Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was born in Mecca on August 29, 570 according to the Gregorian calendar - it was Monday, 12 Rabi al-Awal, the year of the Elephant (according to the lunar calendar). He came from the brave and famous Quraysh tribe, which traces its origins to the Prophet Ismail, peace be upon him, the eldest son of the Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him.
Thus, Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him, is the blood brother of all the Jewish prophets, descendants of Ibrahim - Ishaq (Isaac, the younger brother of Ismail), Yaqub (Jacob), Yusuf (Joseph), Musa (Moses), Isa (Jesus) ), peace be upon them. And Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), peace be upon him, is their common great-great-great-grandfather.
The grandfather of the Prophet Muhammad (saw), Abd al-Muttalib, was the elder of the tribe, the keeper of the Kaaba, that is, a very revered person. His father Abdullah bin Abdul Muttalib died without seeing his son. For 4 years, Muhammad (saw) lived the ordinary life of a boy from a nomadic tribe in the Arabian steppe, where his nurse Halima from the Banu Saad tribe took him from Mecca. The boy was destined to live with his mother Amina for only two years. At the age of 6 he was left a complete orphan.
Initially, his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib was involved in the upbringing of the future Prophet (saw), and after his death, his uncle Abu Talib. In his uncle's family, Muhammad (s.a.w.) led a relatively independent life, being present during discussions of the most important public affairs, during disputes on religious and moral topics, during stories about trade travels, about adventures in distant countries, about ancient legends and customs of various tribes and peoples. All this contributed to his spiritual development.
Muhammad (s.a.w.) later spoke simply and laconically about his childhood and youth: “I was an orphan.” An orphan reaches maturity earlier than other children. He feels the suffering of orphans and empathizes with them in life.
At the age of 12, Muhammad (s.a.w.) made his first long journey with the caravan of his uncle Abu Talib to Syria, doing work feasible for his age.
By about the age of 20, Muhammad (s.a.w.) began a completely independent life, without the formal tutelage of Abu Talib. By this time, his occupation was completely determined - he was a man knowledgeable in trade, he knew how to drive caravans, hiring himself to wealthy merchants, a caravan guide or a trading agent as a clerk. According to Arab historians, Muhammad (s.a.w.) was known as a man of impeccable reputation, distinguished by excellent character, honesty and conscientiousness, intelligence and intelligence, and loyalty to his word.
At the age of 25, Muhammad (saw) married Khadija, daughter of Khuwaylid. Their marriage turned out to be extremely happy. Khadija became for her husband not only his beloved wife, but also his best friend, adviser and assistant in his difficult career as a prophet. She bore him children: Kasem, Abdullah, Zeinab, Rukaya, Um-Kulsum and, finally, Fatima-zahra (“beautiful”, “brilliant”). To the great grief of the parents, their sons died in childhood, and their daughters died during his lifetime, after marriage. Only Fatima survived her father by 6 months.
From an early age, Muhammad spent a lot of time in solitude. The favorite place of prayer and reflection of Muhammad (pbuh) was the deserted, steep stone mountain of Hira, located a few hours' walk from Mecca, where he most often spent the entire month of Ramadan. Here the first revelation of God came to him.
On one of the nights of the month of Ramadan in 610, someone powerful and terrible appeared for the first time on Mount Hira to the forty-year-old Muhammad (s.a.w.) (it was Jibril a.s. (Archangel Gabriel)) and ordered him (illiterate!) to read. And when Muhammad refused, he himself read five lines to him and ordered him to repeat them, and these lines burned into the heart of Muhammad (s.a.w.): “Read! In the name of your Lord, who created man from a clot. Read! And your Lord the most generous one, who taught Kalam, taught man what he did not know.”
Five short lines dictated to Muhammad (saw) on one of the nights of Ramadan (this night was later called the Night of Accomplishment, or Night of Power) contained the most important information about the essence of God and His relationship to man. God is defined in them as the omnipotent Creator, who does not leave the world for a second in his creative concern - to create the complex, perfect and beautiful.
An example of his special omnipotence is the creation of the most complex and perfect creature on earth - man. The most generous God taught man what he did not know - “kalam”. This means that God is the main source of knowledge for man, and this knowledge descends to man in the form of “scripture”. On the sacred Night of Accomplishment, or Night of Power, Jibril told Muhammad (saw) an excerpt from the heavenly Koran, and thus the beginning of the earthly Koran was laid - an exact copy of the heavenly original.
The first to accept Islam was the wife of Muhammad (s.a.w.) Khadija, and then his cousin and pupil Ali and adopted son Zayd. The closest people believed in Muhammad (saw) without the slightest hesitation, they believed deeply and for the rest of their lives.
The first among the Quraysh to accept the new faith was Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, who began to actively preach Islam among his many friends and acquaintances. At first, the preaching of the new faith was carried out in deep secrecy. The spread of the teaching was very slow: in 3 years, Muhammad (s.a.w.) acquired only about 40-50 supporters. From them he created a religious community (ummah), firmly cemented by mutual twinning and completely devoted to him, Muhammad (saw) - the spiritual head, the Prophet and Messenger of Allah.
During these three years, God did not send any new revelations to Muhammad (pbuh). And only at the end of 613, when he, wrapped in a cloak, lay in the gazebo, the voice of the Almighty sounded again:
O wrapped one!
Arise and exhort!
And magnify your Lord!
And clean your clothes!
And run away from the filth!
And don't show mercy by striving for more!
And for the sake of your Lord, be patient!
The revelation received contained a direct command to begin the public preaching of the faith.
