The Prophet of IslamIn or about the year 570
the child who would be named Muhammad and who would become the Prophet
of one of the world's great religions, Islam, was born into a family
belonging to a clan of Quraish, the ruling tribe of Mecca, a city in the
Hijaz region of northwestern Arabia.
Originally the site of the
Kaabah, a shrine of ancient origins, Mecca had, with the decline of
southern Arabia, become an important center of sixth-century trade with
such powers as the Sassanians, Byzantines, and Ethiopians. As a result,
the city was dominated by powerful merchant families, among whom the
men of Quraish were preeminent.
Muhammad's father, "Abd Allah
ibn" Abd al-Muttalib, died before the boy was born; his mother, Aminah,
died when he was six. The orphan was consigned to the care of his
grandfather, the head of the clan of Hashim. After the death of his
grandfather, Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib. As was
customary, the child Muhammad was sent to live for a year or two with a
Bedouin family. This custom, followed until recently by noble families
of Mecca, Medina, Taif, and other towns of the Hijaz, had important
implications for Muhammad. In addition to enduring the hardships of
desert life, he acquired a taste for the rich language so loved by the
Arabs, whose speech was their proudest art, and also learned the
patience and forbearance of the herdsmen, whose life of solitude he
first shared, and then came to understand and appreciate.
About
the year 590, Muhammad, then in his twenties, entered the service of a
merchant widow named Khadijah as her factor, actively engaged with
trading caravans to the north. Sometime later he married her, and had
two sons, neither of whom survived, and four daughters by her.
In
his forties, he began to retire to meditate in a cave on Mount Hira,
just outside Mecca, where the first of the great events of Islam took
place. One day, as he was sitting in the cave, he heard a voice, later
identified as that of the Angel Gabriel, which ordered him to:
"Recite: In the name of thy Lord who created, Created man from a clot of blood." (Quran 96:1-2)
Three
times Muhammad pleaded his inability to do so, but each time the
command was repeated. Finally, Muhammad recited the words of what are
now the first five verses of the 96th chapter of the Quran - words which
proclaim God to be the Creator of man and the Source of all knowledge.
At
first Muhammad divulged his experience only to his wife and his
immediate circle. But, as more revelations enjoined him to proclaim the
oneness of God universally, his following grew, at first among the poor
and the slaves, but later, also among the most prominent men of Mecca.
The revelations he received at this time, and those he did later, are
all incorporated in the Quran, the Scripture of Islam.
Not
everyone accepted God's message transmitted through Muhammad. Even in
his own clan, there were those who rejected his teachings, and many
merchants actively opposed the message. The opposition, however, merely
served to sharpen Muhammad's sense of mission, and his understanding of
exactly how Islam differed from paganism. The belief in the Oneness of
God was paramount in Islam; from this all else follows. The verses of
the Quran stress God's uniqueness, warn those who deny it of impending
punishment, and proclaim His unbounded compassion to those who submit to
His will. They affirm the Last Judgment, when God, the Judge, will
weigh in the balance the faith and works of each man, rewarding the
faithful and punishing the transgressor. Because the Quran rejected
polytheism and emphasized man's moral responsibility, in powerful
images, it presented a grave challenge to the worldly Meccans.
The HijrahAfter
Muhammad had preached publicly for more than a decade, the opposition
to him reached such a high pitch that, fearful for their safety, he sent
some of his adherents to Ethiopia. There, the Christian ruler extended
protection to them, the memory of which has been cherished by Muslims
ever since. But in Mecca the persecution worsened. Muhammad's
followers were harassed, abused, and even tortured. At last, seventy of
Muhammad's followers set off by his orders to the northern town of
Yathrib, in the hope of establishing a news stage of the Islamic
movement. This city which was later to be renamed Medina ("The City").
Later, in the early fall of 622, he, with his closest friend, Abu Bakr
al-Siddeeq, set off to join the emigrants. This event coincided with
the leaders in Mecca plotting, to kill him.
In Mecca, the
plotters arrived at Muhammad's home to find that his cousin, 'Ali, had
taken his place in bed. Enraged, the Meccans set a price on Muhammad's
head and set off in pursuit. Muhammad and Abu Bakr, however, had taken
refuge in a cave, where they hid from their pursuers. By the protection
of God, the Meccans passed by the cave without noticing it, and
Muhammad and Abu Bakr proceeded to Medina. There, they were joyously
welcomed by a throng of Medinans, as well as the Meccans who had gone
ahead to prepare the way.
