Download Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam

An Introduction to Islam: Historical Background
Definition of Islam
• Islam is an Arabic word that means “submission” – submission
to the will of God.
• To become a Muslim one has only to make a confession of faith
– that there is no god but God, and that Muhammad is the
messenger of God, God’s prophet – before others who witness
this confession.
• A Muslim believes that an omnipotent, omniscient God will, on
the Last Day, judge each person by his or her acts. Each person’s
resurrected body will be admitted to Paradise or condemned to
eternal hellfire, according to God’s evaluation.
• God is just, but God is also merciful. The sinner who repents
may be welcomed into the company of the faithful in Paradise.
Background
• The descendants of Adam led to Noah, who had a son named Shem. This is
where the word Semite comes from; literally, a Semite is a descendant of
Shem.
• Like the Jews, the Arabs consider themselves a Semitic people.
• The descendants of Shem led to Abraham. It was the submission of Abraham
is his supreme test – would he be willing to sacrifice his son Ishmael? – that
appears to have provided Islam with its name (Islam means “surrender”).
• Abraham married Sarah and Sarah had no son.
Wanting to continue his line, Abraham took
Hagar for his second wife.
• Hagar bore him a son, Ishmael. Then Sarah
conceived and likewise had a son, Isaac. Sarah
then demanded that Abraham banish Ishmael
and Hagar from the tribe.
• According to the Qur’an, Ishmael went to the place
where Mecca was to rise. His descendants, flourishing
in Arabia, became Muslims.
The Seal of the Prophets
• Following Ishmael’s line in Arabia, we come in the latter half of the sixth century
A.D. to Muhammad, the prophet.
• Muslims believe that there had been authentic prophets of God before him
(Abraham, Moses, Jesus), but he was their culmination.
• Hence, Muhammad is called “The Seal of the Prophets.” No valid prophets will
follow him.
• Muhammad was born around 570 A.D.. The world into which he was born is
described b y subsequent Muslims as ignorant.
• People felt almost no obligation to anyone outside their tribes. Life was chaotic
with little rule of law.
• The prevailing religion of Arabia could be called “animistic polytheism.” It
peopled the world with beastly spirits called jin or demons.
• The animalistic spirits inspired neither exalted sentiments nor moral restraint.
Arab communities frequently erupted into blood feuds and conflicts fueled by the
fact that pillaging other tribes’ material goods was common.
• The times called for a deliverer.
Muhammad’s Early Life
• Muhammad was born into the leading tribe of Mecca, the Koreish.
• His early life was characterized by tragedy.
His father died a few days before he was
born. His mother died when he was six,
and his grandfather, who cared for him after
his mother’s death, died when he was eight.
• He was adopted into his uncle’s home, where
he was warmly received.
• Tradition says that Muhammad had a sweet and gentle
disposition. His family tragedies had made him sensitive
to human suffering in every form. He was always ready to
Mecca
help others, especially the poor and the weak.
• Yet, despite his concern for others, he remained removed from people around him in
outlook and ways, isolated in a corrupt and degenerate society.
• As he grew from childhood to youth and from youth to manhood, the lawless strife,
the repeated outbursts of pointless quarrels among tribes, and the general
immorality and cynicism of his day combined to produce in him a reaction of horror
and disgust.
Preparation for Muhammad’s Ministry
• As an adult Muhammad took up the caravan business. Although
illiterate, like most men of his society, he had a reputation for integrity
and intelligence. At the age of 25 he entered the service of a wealthy
widow named Khadija. Though she was fifteen years older, they were
married and lived happily together.
• Fifteen years of preparation followed before Muhammad’s ministry
was to begin. He began seeking solitude in a cave in a mountain
outside Mecca – Mount Hira.
• The desert jin were irrelevant to this quest, but one deity was not.
• Allah was worshipped by the Meccans not as the only God, but as an
impressive one. Allah was creator, supreme provider and determiner
of human destiny.
• Through long vigils, often lasting an entire night, Allah became real for Muhammad.
For Muhammad, Allah was far greater than his countrymen supposed.
• This God was not a god or even the greatest of gods. He was what his name literally
claimed: he was the God, one and only.
Muhammad and the Beginnings of Islam
• In about 610 AD, Muhammad had the first of several painful visions.
• An Angel appeared to him in the cave and said, “Proclaim!” The Angel
appeared repeatedly with the same command. These visions become the
basis of the verses (sura) of the Koran, the Muslim holy book.
• The Koran was revealed to Muhammad bit by bit 23 years and not
written down by scribes until about 630 AD.
Opposition to Muhammad
• Despite relentless persecution, insult and outrage, over time, Mohammad
became an inspirational visionary who preached submission - Islam – to
the one God in return for universal salvation, the values of equality and
justice, and the virtues of pure living , with easily learned rituals and rules
for life and death.
• People opposed Muhammad’s message for three main reasons:
1) Its uncompromising monotheism threatened polytheistic beliefs and the
revenue that was coming to Mecca from pilgrimages to its 360 shrines.
2) Its moral teachings demanded
an end to the licentiousness that
citizens clung to
3) Its social content challenged an
unjust order. In a society full of class
distinctions, Muhammad preached a
message that was intensely democratic.
For Allah, all people were equal.
Migration to Medina
• At first, Muhammad and his followers faced so much opposition that he
made few converts. Three long years of effort yielded only 40 converts.