Muhammad (saw) gave his first public sermon from the al-Sada hill in the center of Mecca in front of a large crowd of citizens, but it was not successful, and when Muhammad (saw) declared himself the messenger of Allah, he a hail of ridicule rained down. And this was repeated every time Muhammad (saw) appeared with his sermon. The Quraysh did not want to recognize the almighty Allah.
They considered the entire system of evidence put forward by Muhammad (s.a.w.) - God's creation of the earth, man, animals, etc. - to be frivolous. The idolaters demanded miracles from him that would confirm his superiority and degree of dignity before God. Muhammad (saw) considered the Koran to be the main miracle of the new faith.
Despite the fierce polemics of Muhammad (saw) and his few supporters with the idolatrous Quraysh, the situation in Mecca remained peaceful during the first year after the start of the public preaching of the new faith. But when Muhammad (s.a.w.) moved from glorifying the one true Allah to direct attacks on the gods who were worshiped in the Kaaba temple, this caused a stir in Mecca. The Quraish realized that decisive action was needed against the Muslims.
Muhammad (s.a.w.) and his followers were prohibited from praying near the Kaaba; The Meccan authorities organized the persecution of Muhammad (s.a.w.) and his supporters. There were cases when Muhammad (pbuh) and other Muslims were pelted with stones and mud, and neighbors secretly poured slop and sewage at the doorstep of his house.
Muhammad (saw) lived in an atmosphere of unheard-of humiliation, from which the supporters of his teachings were unable to protect him, but the prophet (saw) found a way out of the dramatic situation - settling where he could get food for yourself and hide from the “malice” of the Quraish. So approximately 83 Muslims moved to Ethiopia. This was the first hijra - the first migration of Muslims.
This event took place in 615, 5 years after the start of the preaching activity of Muhammad (pbuh). But Muhammad (pbuh) himself still remained in Mecca. And only in 622 he himself and his loved ones made the hijra to Medina, unable to withstand all the oppression, ridicule, and persecution that accompanied him in Mecca and its environs.
The year of migration (Hijra) became the beginning of chronology for all Muslims, and a group of supporters of Muhammad (s.a.w.) who moved to Medina received the honorary name of the Muhajirs who performed the Hijra. With the Hijra came the end of weakness and humiliation, and the era of greatness and power of Islam began.
Having strengthened himself in Medina, the Messenger of Allah (saw) began to create his powerful state. His main goal was to unite all Arab tribes, mired in paganism and endless internecine struggle, into a single people devoted to Islam. At the beginning of 624, a document called the “Constitution of Medina” was drawn up and adopted.
In this document, which has come down to us in the original, for the first time the position of Muhammad (saw) in Medina was determined and the principles on the basis of which the transformation of the diverse population of the oasis into a single people, the ummah of the prophet and messenger of God (saw) was carried out .V.). In the "Constitution" Muhammad (s.a.w.) is not named a ruler, he is recognized as a prophet - a person who receives revelations from Allah.
Medina became a strong Muslim center (in a few years it would become the capital and main trading center of all conquered lands). The first mosque was built here, where Muslims prayed together. The fame of Muhammad (pbuh) and his faith spread far beyond Medina. But Mecca, ruled by the vengeful Abu Sufyan, was still hostile to the Muslims. Muhammad (saw), at the head of the Muslim army, had to participate in various military conflicts (the battles of Badr and Uhud) in order to bring the Quraish to reason with military force and prove to them the power of Islam.
In 630, Muhammad (s.a.w.) solemnly entered Mecca, which he had conquered. The tribal nobility of Quraysh considered it best not to continue the dispute. Mecca and the Kaaba became the shrines of Islam. The Messenger of Allah (saw) sent his envoys to the Roman Caesar, the ruler of the Persians, Khosroes, the Ethiopian Negus, the ruler of Egypt, calling on them to join Islam. All the messengers, having fulfilled the order of the prophet (saw), returned to Muhammad (saw), and a few years later Persia, Ash-Sham and Egypt became Islamic states.
After the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) completely brought the religion of Allah to the people, on the last Wednesday of the month of Safar in the 11th year of Hijri (633 AH) he was seized by a headache and fell ill. Some time later, on the 12th of the month Rabi ‘ul-Awwal, on Monday, on his birthday, the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) - the light of our eyes - left this world.
This day was the most difficult for Muslims, and even the senior companions, due to the sadness and bitterness of parting with the Beloved (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), could not restrain themselves. The great companion of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) ‘Umar bin Khattab, being at a loss, not realizing what was happening, declared that he would cut off the head of anyone who said that the Messenger of Allah had died. “I swear by Allah, the Messenger of Allah is not dead!” - he repeated. Some of the Companions lost consciousness, others were speechless, and it was as if no one noticed or realized anything.
However, Abu Bakr, whom Allah had endowed with strong faith, showing patience, humbly turned to the people and began to console them. He approached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), opened his face, kissed him and said: “May my parents be your ransom! You were beautiful during life and remained so after death. I swear by the One in Whose hand my soul is, Allah will never let you taste death twice!” - refuting with these words the statements of those who said that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) would resurrect and then die again.
Then Abu Bakr came out to the people and said to ‘Umar: “Do not rush, O oath-giver!” And when Abu Bakr spoke, ‘Umar sat down, and Abu Bakr praised Allah, thanked Him and said: “Whoever worshiped Muhammad, Muhammad died, and whoever worshiped Allah, verily Allah is the Living and does not die!” And he read the verse in which Allah Almighty, addressing the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), says that, truly, he is also mortal, like all people.
After these words of Abu Bakr, the people began to cry.
Even when the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was ill, Jibril came to him for ziyarat. The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked him if he would ever come down to earth again after his death. Jibril replied that after the death of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) he had nothing to do on earth, but added that he would go down ten times to pick up ten jewels.