This was the Hijrah - anglicized as
Hegira - usually, but inaccurately, translated as "Flight" - from which
the Muslim era is dated. In fact, the Hijrah was not a flight, but a
carefully planned migration that marks not only a break in history - the
beginning of the Islamic era - but also, for Muhammad and the Muslims, a
new way of life. Henceforth, the organizational principle of the
community was not to be mere blood kinship, but the greater brotherhood
of all Muslims. The men who accompanied Muhammad on the Hijrah were
called the Muhajiroon - "those that made the Hijrah" or the "Emigrants" -
while those in Medina who became Muslims were called the Ansar, or
"Helpers."
Muhammad was well acquainted with the situation in
Medina. Earlier, before the Hijrah, various of its inhabitants came to
Mecca to offer the annual pilgrimage, and as the Prophet would take this
opportunity to call visiting pilgrims to Islam, the group who came from
Medina heard his call and accepted Islam.. They also invited Muhammad
to settle in Medina. After the Hijrah, Muhammad's exceptional qualities
so impressed the Medinans that the rival tribes and their allies
temporarily closed ranks as, on March 15, 624, Muhammad and his
supporters moved against the pagans of Mecca.
The first battle,
which took place near Badr, now a small town southwest of Medina, had
several important effects. In the first place, the Muslim forces,
outnumbered three to one, routed the Meccans. Secondly, the discipline
displayed by the Muslims brought home to the Meccans, perhaps for the
first time, the abilities of the man they had driven from their city.
Thirdly, one of the allied tribes which had pledged support to the
Muslims in the Battle of Badr, but had then proved lukewarm when the
fighting started, was expelled from Medina one month after the battle.
Those who claimed to be allies of the Muslims, but tacitly opposed them,
were thus served warning: membership in the community imposed the
obligation of total support.
A year later the Meccans struck
back. Assembling an army of three thousand men, they met the Muslims at
Uhud, a ridge outside Medina. After initial successes, the Muslims
were driven back and the Prophet himself was wounded. As the Muslims
were not completely defeated, the Meccans, with an army of ten thousand,
attacked Medina again two years later but with quite different results.
At the Battle of the Trench, also known as the Battle of the
Confederates, the Muslims scored a signal victory by introducing a new
form of defense. On the side of Medina from which attack was expected,
they dug a trench too deep for the Meccan cavalry to clear without
exposing itself to the archers posted behind earthworks on the Medina
side. After an inconclusive siege, the Meccans were forced to retire.
Thereafter Medina was entirely in the hands of the Muslims.
The Conquest of MeccaThe
Constitution of Medina - under which the clans accepting Muhammad as
the Prophet of God formed an alliance, or federation - dates from this
period. It showed that the political consciousness of the Muslim
community had reached an important point; its members defined themselves
as a community separate from all others. The Constitution also defined
the role of non-Muslims in the community. Jews, for example, were part
of the community; they were dhimmis, that is, protected people, as long
as they conformed to its laws. This established a precedent for the
treatment of subject peoples during the later conquests. Christians and
Jews, upon payment of a nominal tax, were allowed religious freedom
and, while maintaining their status as non-Muslims, were associate
members of the Muslim state. This status did not apply to polytheists,
who could not be tolerated within a community that worshipped the One
God.
Ibn Ishaq, one of the earliest biographers of the Prophet,
says it was at about this time that Muhammad sent letters to the rulers
of the earth - the King of Persia, the Emperor of Byzantium, the Negus
of Abyssinia, and the Governor of Egypt among others - inviting them to
submit to Islam. Nothing more fully illustrates the confidence of the
small community, as its military power, despite the battle of the
Trench, was still negligible. But its confidence was not misplaced.
Muhammad so effectively built up a series of alliances among the tribes
that, by 628, he and fifteen hundred followers were able to demand
access to the Kaaba. This was a milestone in the history of the
Muslims. Just a short time before, Muhammad left the city of his birth
to establish an Islamic state in Medina. Now he was being treated by
his former enemies as a leader in his own right. A year later, in 629,
he reentered and, in effect, conquered Mecca, without bloodshed and in a
spirit of tolerance, which established an ideal for future conquests.
He also destroyed the idols in the Kaabah, to put an end forever to
pagan practices there. At the same time 'Amr ibn al-'As, the future
conqueror of Egypt, and Khalid ibn al-Walid, the future "Sword of God,"
accepted Islam, and swore allegiance to Muhammad. Their conversion was
especially noteworthy because these men had been among Muhammad's
bitterest opponents only a short time before.
In one sense
Muhammad's return to Mecca was the climax of his mission. In 632, just
three years later, he was suddenly taken ill and on June 8 of that year,
with his third wife Aisha in attendance, the Messenger of God "died
with the heat of noon."
