Angels-MUHAMMAD

Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was born into the Hashim family
of the powerful tribe of Quraysh in the city of Mecca around A.D. 570.
His father and his mother died when he was a young child, and he was
placed under the care of his uncle, Abu Talib. Muhammad was known
to be sincere and honest even before his call to prophethood, his title
at this time being “Al-Amin,” the faithful one.
At the age of twenty-five Muhammad accepted the marriage offer
of a wealthy widow Khadija, fifteen years his senior. Muhammad had
been under her employment, conducting caravan trade for her into
Syria. The marriage was a happy one and resulted in two sons, who
died in infancy, and four daughters.
During this period, Muhammad, perhaps influenced by the
monotheism of the Christians and Jews in Syria and Mecca, was
bothered by the paganism and idolatry of the Meccan society. It
became his custom to spend a part of each year in retreat outside of
Mecca in a cave on Mt. Hira fasting and meditating. At the age of
forty, Muhammad believed that he received a message from God
through the angel Gabriel.
Belief in the revelation given to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel
(Djibril in Arabic) is a fundamental tenet of Islam. According to
Muslims, Muhammad is the last of a long line of prophets. In orthodox
Islam, Muhammad is regarded as the Seal of the Prophets, meaning
that God’s ongoing revelatory activity through the angels was
finally completed in the revelation of the Koran through him.
One of the earliest and most credible of the biographers of
Muhammad, Ibn Ishaq, described the encounter as a fearful one. The
angel came to Muhammad in his sleep and commanded him to read,
holding before him a brocaded cloth upon which was some writing.
When Muhammad responded in confusion, the angel attempted to
strangle him with the cloth until Muhammad felt close to death. The
angel repeated the same procedure three times and finally announced:
“Read! Thy Lord is the most beneficent, who taught by the pen,
taught that which they knew not unto men” [96:3-5] (106).
At first Muhammad thought himself crazy or possessed by jinn,
but after his wife Khadija and her Christian cousin Waraqah heard of
his experience, they assured him that his source of revelation was the
same as that of Moses. It seemed to them that the God of Judaism and
Christianity was planning to use Muhammad as
a prophet to teach his people in Arabia.
A silence of about three years followed this
initial revelation during which Muhammad fell
into a state of depression, feeling that he had
been forsaken by God. However, the angel
resumed relaying messages, and Muhammad
began in earnest to preach about the new faith
which he called Islam (submission). He felt
that he was sent to teach his people about the
one sovereign God whom Muhammad referred
to as Allah. His first converts were his wife
Khadija, his adopted son Zaid, and his close
companion Abu Bakr.
Most of Muhammad’s few early followers
were insignificant members of society. The majority
of Meccans opposed Muhammad as he challenged
their belief in idols, gods, and goddesses.
Perhaps even more importantly, Muhammad
threatened to usurp the power they held in controlling
the city of Mecca, which was a profitable
center for pilgrimage and trade. Even though
Muhammad and his small group of followers were
under the protection of Abu Talib, Muhammad’s
uncle, a well respected man of the community, they experienced verbal
assaults and minor aggression on behalf of their newfound faith.
In 619 Muhammad lost his faithful wife Khadija and his uncle Abu
Talib who, despite the fealty he had generously offered to his nephew,
died an unbeliever. Conflicts intensified between the early Muslims
and the Meccan aristocrats, and Muhammad realized that he would
need to leave the city soon. At about this time, prior to his leaving
Mecca, Muhammad claimed that the angel Gabriel took him on a journey
from Mecca to Jerusalem and from there through the seven heavens
where he visited with the major previous prophets. He ultimately
was admitted into the presence of God. Jersusalem is one of the three
most holy places on earth for Muslims because of this journey, which is
referred to by Muslims as Leilat al-Isra’ (The Night Journey).
The news of this incredible mystical experience created even
more animosity between the believers and the leaders of Mecca. Even
some of the new converts began to express doubt in Muhammad.
Fortunately, the neighboring village of Yathrib, later called Medina
(short for Medinat an-Nabi or The City of the Prophet), offered
protection to the Prophet and his followers on September 24, A.D.