The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) asked him about these jewels and Jibril listed them:
The first time he will descend to take away grace (barakat) from the earth, the second time - to take away love for each other from the hearts of people, then - sympathy, mercy, the fourth time - the justice of rulers, the fifth - the modesty of women, the sixth - the patience of the poor and needy , the seventh time will take away from the Ulama scholars detachment from the worldly (zuhd) and piety, fear of God, the eighth - the generosity of rich people, the ninth - the Speech of Allah - the Koran, and the tenth - faith (iman).
Today, if you think about it, out of all of the above, only two jewels remain - the Koran and faith.
Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was born in 570 according to the Christian calendar in Mecca (modern Saudi Arabia). His father Abdullah was the great-great-great-grandson of Qusay, the founder of Mecca, and belonged to the Hashemite family of the Quraish tribe. Muhammad's mother, Amina, was a descendant of her brother Qusay. One day, returning with a caravan from Syria and Palestine, Abdullah stopped to visit relatives at one of the oases north of Mecca. There he fell ill and died a few months before the birth of his son.
According to custom, the Quraish sent their children to a wet nurse in the desert, where, among the Bedouins, they spent the first years of their lives. This custom included not only concern for the child’s health, but also a return to the roots, the opportunity to feel freedom in the vast expanses of the desert. The Prophet Muhammad was taken by his nurse Halima. He lived in a Bedouin family for 4-5 years: he got used to life in the desert, looked after sheep as soon as he learned to walk.
Muhammad was about six when he and his mother went to Yathrib, where his father died. There Amina suffered from illness. She died on the way home. Now Muhammad’s guardian was his grandfather Abdul Mutalib, the head of the Hashemite clan. Two years later, when Muhammad was 8, he too died. The leadership passed to the prophet's uncle Abu Talib, and he became his new guardian. Muhammad was nine years old when his uncle, gathering a caravan, set off for Syria, and took his nephew with him to teach him the art of trade.
Muhammad succeeded in trade. Among the rich people of Mecca was the twice-widowed Khadija. Having learned of the illustrious reputation of Muhammad, often called Al-Amin (the trustworthy), she hired him to escort her caravan to Syria. Impressed by Muhammad's abilities and his charm, she sends matchmakers to him. At that time, Muhammad was twenty-five years old, Khadija was forty. After the wedding, she gave her husband a young slave named Zeid, to whom Muhammad granted freedom. When Zeid's relatives came to pay the ransom, he loved Muhammad so much that he chose to stay with his benefactor. Khadija bore Muhammad six children, including a son named Qasim, who died before he was two years old.
Muhammad became a wealthy man, a revered member of the community. His generosity and common sense aroused the admiration of people. It seemed that a bright future awaited him: he would achieve prosperity for his clan, become one of the most influential elders of the city, and die, perhaps like his grandfather, in the shadow of the Kaaba, reflecting on his past years. But he was destined for something completely different.
Hanifa
The Meccans were descendants of Abraham through his eldest son Ismail, their temple - the Kaaba - was built by Abraham to worship the One God. The Kaaba was still called the House of God, but numerous idols and deities, who were called daughters of God and considered intermediaries between people and God, became the object of worship. Only a few felt disgust at the widespread idolatry, and tried to adhere to the religion of Abraham. These truth seekers are known as Hanifs, which means “turning away from idolatry.” They did not unite into societies: each individually tried to find the truth. Muhammad, son of Abdullah, was one of them.
The founder of the religion of Islam was Muhammad صلى الله عليه وسلم. Muslims deeply revere him, considering him a prophet and messenger of Allah. The first biography of Muhammad was compiled by Ibn Ishaq, who was born half a century after the death of the prophet. It has reached us in fragments and in parts.
Muhammad is a historical figure, he was born in 570 in the city of Mecca. Muhammad's childhood was full of tragic events: Abdullah's father died a few days before the boy was born, his mother died when he was only 6 years old. After the death of his parents, Muhammad was raised by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who was one of the most respectable elders in the Quraish tribe. When his grandfather died, his uncle Abu Talib took care of the boy. The suffering he endured made him sensitive to people and other people's hardships.
At the age of 12, Muhammad made his first journey with his uncle's caravan to Syria. For six months the boy observed the life of the nomadic Arabs. At about 20 years old, Muhammad began to live an independent life. He was a man who knew a lot about trade and knew how to drive caravans. According to Arab historians, Muhammad was distinguished by his excellent character, honesty and conscientiousness, and loyalty to his word. Having become a camel driver, Muhammad visited many countries, saw people of different beliefs, learned and understood a lot. At the age of 25, he married a wealthy Meccan widow, Khadija, and became a wealthy and respected man in Mecca.
In Mecca lived preachers of monotheism - the Hanifs, who worshiped one God and not idols like the rest. That is, the religion that has remained since the time of the prophet Ibrahim (Avrvm). Muhammad became acquainted with the religious traditions of peoples and noted the positive and negative aspects.
Muhammad prayed to Allah at first in complete solitude, spending days and nights in prayer. Muhammad's favorite place of prayer was Mount Hira. According to legend, after three years of tireless prayer, a revelation from Allah came to Muhammad at night. He saw the angel Jibril, who told him the words of Allah, which spoke about the essence of God and his relationship to man. The revelations received on Mount Hira finally convinced Muhammad of the correctness of his religious ideas.