After a decade, several hundred families were acclaiming Muhammad as
God’s authentic prophet.
• The Meccan nobility became alarmed. Muhammad’s prophetic claim had
become a revolutionary movement.
• The seminal event in Islamic history was
Muhammad’s decision to migrate with his followers
from Mecca to Medina (this migration is known as
the hijra) in 622.
• In Medina Muhammad created a small state. The
despised preacher became a masterful politician and
statesman.
Muhammad’s Leadership In Medina
• Despite is growing power and influence, Muhammad lived in an
ordinary clay house, milked his own goats, and was accessible day and
night to anyone in the community.
• Tradition depicts his administration as an ideal blend of justice and
mercy.
• The people of Medina found him to be a master whom it was difficult
not to love as not to obey.
• Exercising his statecraft, Muhammad brought together five different
and conflicting tribes into an orderly confederation.
• His reputation spread and people began to flock from every part of
Arabia to see the man who had wrought this “miracle.”
Mecca Becomes Center of Islam
• Conflict with the Meccan nobility soon followed.
• Eight years after his exile to Medina, Muhammad and his followers defeated
the Meccans and converted the famous Kaaba (a cubicle temple said to have
been created by Abraham) into a shrine dedicated to Allah. The Kaba became
the focus of the Islamic faith.
• The Kaaba is a cube-shaped building containing a granite cube mined from
nearby hills and covered with a black and gold silk curtain.
• Today, it is located at the center of Islam’s most sacred mosque, Al-Masjid alHaram in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
• Muslims are expected to pray five times a day facing
the Kaaba. During the annual pilgrimage to Mecca,
known as the Hajj, pilgrims are required to walk around
the Kaaba seven times in a counter-clockwise direction.
• In 2013, the number of pilgrims coming from outside the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to perform the Hajj was officially
reported as 1,100,544 on a single day.
The Paradox of Muhammad’s Mercy and Cruelty
• What is difficult for many non-Muslims to understand is the combination of
mercy and cruelty that became characteristic of Muhammad’s leadership.
Muhammad believed that Muslims needed to defend themselves and to
conquer or struggle (jihad).
• Following his victory over Mecca, Muhammad did not exact vengeance on
his former persecutors. In his hour of triumph, the past was forgiven. In
Mecca, Christians were allowed to coexist as long as they submitted to
Muslim rule.
• On the other hand, in addition to promoting tolerance to non-Muslims, the
Koran promoted the destruction of infidels if they refused to submit. In
Medina, Muhammad expelled the Jews and made an example of one
Jewish clan who openly resisted Muslim rule by beheading 700 men, and
enslaving the women and children.
Expansion of Islam from 632 A.D. – 733 A.D.
• In 632, two after the defeat of Mecca, Muhammad died with virtually
all of Arabia under his control.
• Before the end of the century, his followers had conquered Armenia,
Persia, Syria, Palestine, Iraq, North Africa and Spain, and had crossed
the Pyrenees into France.
• But for their defeat by
Charles Martel in the
Battle of Tours in 733,
the entire Western world
might today be Muslim.
The Power of the Qur’an (Koran)
• The third major factor in the foundation of Islam is the book that Muslims
believe is the revealed word of God transmitted by the prophet Mohammad
– the Qur’an.
• Muslims believe that the Qur’an was given as the culmination and
conclusion of all previous prophetic revelations, was addressed to a people,
the Arabs, who hadn’t previously received a revelation in the Arabic
language.
• The vehicle of this final revelation was the language, Arabic, not the man,
Muhammad, nor the event of
Muhammad’s call to prophethood.
• What God said is inseparable from the
way (through a particular language) the
thoughts are expressed.
• The meaning of the Qur’an can’t be
conveyed exactly in any words other
than the original Arabic words of the Book.
• For Muslims no translation of the Qur’an is
satisfactory.
The Uniqueness of the Qur’an
• Muslims believe that Muhammad was the passive receiver of the
revelation. The eternal words of God were transmitted to the Prophet
by the angel Gabriel over a period of twenty-three years in varied
circumstances. Unlike Jewish and Christian scriptures, the words or
the Qur’an were not impacted by editors or redactors.
• Muslims believe the words themselves were not new. They were
taken from a well-guarded tablet in heaven, from which previous
revelations to other peoples had also been taken.
• In its essential content, the Qur’an is believed to be in agreement
with the revelations that God gave to Jews and Christians.
• The scripture of the Muslims is arranged in chapters, called suras.
• The language of the Qur’an is a rhymed prose. Its verses rhyme but
are not metrical. The text is recited on public occasions according to
the requirements of a refined art of pronunciation and intonation.
Muslim “Fundamentalism”
• The Koran is to be read in community as a liturgical document (chanted in
the mosque), not a book of personal devotion. Also, the Qur’an is not a
theological treatise.
• It is the record of how God spoke through Muhammad to warn all people,
to summon them to repentance and faith and to clarify their duty.
• The book contains the divine principles that should direct the personal and
social life of humanity.
• The Qur’an is meant to be read aloud and only in Arabic. The sound of the
language is an essential part of its effect.
• Christians may find this hard to understand
since they don’t have a sacred language like
Hebrew or Arabic.
• It is not possible for non-Muslims who lack a
knowledge of Arabic to appreciate the power
and the impact of the Qur’an because its content
and manner of expression are inseparable.