretly left Mecca with about 70 of his followers. This
emigration is called the hegira and it was a great event in Muslim history, marking the
commencement of the year 1 of the Islamic calendar.
Muhammad returned to Mecca in 630 AD after signing a peace treaty with the
Quraish leaders. He demolished the idols of the Kaaba and dedicated the building afresh
to the worship One True God. He proclaimed that in future, no pagan would be permitted
to approach the Kaaba, and a Quranic revelation urged the faithful to fight those that did
not believe in God.
Source: Saunders, J.J. (1965). A history of medieval Islam. London: Routledge &
Kegan Paul.