Subsequently, Muhammad began to propagate the religious system sent down to him by God. The closest people - wife, cousin, adopted son - became the first Muslims. The spread of Muhammad's religious teachings was not easy and secret. Together with their friend and fellow believer Abu Bakr, they created a religious community (ummah). One day, when Muhammad was lying in a gazebo, covered with a cloak, a voice again sounded, ordering him to begin a public sermon. Muhammad gave his first public sermon in the center of Mecca in front of a large crowd of citizens, but it was not successful. The Quraish did not believe that Allah created the earth, man, and animals, and they demanded a miracle from him. While Muhammad glorified Allah in his sermons, the townspeople put up with it. But when he began to attack the gods (idols) who were revered in the Kaaba temple, the Quraysh decided to prohibit Muhammad and his supporters from praying near the temple. They poured dirty water on him, threw stones at him, scolded him, and humiliated him. In 622, Muhammad and his loved ones, unable to withstand ridicule and persecution, moved to the city of Yathrib (Medina). The year of migration marked the beginning of the Muslim calendar.
The Medinians received Muhammad with almost universal approval. In Medina, Muhammad became a skilled politician and ruler. He united all the warring clans of the city and ruled fairly. People believed Muhammad and followed him. The number of converts to Islam grew rapidly. Medina became a strong Muslim center. The first mosque was built here, rules of prayer and behavior in everyday life were established, and the basic principles of religious doctrine were formed. They were expressed in the “revelations” that made up the Koran, in the words, decisions and actions of Muhammad himself.
But Mecca remained hostile to Muslims. The inhabitants of Mecca attacked Muslims several times and Muhammad had to use force to subdue and bring the Quraish to reason. In 630, Muhammad triumphantly returned to Mecca. Mecca and the Kaaba become the shrine of Islam. Muhammad cleared the pagan sanctuary of the Kaaba from idols, leaving only the “black stone”. Muhammad signed a peace treaty with the Quraysh and, having converted everyone to Islam, returned to Medina. In 632, he died of illness, being virtually the ruler of all Arabia.
All sources reporting on the life and work of Muhammad emphasize his modest lifestyle. Muhammad was undoubtedly an exceptional person, a dedicated, intelligent and flexible politician. Muhammad's personal qualities became an important factor in the fact that Islam, which was initially one of many ideological movements that marked the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages, turned into one of the most influential world religions. According to the teachings of Islam, Muhammad is the last prophet in human history. After him there were and will be no more prophets and world religions.
This is interesting:
“Muhammad lives extremely simply and dresses modestly. He wears a coarse cloak, has one change of linen underwear, does not allow himself any cracks or expensive fabrics, wears a turban or a square head scarf, boots or sandals, cleans and mends his own clothes, he does not need a servant. Muhammad’s food is equally simple: a handful of dates, a barley cake, cheese, a cup of milk, porridge and fruit - this is the food every day, meat is served no more than once a week.”
“Muhammad, according to the description of his contemporaries, was of average height, broad-shouldered, wiry, with large arms and legs. His face was long, with sharp and expressive features, an aquiline nose and black eyes. Steep, almost fused eyebrows, a large and flexible mouth, white teeth, smooth black hair that fell on his shoulders, and a long, thick beard...
He was gifted with quick intelligence. Strong memory. A lively imagination and a genius of inventiveness. He was quick-tempered by nature, but knew how to control the impulses of his heart. He was honest and the same with everyone. The common people loved him for the friendliness with which he accepted and listened to all complaints.”
Muhammad ibn Abd Allah, a Quraysh from the Hashim clan, was born in the Arabian city of Mecca around 570 AD. He was orphaned early, tended sheep, accompanied caravans, and took part in inter-tribal battles. At the age of 25, Muhammad went to work for his distant relative, the wealthy widow Khadija, whom he later married. After his marriage, he took up the leather trade, but was not very successful at it. In marriage he gave birth to four daughters; his sons died in infancy.
Until the age of forty, he led the life of an ordinary Meccan merchant, until in 610 he had his first experience of encountering the spiritual world. One night, which he spent in a cave on Mount Hira, a ghost appeared to him and forced Muhammad to read the verses that became the first lines of the “revelation” (Koran 96 1-15). This is how this event is described in the biography of the founder of Islam, Ibn Hisham:
“When this month came... the Messenger of Allah went to Mount Hira... When night fell... Jibril brought him the command of Allah. The Messenger of Allah said: “Jibril appeared to me while I was sleeping, with a brocade blanket in which some kind of book was wrapped and said: “Read!” I replied, “I can’t read.” Then he began to choke me with this blanket, so that I thought that death had come. Then he let me go and said: “Read!” I replied, “I can’t read.” He started choking me with it again, and I thought I was dying. Then he let me go and said: “Read!” I answered: “What should I read?”, wanting only to get rid of him so that he would not again do to me the same thing as before. Then he said: “Read! In the name of your Lord, who created man from a clot. Read! Indeed, your Lord is the most generous, who taught a man with a writing reed what he did not know (Quran 96.1-5)".
After this, the strangler disappeared, and Muhammad was overcome with such despair that he decided to commit suicide. But when he was about to jump off the mountain, he saw the same spirit again, got scared and ran home in fear, where he told his wife Khadija about the vision, saying:
“O Khadija! In the name of Allah, I have never hated anything so much as idols and soothsayers, and I am afraid that I myself must become a soothsayer... O Khadija! I heard a sound and saw a light and I'm afraid I've gone crazy."(Ibn Saad, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 225).
She went to her Christian cousin Waraqa, and he interpreted the vision to mean that it was the appearance of the Archangel Gabriel, who supposedly appeared to all the prophets, and that Muhammad was also, therefore, a prophet of the one God. Khadija tried to convince the frightened Muhammad of this, to whom the same spiritual being continued to appear at night. For quite a long time he was suspicious that it was the devil, but later Khadija managed to convince her husband that it was an angel who appeared to him.