The death of Muhammad was a profound
loss. To his followers this simple man from Mecca was far more than a
beloved friend, far more than a gifted administrator, far more than the
revered leader who had forged a new state from clusters of warring
tribes. Muhammad was also the exemplar of the teachings he had brought
them from God: the teachings of the Quran, which, for centuries, have
guided the thought and action, the faith and conduct, of innumerable men
and women, and which ushered in a distinctive era in the history of
mankind. His death, nevertheless, had little effect on the dynamic
society he had created in Arabia, and no effect at all on his central
mission: to transmit the Quran to the world. As Abu Bakr put it:
"Whoever worshipped Muhammad, let him know that Muhammad is dead, but
whoever worshipped God, let him know that God lives and dies not."
The Caliphate of Abu Bakr and UmarWith
the death of Muhammad, the Muslim community was faced with the problem
of succession. Who would be its leader? There were four persons
obviously marked for leadership: Abu Bakr al-Siddeeq, who had not only
accompanied Muhammad to Medina ten years before, but had been appointed
to take the place of the Prophet as leader of public prayer during
Muhammad's last illness; Umar ibn al-Khattab, an able and trusted
Companion of the Prophet; Uthman ibn 'Affan, a respected early convert;
and 'Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law. There
piousness and ability to govern the affairs of the Islamic nation was
uniformly par excellence. At a meeting held to decide the new
leadership, Umar grasped Abu Bakr's hand and gave his allegiance to him,
the traditional sign of recognition of a new leader. By dusk, everyone
concurred, and Abu Bakr had been recognized as the khaleefah of
Muhammad. Khaleefah - anglicized as caliph - is a word meaning
"successor", but also suggesting what his historical role would be: to
govern according to the Quran and the practice of the Prophet.
Abu
Bakr's caliphate was short, but important. An exemplary leader, he
lived simply, assiduously fulfilled his religious obligations, and was
accessible and sympathetic to his people. But he also stood firm when
some tribes, who had only nominally accepted Islam, renounced it in the
wake of the Prophet's death. In what was a major accomplishment, Abu
Bakr swiftly disciplined them. Later, he consolidated the support of
the tribes within the Arabian Peninsula and subsequently funneled their
energies against the powerful empires of the East: the Sassanians in
Persia and the Byzantines in Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. In short, he
demonstrated the viability of the Muslim state.
The second
caliph, Umar - appointed by Abu Bakr - continued to demonstrate that
viability. Adopting the title Ameer al-Mumineen, or Commander of the
Believers, Umar extended Islam's temporal rule over Syria, Egypt, Iraq,
and Persia in what, from a purely military standpoint, were astonishing
victories. Within four years after the death of the Prophet, the Muslim
state had extended its sway over all of Syria and had, at a famous
battle fought during a sandstorm near the River Yarmuk, blunted the
power of the Byzantines - whose ruler, Heraclius, had shortly before
refused the call to accept Islam.
Even more astonishingly, the
Muslim state administered the conquered territories with a tolerance
almost unheard of in that age. At Damascus, for example, the Muslim
leader, Khalid ibn al-Walid, signed a treaty which read as follows:
This
is what Khalid ibn al-Walid would grant to the inhabitants of Damascus
if he enters therein: he promises to give them security for their lives,
property and churches. Their city wall shall not be demolished;
neither shall any Muslim be quartered in their houses. Thereunto we
give them the pact of God and the protection of His Prophet, the caliphs
and the believers. So long as they pay the poll tax, nothing but good
shall befall them.
This tolerance was typical of Islam. A year
after Yarmook, Umar, in the military camp of al-Jabiyah on the Golan
Heights, received word that the Byzantines were ready to surrender
Jerusalem. Consequently, he rode there to accept the surrender in
person. According to one account, he entered the city alone and clad in
a simple cloak, astounding a populace accustomed to the sumptuous garb
and court ceremonials of the Byzantines and Persians. He astounded them
still further when he set their fears at rest by negotiating a generous
treaty in which he told them: "In the name of God ... you have
complete security for your churches, which shall not be occupied by the
Muslims or destroyed."
This policy was to prove successful
everywhere. In Syria, for example, many Christians who had been
involved in bitter theological disputes with Byzantine authorities - and
persecuted for it - welcomed the coming of Islam as an end to tyranny.
And in Egypt, which Amr ibn al-As took from the Byzantines after a
daring march across the Sinai Peninsula, the Coptic Christians not only
welcomed the Arabs, but enthusiastically assisted them.
This
pattern was repeated throughout the Byzantine Empire. Conflict among
Greek Orthodox, Syrian Monophysites, Copts, and Nestorian Christians
contributed to the failure of the Byzantines - always regarded as
intruders - to develop popular support, while the tolerance which
Muslims showed toward Christians and Jews removed the primary cause for
opposing them.
