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Prophet Muhammad
Islam
Brief History
and
Teachings
Arabia in 600 AD
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Populated by various Arabic-speaking people
– Bedouin - organized in tribes
– Caravan meerchants and agriculturalists,
living either in oases in the north, or in the
more fertile and thickly settled areas to the
south
– Intense tribal loyalties & warfare
 Arab culture revered oral story telling
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Majority of Arabs followed polytheistic religions &
worshipped idols
– Few tribes followed Judaism, Christianity or
Zoroastrianism
City of Mecca was a religious & trade center
– Rich mixtures of culture
– Ka'aba - temple founded by Abraham
– Yearly pilgrimage to site
– Much social injustice & economic disparity
Muhammad (570 – 632)
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Born at Mecca into the Quraysh tribe
Orphaned at an early age & raised by uncle
Illiterate but very articulate & well liked
Became a successful merchant – traveled north
Married older wealthy widow at 25 - Khadijah
Saw a crisis in Arab society
610 AD….the divine call
– Visited while meditating in cave by the Archangel
Gabriel who commanded him to recite verses sent
by God
– Revelations continued for the next 22 years
– Revelations collected in the Quran
– Revelations directly related to the needs of the
Arab people
– First memorized the verses & passed them to his
wife & close relatives
– Small band of followers would memorize the
recitations
First converts – wife, cousin Ali, kinsman Abu Bakr
Starts preaching in 612
New recruits mainly from slaves and lower classes
Night journey to Jerusalem
Muhammad
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612-622 AD - in Mecca preaching and gaining followers
– Seen as a trouble maker for attacking the
establishment
– Attempts to assasinate him
AD 622… the Hejira to Medina
– Request to resolve dispute between rival tribes
– With followers moved to neighboring city of Medina
– Year 622 as the start of the Muslim calendar
622-630 AD---in Medina
– Becomes leader of city
Develops concept of Ummah - community
– Mecca and Medina in conflict
– Unites the surrounding tribes
630 – Mecca captured without fight
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– Cleansed the Kaaba of idols
632 – first Hajj or pilgrimage
By his death in 632, Muhammad had united the entire
Arabian peninsula
MECCAN PERIOD
 To establish Oneness
of God
 Warner
 Giver of Glad Tidings
 Day of God
MEDINAN PERIOD
 Social Order
 Law & Justice
 Equity
 Ummah
Religion of Muhammad
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Islam is the religion of submission or surrender to
Allah
– Simple and uncompromising faith in oneness of God
Muhammad did not believe he was preaching a new
religion
– Did not reject Judaism and Christianity
– Sent by God in order to complete and perfect those
teachings
– Accepted Abraham, Moses and Jesus as prophets
– Muhammad is the messenger of God
– Last in a long line of prophets
Chosen by God to preach repentance and submission to
God
Judgment Day – Allah rewards the faithful with a
paradise filled with eternal pleasure
– Warns of the inevitable apocalypse & end of the
world
– Humanity will be forced to atone for sins
– Images of heaven (oasis) & hell (desert)
Belief in Predestination
– Whatever happens, good and evil, proceeds from
divine will
Quran - Koran
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Means “Recitation”
– Recitation – Communicating directly with God
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Provides a guide for living as a Muslim
Revelations from God delivered through the
angel Gabriel to Mohammed over 22 years
Revelations came from a heavenly book
containing God’s wisdom
– Mother of the Book
Final uncorrupted revelation of God
Contains 114 suras – verses
– Arranged by the length of sura
Contents: Theological dogma, ceremonial
regulations, laws related to social, civil and
criminal behavior