Having accepted the mission imposed on him, Muhammad began to receive new revelations, but for another three whole years he told about them only to his family and close friends. The first few followers appeared - Muslims (“submissive”). The very name of the religion “Islam” is translated by Muslims as “submission”, in the sense of submission to Allah.
Muhammad continued to receive what he called “revelations from Allah.” Visions like the original were very rare. Revelations mostly came in a different form. Hadiths describe it this way:
“Verily, al-Harith ibn Hisham said:
“O Messenger of Allah! How do revelations come to you?” The Messenger of Allah told him: “Sometimes they come to me in the form of a ringing bell, and it is very difficult for me; (eventually) it stops ringing and I remember everything I was told. Sometimes an angel appears in front of me and speaks, and I remember everything he said.” Aisha said: “I witnessed when the revelation came to him on a very cold day; when it stopped, his entire forehead was covered in sweat" (Ibn Saad, Tabaqat, vol. 1, p. 228).
“Ubayd b. Samit says that when the revelation came to the Messenger of Allah, he felt heaviness, and his complexion underwent a change.”(Muslim, 17.4192).
Another hadith talks about the following signs: “ The messenger's face was red and he was breathing heavily for a while, and then he freed himself from it” (Bukhari, 6.61.508). And other legends report that when Muhammad received “revelations,” he fell into painful states: he thrashed around convulsively, felt a blow that shook his entire being, it seemed as if his soul was leaving his body, foam came out of his mouth, his face turned pale or purple, he even sweated on a cold day.
Over the course of several years, Muhammad converted just over two dozen people to his faith. Three years after the first revelation, he begins public preaching at the bazaar. Already known to the Arabs, the god Allah, who was part of the pre-Islamic pagan pantheon, Muhammad declared the only one, and himself a prophet, proclaimed the resurrection, the Last Judgment and retribution. The sermon was generally met with indifference and was not widely successful.
This was explained by the fact that Muhammad was not original in his ideas - at the same time in Arabia there were people who taught that God is one and proclaimed themselves his prophets. An early predecessor and competitor of Muhammad was the “prophet” Maslama from the city of Yemama. It is known that the Meccans reproached their “prophet” for simply copying the “man from Yemama,” i.e. Maslamu. Early sources indicate that Muhammad studied with a certain Nestorian monk...
Over time, when attacks against the goddesses revered by the Meccans began to appear in his sermons, and clashes began between Muslims and pagans, this led to a strong deterioration in relations towards Muhammad on the part of most of the townspeople. His Hashim clan was boycotted by other clans.
As relations grew tense, Muhammad decided to send those Muslims who caused the most irritation to Christian Abyssinia. This first hijra (migration) took place in 615. At the same time, some of the companions of Muhammad who moved to Abyssinia, having learned Christianity, were baptized (for example, UbaydAllah ibn Jahiz). Later, one of Muhammad’s scribes also converted to Orthodoxy.
The position of the “prophet” worsened in 620, when Abu Talib and Khadija died. Desperate to convert the Meccans, Muhammad tries to preach outside of Mecca - in the neighboring city of Taif, but this attempt was unsuccessful, and the herald of the new religion was stoned and expelled in disgrace. The next month, Muhammad began to preach among pilgrims from other tribes who came to worship the gods of the Kaaba, but again failed.
But a year later he was finally lucky - his speeches attracted the attention of pilgrims from Yathrib (which was also called Medina), where Muhammad’s maternal relatives lived. He sent his supporter Musaba there, who managed to convert many Yathribs to Islam.
Having learned about this, Muhammad decides to move the community to Medina. In the summer of 622, the second, or great Hijra, took place - about 70 Muslims rushed to Yathrib. The first mosque was built here.
Most of the settlers' property remained in Mecca. The Muslims of Yathrib helped them, but they themselves were not rich. The community found itself in miserable conditions. Then Muhammad, not seeing a way to feed the community with honest labor, decides to engage in robbery.
He tried to rob the caravans, but the first six attempts were unsuccessful, since in normal months the caravans were well guarded. Then Muhammad decided to carry out a treacherous raid. The Arabs revered four sacred months of the year, during which it was forbidden to carry out any military actions. In one of these months, the month of Rajab, at the beginning of 624, Muhammad ordered a small detachment of Muslims to attack a caravan carrying a load of raisins from Taif to Mecca.
The caravan was practically unguarded, and the attack was crowned with success: the sent detachment of Muslims returned with booty, one of the drivers was killed, the other managed to escape, two more were captured, one of whom was later sold.
The first successful raid brought the first loot. A few months later, the “Battle of Badr” took place:
“The Prophet heard that Abu Sufyan ibn Harb was returning from Syria with a large caravan of Quraysh, carrying money and goods... Hearing about this... The Prophet called on the Muslims to attack them, saying: “Here is the caravan of Quraysh. It contains their wealth. Attack them, and maybe with the help of Allah you will get them!”(Ibn Hisham. Biography... pp. 278–279).
So, intending to capture a rich Meccan caravan returning from Palestine under the supervision of his uncle Abu Sufian, Muhammad encountered superior forces of pagans who were rushing to help the caravan's escorts. But the Muslims managed to win. This had a significant strengthening of Muhammad's position in Medina; many pagans began to actively accept Islam. Muslims were convinced that the victory was a confirmation of the truth of Islam.
If previously the “prophet” was content with a share of one fifteenth of the loot, then during the division of trophies after Badr, Muhammad received a revelation that he now needed to separate a fifth of all the booty (Koran 8:41).