Umar adopted this attitude in administrative
matters as well. Although he assigned Muslim governors to the new
provinces, existing Byzantine and Persian administrations were retained
wherever possible. For fifty years, in fact, Greek remained the
chancery language of Syria, Egypt, and Palestine, while Pahlavi, the
chancery language of the Sassanians, continued to be used in Mesopotamia
and Persia.
Umar, who served as caliph for ten years, ended his
rule with a significant victory over the Persian Empire. The struggle
with the Sassanid realm had opened in 687 at al-Qadisiyah, near
Ctesiphon in Iraq, where Muslim cavalry had successfully coped with
elephants used by the Persians as a kind of primitive tank. Now with
the Battle of Nihavand, called the "Conquest of Conquests," Umar sealed
the fate of Persia; henceforth it was to be one of the most important
provinces in the Muslim Empire.
His caliphate was a high point in
early Islamic history. He was noted for his justice, social ideals,
administration, and statesmanship. His innovations left an all enduring
imprint on social welfare, taxation, and the financial and
administrative fabric of the growing empire.
The Caliphate of Uthman ibn AffanUmar
ibn Al-Khattab, the second caliph of Islam, was stabbed by a Persian
slave Abu Lu'lu'ah, a Persian Magian, while leading the Fajr Prayer. As
Umar was lying on his death bed, the people around him asked him to
appoint a successor. Umar appointed a committee of six people to choose
the next caliph from among themselves.
This committee comprised
Ali ibn Abi Talib, Uthman ibn Affan, Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf, Sad ibn Abi
Waqqas, Az-Zubayr ibn Al-Awam, and Talhah ibn Ubayd Allah, who were
among the most eminent Companions of the Prophet, may God send His
praises upon him, and who had received in their lifetime the tidings of
Paradise.
The instructions of Umar were that the Election
Committee should choose the successor within three days, and he should
assume office on the fourth day. As two days passed by without a
decision, the members felt anxious that the time was running out fast,
and still no solution to the problem appeared to be in sight.
Abdur-Rahman ibn Awf offered to forgo his own claim if others agreed to
abide by his decision. All agreed to let Abdur-Rahman choose the new
caliph. He interviewed each nominee and went about Medinah asking the
people for their choice. He finally selected Uthman as the new caliph,
as the majority of the people chose him.
Uthman led a simple life
even after becoming the leader of the Islamic state. It would have
been easy for a successful businessman such as him to lead a luxurious
life, but he never aimed at leading such in this world. His only aim
was to taste the pleasure of the hereafter, as he knew that this world
is a test and temporary. Uthman's generosity continued after he became
caliph.
The caliphs were paid for their services from the
treasury, but Uthman never took any salary for his service to Islam.
Not only this, he also developed a custom to free slaves every Friday,
look after widows and orphans, and give unlimited charity. His patience
and endurance were among the characteristics that made him a successful
leader.
Uthman achieved much during his reign. He pushed
forward with the pacification of Persia, continued to defend the Muslim
state against the Byzantines, added what is now Libya to the empire, and
subjugated most of Armenia. Uthman also, through his cousin Mu'awiyah
ibn Abi Sufyan, the governor of Syria, established an Arab navy which
fought a series of important engagements with the Byzantines.
Of
much greater importance to Islam, however, was Uthman's compilation of
the text of the Quran as revealed to the Prophet. Realizing that the
original message from God might be inadvertently distorted by textual
variants, he appointed a committee to collect the canonical verses and
destroy the variant recensions. The result was the text that is
accepted to this day throughout the Muslim world.
During his
caliphate, Uthman faced much of hostility from new, nominal Muslims in
newly Islamic lands, who started to accuse him of not following the
example Prophet and the preceding caliphs in matters concerning
governance . However, the Companions of the Prophet always defended
him. These accusations never changed him. He remained persistent to be
a merciful governor. Even during the time when his foes attacked him,
he did not use the treasury funds to shield his house or himself. As
envisaged by Prophet Muhammad, Uthman's enemies relentlessly made his
governing difficult by constantly opposing and accusing him. His
opponents finally plotted against him, surrounded his house, and
encouraged people to kill him.
Many of his advisors asked him to
stop the assault but he did not, until he was killed while reciting the
Quran exactly as the Prophet had predicted. Uthman died as a martyr.
Anas ibn Malik narrated the following:
"The
Prophet once climbed the mountain of Uhud with Abu Bakr, Umar, and
Uthman. The mountain shook with them. The Prophet said (to the
mountain), 'Be firm, O Uhud! For on you there is a Prophet, an early
truthful supporter of mine, and two martyrs.'" (Saheeh al-Bukhari)