Themes – Oneness of Allah, his attributes,
the ethical duties of man, and coming
retribution
Quran must remain in Arabic
– Translations not authentic
Writing of the Quran
None of Quran was written during Muhammad’s life
– Still an oral scripture
 Words of the Prophet at first memorized & written on
parchment or clay by followers
Zayd ibn Thabit – one of Muhammed’s secretaries
 Began gathering the verses of the Quran soon after
his death
 Interviewed closest associates
 Sorted into a type of order
Uthman (644-656) Third Caliph – created an official and
final version
 Committee charged with compiling Quran in 651
 Wanted to avoid controversy
 Collect and authenticate verses
Strict criteria for authenticity
 2 eyewitnesses had to testify that each verses had
been recorded in the presence of Muhammad
 Then verified with companions of Muhammad
 Approved verses amassed into single text
 Uthman then ordered all other texts destroyed
 Quran not altered since
Legacy of Muhammad
 Concept of Ummah – Community of Allah
– First attempt to create a social organization out of faith instead of tribal
relationships
 Vision of social justice for all
– Weak & vulnerable should be protected & treated with respect
 Prophet, lawgiver, religious leader, chief judge, commander of
the army and civil head of state
 Inspiration as role model for living divinely inspired life
– By studying details of his external life Muslims stove to acquire his
interior attitude of perfect surrender to God
Islam
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Islam is open to all who accept its tenets
Prohibition against idolatry or graven images
Islam has no organized hierarchy
– No religious authority, clerical elite or priesthood to act as intermediary
– Mullahs (teachers) occupy positions of authority because of their
knowledge of the Quran
Sunna or Hadith - written collection of Arab oral traditions concerning life of
Muhammad
– Address issues not specifically covered in the Quran
Sharia – Islamic Law
– Three sources – Quran, Sunna and Ijtihad – analytic reasoning to cover
locally raised issues
Quran prohibits alcohol and gambling
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Jihad – Call for Holy War against infidels????
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Quran insists that there be no coercion in matters of faith
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The Five Pillars of Faith
1. Profession of Faith - Shahadah
“There is no God but Allah (God), and
Muhammad is His Prophet.”
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First and last words heard
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Most repeated words by Muslims
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Person a Muslim once profession is
repeated
2. Prayer – Salat
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Direction toward Mecca
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5 times a day – Call of Muezzin
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Dawn, midday, mid-afternoon, sunset
&
nightfall
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Create sense of solidarity and social
equality
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Body posture essential
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Must use Arabic
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Friday noon prayer is only mandatory public
prayer for all adult males
3. Charity – Zakat – purification
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Compassion for the poor
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2.5 % of wealth expected
The Five Pillars of Faith
4. Fasting - Sawm
 Ramadan – based on lunar
calendar – different each
year
 Daylight hours during month
of Ramadan
5. Pilgrimage to Kaaba in
Mecca – Hajj
 All those who can afford
and physically fit
 Ideal of equality & unity
among believers
 Unites cultures and ideas
Women in Islam
 Under Arabian pre-Islamic law of status,
women had virtually no rights
– No limitations were set on men's rights to
marry or to obtain a divorce.