Captured Meccans formed the most important part of the booty. The ransom for the captive was the price of several camels, and representatives of all the rich families of Mecca were captured here. And Muhammad raised the price of their ransom, and ordered the death of some prisoners of war, namely an-Nadr ibn al-Harith and Uqba ibn Abu Muayt. The fault of the first was that he considered his poems to be of better quality than the Quranic revelations of Muhammad, and the second composed mocking poems about the “prophet”.
All of Muhammad's sermons, which later became the Koran, were in poetic form, and although Muhammad himself claimed that no one would ever be able to write such wonderful poetry, nevertheless, Arab poets were skeptical about his poetry and the level of his poetry. And he could not tolerate this.
After Badr, Muhammad began to crack down on the Medina poets. One of the first to die was Ka'b ibn Ashraf, who annoyed Muhammad by writing satirical poems about him. Here's how Muslim sources describe it:
“The Messenger of Allah said: “Who is ready to kill Ka’b ibn Ashraf?” Muhammad ibn Maslama replied: “Do you want me to kill him?” The Messenger replied in the affirmative.”(Bukhari, 4037).
The Messenger said: “Whatever is entrusted to you, you must do.” He asked: “O Messenger of Allah, we will have to lie.” He replied: “Say whatever you want, since you are free in your business” (Ibn Ishaq, Sirat rasul Allah, p. 367).
Muhammad ibn Maslama came to Ka'b and spoke to him, recalling the old friendship between them, and persuaded Ka'b to leave the house, convincing him that a group of Muslims had become disillusioned with the “prophet.” Kaab believed him, especially since Kaab’s foster brother, Abu Naila, was with him, who said: “I am Abu Naila, and I came to tell you that the coming of this man (“messenger”) is a great misfortune for us. We want to get away from him” (Ibn Saad, Tabaqat, vol. 2, p. 36).
When Ka'b was drawn into conversation and began to talk to them freely and was "pleased with them and became close to them" (ibid., p. 37), they moved closer to him under the pretext of examining the aroma of his perfume. They then drew their swords and stabbed him to death. Having killed the Kaaba, they immediately returned to Muhammad, saying takbir (Allahu akbar - “Allah is great”). And when they approached the Messenger of Allah, he said: “ (Your) faces are happy.” They said: “Yours too, O Messenger of Allah!” They bowed their heads before him. The Messenger thanked Allah that the Ka'b was dead."(Ibn Saad, Tabaqat, vol. 2, p. 37).
In the same way, through assassins sent, the poetess Asma bint Marwan was killed in her home, and a little later, the poet Abu Afak, one of the elders of the Amr b. Auf, then it was the turn of Al-Harith ibn Suwayd. On another occasion, Muhammad personally ordered his adopted son Zeid to kill the poetess Umm Qirfa, who ridiculed the “prophet,” and Zeid killed her by tying a rope to her legs, at the other end tied to two camels, and leading them in opposite directions until the woman was not torn into two halves (Al 'saba – Ibn Hagar – vol. 4, page 231).
The repressions also took on a group character - at least fifty families of pagans from the Aus tribe who did not convert to Islam had to move to Mecca. Thus Muhammad strengthened his position inside Medina. Most of the pagans became Muslims. The other opposition in the city was the Jewish tribes, of which there were three. Some of the Jews also converted to Islam, but their number was insignificant. Most Jews ridiculed his prophetic claims. And Muhammad began a systematic war against the Jewish tribes. First, he initiated hostility with the Jewish tribe Banu Qaynuqa, forcing them to move out of the city to the oasis of Khaybar.
It is worth noting that in Medina, Muhammad's family increased significantly. After the death of Khadija, he married Sauda in Mecca, and in Medina acquired a harem: he married Aisha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, Hafsa, the daughter of Omar, Zainab bint Khuzaim, Umm Habibu, the daughter of Abu Sufian, Hind Umm Salama, Zainab bint Jahsh, Safiya and Maimun. For Muslims, Muhammad set a restriction not to take more than four wives at a time (Koran 4.3), but when he himself exhausted this “quota,” the “prophet” immediately received a “revelation” that he himself, as an exception, could take an unlimited number of wives. In addition to his wives, he had a number of concubines.
A year after Badr, the next battle between the Muslims and the Quraish took place, called the “Battle of Uhud.” This time the Muslims suffered a significant defeat, although Muhammad had predicted victory the day before; nevertheless, his camel was killed under him, and two of his teeth were knocked out. It was not the best of times for the Muslim community, but it did not collapse. A “revelation” came down to Muhammad, explaining that the Muslims themselves were to blame for everything, but not the “prophet.” If, they say, they had obeyed him, they would have won (Koran 3.152). In addition, he constantly tried to strengthen his supporters by intensifying the image of the enemy who surrounded them everywhere. Muhammad continued the systematic extermination of non-Muslims in Medina and expanded beyond its borders, attacking the surrounding, weaker tribes.
The Bani Mustaliq tribe was attacked, and then Muhammad began a siege of the second Jewish tribe of Medina, the Bani Nadir. As a result, the Jews were forced to leave their homes and lands and also move to Khaybar.
After the expulsion of the Banu Nadir, the Muslims for the first time got rich, well-irrigated lands with palm groves as booty. They hoped to divide them according to the accepted rules, but then Muhammad received a revelation, which explained that since this booty was not obtained in battle, but by agreement, it should all go to the complete disposal of the “messenger of Allah” and be distributed at his discretion (Koran 59.7 ).
Now Muhammad began to send his killers even beyond Medina. For example, he “ordered” the murder of one of the leaders of the Banu Nadir, Abu Rafi, who, after being expelled from Medina, went north to Khaybar. On the way, Muslims killed him (Bukhari, 4039).
After this, Muhammad turned his arms against the last Jewish tribe in Medina, the Bani Qurayza, who remained neutral during the siege. In Muslim traditions this is presented as a consequence of a divine command:
“At noon Jibril appeared to the Prophet... [and said]: “Almighty and all-glorious Allah orders you, O Muhammad, to go to Bani Qurayza. I will go to them and shake them.” The Messenger of Allah besieged them for twenty-five days until the siege became unbearable for them... Then they surrendered, and the Prophet locked them in Medina in the house of Bint al-Harith, a woman from the Banu al-Najjar. Then the Prophet went to the market of Medina and dug several ditches there. Then he ordered them to be brought, and cut off their heads in these ditches. They say there were between eight and nine hundred of them.” (Ibn Hisham. Biography... p. 400).
As a result of such activities, Muhammad had an entire city at his disposal with a strong and obedient community. The confiscation of the property of the expelled and exterminated Jewish tribes, as well as predatory raids on surrounding tribes and caravans brought rich booty to the Muslims. The Meccans once again tried to attack the Muslims, but they surrounded the city with a siege ditch, which the pagans did not dare to storm and the battle never took place.
Muhammad then organized an attack on the Jewish fortress of Khaybar.
The superior Muslim forces managed to capture it. After the victory, the “prophet” not only sold and killed prisoners, as before, but also tortured some. One of the local leaders named Kinana did not have as much money as Muhammad expected to see. He ordered al-Zubair to torture Kinana in order to find out where the rest was hidden. The torture with two hot charred pieces of wood pressed to Kinana's chest was so severe that he lost consciousness. However, the torture did not produce results, and the location of the money was still unknown. Then the “prophet” handed Kinana over to his supporters for execution, and took his wife into his harem.
In 629, Muhammad gathered and sent against the Ghassanid Arabs, who were in the service of the Byzantine emperor, a large army of three thousand people. Here the Muslims first encountered Byzantine forces and were defeated, three of the four military leaders died in the battle, including their adopted one Muhammad's son Zeid.
The following year, Muhammad marched against Mecca with an army of thousands. The Quraysh did not dare to resist; the vast majority of them sat in their houses. The city capitulated. Muhammad defiantly forgave the Quraish - with the exception of some sworn enemies, some of whom the Muslims managed to capture and execute. However, he did not forgive for nothing - but on the condition that the Quraish convert to Islam. Which they hastened to do.
Approaching the Kaaba (pagan sanctuary), Muhammad ordered to remove all the idols from it, except for the black stone, and also ordered to erase all the paintings, except for the iconographic image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus (Azraki, p. 111).
After the Hajj in Mecca, Muhammad, through Ali, as usual, citing revelation (Koran 9.5), declared war on paganism after the end of the holy months. Until now, he considered Islam a matter of conscience for everyone, he persuaded people to accept Islam, bribed them, but did not force them. Now Muhammad felt able to force him to accept Islam under threat of death. In 630, campaigns continued against the surrounding tribes in order to force them to convert to Islam. Often weak tribes submitted to these demands, but not always.
In the year of his death, Muhammad performed the ritual of hajj to the Kaaba and performed the ritual of worship of the black stone. Everything that the “prophet” did during his hajj became the basis of rituals observed to this day by Muslim pilgrims.
Representatives of Arab tribes flocked to Mecca from all sides, hurrying to enter into an alliance with a formidable force. However, not everything was smooth sailing. A number of regions of Arabia (East and South) drove out his emissaries in disgrace, rallying around their own prophets - Aswad and Maslama.
A serious illness found Muhammad preparing a great campaign against Byzantium. Death prevented the plan from being realized. Before his death, he was seriously ill, the ghosts of the dead bothered him. He died in Medina in 632. According to legend, Muhammad’s last words were: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians who turned the graves of their prophets into places for prayer!” (Bukhari, 436) .
During his life he made nineteen military campaigns. He left nine widows and three daughters, he had eight swords, four spears, four chain mail, four bows, a shield and a fringed banner.
With the death of Muhammad, the political system he created was shaken everywhere. Many of the most important tribes considered themselves free from treaty obligations, expelled the tax collectors and returned to their former lives. There was a riddah - a mass apostasy from Islam. It was Abu Bakr, his successor, the first caliph, who had to make enormous efforts to save Islam from defeat and schism. As before, the main means to achieve this was seen as continuous Muslim expansion. Having dealt with their opponents on the Arabian Peninsula, they poured further into the territories of Persia and Byzantium, devastated and weakened by twenty-five years of war, plague and internal turmoil.
from the book of priest Georgy Maximov “Orthodoxy and Islam”
Pre-prophetic period
Birth
The Prophet Muhammad was born, according to some scientists, on April 20 (22), 571 in the year of the elephant, before dawn, on Monday. Also, many sources indicate the year 570. According to some legends, this happened on the 9th day of the month Rabi al-Awwal in the year of the Elephant, in the year of Abraha’s unsuccessful campaign against Mecca, or in the 40th year of the reign of the Persian Shah Anushirvan.
Childhood
Muhammad was handed over according to custom to the nurse Halima bint Abi Zu'ayb, and lived for several years with her family in the nomadic Bedouin tribe Banu S'ad. At the age of 4 he was returned back to his family. At the age of 6, Muhammad lost his mother. He went with her to Medina to visit his father’s grave, she was accompanied by her guardian Abd al-Muttalib and her maid Umm Ayman. On the way back, Amina fell ill and died. Muhammad was taken in by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, but two years later he also died. After Abd al-Muttalib's death, Muhammad was taken in by his paternal uncle Abu Talib, who was very poor. At the age of 12, Muhammad tended the sheep of Abu Talib, then began to participate in the trading affairs of his uncle.