 Islamic law provided women with new legal
rights
– Reforms affected marriage, divorce, and
inheritance
– Islamic law restricted the polygamy
– Women could obtain a divorce
– Women could inherit and keep their own
property
 Marriage was no longer viewed as a "status"
but rather as a "contract"
 Law doesn't require women to wear veils
Islam After Muhammad
 Shiites – Only descendants of
Fatima or her husband Ali
should succeed Mohammed
– Death of Imam Hussein (son of
Ali) most celebrated event in
Shiite calendar
 Sunnis – any follower of Islam
should be eligible to lead
– Division political & religious
– Never settled to this day
 Series of Caliphs governed the
Islamic State
Struggle for Succession
Number of conflicting parties sought to succeed Muhammad
 Companions – belonged to Muhammad’s tribe or had
accepted mission early
 Legitimists – heir must belong to family of Muhammad
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Aristocracy of Quraysh – Umayyads
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Ali paternal cousin, husband of daughter Fatima & one of first
believers
Held reigns of power & wealth in pre-Islamic days
Companions triumphed with selection of abu-Bakr
Rashidun - Four “righteous” caliphs (632-661 AD)
– All were close associates and relatives of Muhammad
 Abu Bakr (632-634) Father-in-law of Muhammad and one of
first believers
 Umar (634-644) main military genius who carried Islam forward
from the Arabian peninsula
 Uthman (644-656) - empire fell into a civil war called the Fitna
– In 656 Uthman is assassinated by followers of Ali
 Ali (656-661) Muhammad's son-in-law and cousin
– Many refused to accept Ali as a leader
– Killed by assassin
Umayyad dynasty claims the caliphate – Damascus capital
Abbasid dynasty – 754 – seizes caliphate
– al Mansur (754-775) builds new capital at Baghdad
Conquest & Expansion
Expansion of Islamic empire against Byzantine &
Sassanid (Persian) empires
Abu-Bakr –Orders jihad (holy struggle) against the "infidel"
Christian or Byzantine Empire north of Arabia
 Damascus becomes capital
Umar
 637 – Defeated great Persian Sassanid army
 639 – Conquers Alexandria – base of Byzantine navy
 643 – Arabs to border of India
Tariq ibn Zaid crossed from North Africa (Morocco) into
Spain in 711
Expansion stopped in France in 732 – Charles Martel
Military victories
 Justice not fanaticism
 No longer making war with other Arabs
 Use of cavalry and camels
 Remarkable mobility
 High morale from religious enthusiasm
Conquered peoples more open to Islam
 Reduced heavy burden of taxation
 No persecution of Faiths
The Spread of Islam
Islamic Unity
 Arabic became language of business,
government & literature
 Uniform enforcement of law contributed to growth
of united culture
 Vast trade network extended from India to the
Mediterranean
Rich Cultural Achievements
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Many Islamic centers of culture and science
– Baghdad
– Cairo
– Damascus
– Cordoba
– Alexandria
Scholarship
– Produced notable scientists, astronomers,
mathematicians, doctors and philosophers
– Importance of reading the Qur'an produced
a comparatively high level of literacy in the
general populace
Heirs to Hellenistic Learning
– Maintained Classical learning
– Translation of Greek texts - Aristotle
Medicine
Architecture
– Mosques, Palaces & Minarets
Art
– Geometric patterns, calligraphy, metal
work
Science & Medicine
Muslim scientists
 Saw no contradiction between religion and
laws governing natural world
 Scientific method born
 Utilized Classical Greek medical texts
 Alchemy – beginnings of chemistry
Muslim medicine
 Advanced techniques & ideas
 Theory that disease born through air
born organisms
 Study of anatomy
 Vascular & cancer surgery
 Study of light, lenses & physiology of
eye – led to camera
 Use of anesthetics
 Pharmacies
 Hospitals – separate disease in
different wards
Pioneers of Medicine
Razi (865 – 925) – Rhazes in the West
 Authored more than 100 books on
medicine
 First to diagnose and treat smallpox
Ibn Sina (980 – 1037) – Known as Avicenna
 Contributions in philosophy, music,
mathematics, geography & literature
 Utilized experimentation & observation
 wrote Canon of Medicine –
encyclopedia of medicine
 Study of infectious disease
 Main medical text for 6 centuries
 Printed extensively throughout the West
Mathematics
 Introduced “Arabic” numerals – originally
from India
 Replaced Roman numerals
 Included the zero – made for complex
calculations
 Perfected use of decimals and fractions
 Invented Algebra
Trade
Seaborne Trade developed from Persian Gulf
Began to sail to China to trade
Traveled to Russia and Central Asia by land
Able to travel from Europe to Asia
- Silk, furs, gold and precious stones, spices,
and slaves
- Orange tree, sugar, and paper
An Ever Advancing Civilization
 Abraham: Infancy/Family
 Moses:
 Jesus:
Toddlerhood/Tribe
Childhood/Love
 Muhammad: Adolescence/Nation
Where are Muslims Today?