Some legends associated with the birth, childhood and youth of Muhammad are of a religious nature and ideologically have no historical value for a secular scientist. However, these legends for Muslim biographers of Muhammad, in particular the first centuries of Islam, many of whom themselves collected material and checked it for accuracy, whose colossal works constitute the main historical source for today's Orientalists, are no less important and reliable (if this reliability is proven ), as well as others generally accepted by non-Muslim scholars.
In childhood, an incident happened to Muhammad when a Nestorian monk named Bakhira predicted a great destiny for him. Abu Talib went with a caravan to Syria, and Muhammad, who was then still a boy, became attached to him. The caravan stopped in Busra, where the monk Bakhira, who was a Christian scientist, lived in a cell. Previously, when they passed by him, he did not speak to them or appear at all. It is said that the monk first saw Muhammad, above whom there was a cloud, covering him with its shadow and distinguishing him from the rest. Then he saw that the shadow of a cloud had fallen on a tree, and the branches of this tree were bending over Muhammad. After this, Bahira extended hospitality to the Quraish, surprising them with this. When he looked at Muhammad, he tried to see features and signs that would tell him that he really was a future prophet. He asked Muhammad about his dreams, appearance, deeds, and all this coincided with what Bahir knew from the description of the prophet. He also saw the seal of the prophecy between the shoulders in exactly the place where, according to his information, it should have been. Then the monk told Abu Talib that he should protect Muhammad from the Jews, since if they found out about what he himself learned about, they would act hostilely.
Marriage to Khadija
She was married twice before Muhammad. Muhammad felt strong love for her both during life, there and after her death, as many hadiths say, when he slaughtered a sheep, he sent part of the meat to her friends. In addition, he said that the best woman of Isa's mission was Maryam (Mary, daughter of Imran, mother of Jesus), and the best woman of his mission was Khadija. Aisha said that she was jealous of Muhammad only for Khadija, although she was not alive, and one day, when she exclaimed “Khadijah again?”, Muhammad was dissatisfied and said that the Almighty had endowed him with strong love for her. .
Major life events
In this period, according to Arab sources, the following can be distinguished:
Meccan period of prophetic mission
Secret Sermon
Main article: The beginning of the prophetic mission of Muhammad
Cave on Mount Hira
When Muhammad turned forty years old, his religious activity began (in Islam, the prophetic mission, the messenger mission).
At first, Muhammad developed a need for asceticism; he began to retire to a cave on Mount Hira, where he worshiped Allah. He also began to have prophetic dreams. In one of these nights of solitude, the angel Gabriel, sent by Allah, appeared to him with the first verses of the Koran. For the first three years, he preached in secret. People began to gradually join Islam, at first it was Muhammad’s wife Khadija and eight other people, including the future caliphs Ali and Usman.
Open Sermon
Since 613, the inhabitants of Mecca began to accept Islam in groups, both men and women, and the Prophet Muhammad began to openly call for Islam. The Koran says this about it: “Proclaim what you are commanded, and turn away from the polytheists.”
The Quraish began to act hostilely against Muhammad, who openly criticized their religious views, and against Muslim converts. Muslims could be insulted, pelted with stones and mud, beaten, subjected to hunger, thirst, heat, and threatened with death. All this prompted Muhammad to decide on the first resettlement of Muslims.
Location of Abyssinia (Ethiopia)
The Hijra to Ethiopia is the first hijra (migration) in Islamic history, dating back to 615. Muhammad himself did not participate in it, remaining in Mecca and calling for Islam. The Negus guaranteed the safety of the Muslim religion.
Death of Abu Talib and Khadija
These two events happened in the same year (619). The death of Abu Talib occurred three years before the migration (hijra) to Medina. Since Abu Talib defended Muhammad, the pressure of the Quraysh increased with his death. In the month of Ramadan of the same year, two or three months after the death of Abu Talib (it is also indicated that 35 days had passed), Muhammad’s first wife (all of Muhammad’s wives had the status of “mother of the faithful”) Khadija also died. Muhammad called this year “the year of sorrow” "
Relocation to at-Taif
Main article: Relocation of Muhammad to At-Taif
In the foreground is the road to at-Taif, in the background are the mountains of at-Taif (Saudi Arabia).
Due to the fact that after the death of Abu Talib, the oppression and pressure towards Muhammad and other Muslims from the Quraysh increased noticeably, Muhammad decided to seek support in at-Taif, located 50 miles southeast of Mecca among the Thaqif tribe. This happened in 619. He wanted them to embrace Islam. However, in At-Taif he was rudely rejected.
Night Journey to Jerusalem
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Muhammad's night journey is a transfer from the Al-Haram Mosque to the Al-Aqsa Mosque - the sacred house (Jerusalem) from Elijah. It is considered one of the most significant and deeply symbolic events in the life of Muhammad. By that time, Islam was already widespread among the Quraish and other tribes. According to hadiths, Muhammad was carried on a supreme animal to the al-Aqsa mosque, where a group of prophets was located, including Isa, Musa, Ibrahim. He prayed with them. Then Muhammad was ascended to heaven, where he saw the signs of Allah. In the Islamic tradition, it is customary to date this event to Rajab 27, 621. The Koran says about Muhammad’s night journey in the sura “Traveled by Night.”
Medina period of prophetic mission
Relocation to Medina
Due to the danger of Muhammad and other Muslims being in Mecca, they were forced to move to Yathrib, which after that became known as Medina. By this time, Islam had already been converted to Yathrib and the whole city and army were under the control of Muhammad. This event is considered the beginning of the Muslim state, Muslims received the independence they needed, the year of the Hijri became the first year