622. Muslims refer to this year as the Hijra (migration) and date their
calendars from this time. Muhammad was welcomed to Medina as an
arbiter between opposing parties. More importantly, the pagan Medinans
converted to Islam under Muhammad’s exhortation.
However, he was not able to persuade the three Jewish clans who
lived in Medina to embrace his message as they refused to accept the discrepancies
that existed between the Koran and their sacred Scriptures.
Initially, Muhammad attempted to make concessions to the Jews in order
to find their favor. He had prescribed that his followers pray in the direction
of Jerusalem as did the Jews; he also commanded that the Jewish
Day of Atonement to be a Muslim holy day of fasting. Not receiving the
approval of the Jews, Muhammad changed his policy toward them with
the support of Koranic revelations. Muslims were thus ordered to pray
toward Mecca; the time of fasting was extended to include the entire
month of Ramadan (the ninth lunar month in the Arabic calendar);
Abraham (versus Moses) became the central figure in the history of
Islam; and Koranic pronouncements against Jews became more severe.
Another task for Muhammad, in addition to tribal unification,
was that of securing financial support for the believers who had sacrificed
to follow the Prophet. Many became involved in raiding commercial
Meccan caravans. The Prophet received revelations granting
permission for the believers to fight, affirming the necessity of warfare
to promote the welfare of the believers.
The prospect of gaining booty from the enemy boosted the Muslim
morale, and for the ensuing expeditions Muhammad was able to
engage a significantly larger number of warriors. In March 624 at Badr,
the believers met up with about 950 Meccans intent on inflicting a
serious blow to the Prophet and his followers. Because of Muhammad’s
superior military strategy and the zeal of his forces, the Muslims were
able to overpower their enemies. The victory at Badr was interpreted
as a sign of Allah’s vindication of Muhammad’s prophethood.
Muhammad’s prestige increased greatly. During this period Muhammad
began the long series of multiple marriages that further strengthened
his position as head of the community.
After their defeat, the Meccans realized that they needed to crush
Muhammad’s power once and for all. In 627 a great Arab confederacy
gathered to wage battle against the believers. The Muslims dug a
trench about the city of Medina and prepared for the worse. Due to
unsuccessful attempts to cross the trench, poor weather conditions as
well as Muhammad’s secret negotiations with several influential tribes,
the besiegers lost their determination and began to withdraw. This
easy victory gave Muhammad further confidence. Significant numbers
of conversions were made at this time.
In January 630 Muhammad, with an army of ten thousand men,
entered Mecca with virtually no resistance. He removed the idols
from the Ka’aba, the pagan place of worship, pardoned all prominent
Meccan leaders and gave them generous rewards for their surrender.
Muhammad thus won their respect and admiration. After Mecca’s surrender,
many other Arab tribes in the region followed suit. Christians
and Jews were permitted to continue to practice their faiths but were
required to pay tributes and taxes.
In March of 632 Muhammad led the Islamic pilgrimage to
Mecca and delivered his farewell address to tens of thousands of his
followers. Three months later at the age of sixty-three, he died a
peaceful death.
The greatest twentieth-century Muslim thinker of India Muhammad
Iqbal (d. 1938) summed up the feelings of Muslims for Muhammad
in this way: “Love of the Prophet runs like blood in the veins of
this community” (Schimmel, p. 239). The reports of Muhammad’s
sayings (Hadith) and actions (Sunna) were tirelessly collected by
future generations after the Prophet’s death. The Hadith and the
Sunna, although not regarded as equal to the Koran, are viewed as
the recordings of Muhammad’s inspired words and actions. The
Hadith provide Muslims with the details of every aspect of Muslim
life and practice. Annemarie Schimmel, a prominent scholar at Harvard
University, observes that the prophetic tradition serves to unify
the Islamic culture. Whether a Muslim be from Morocco or Indonesia,
“[he] knows how to behave when entering a house, which formulas
of greeting to employ, what to avoid in good company, how to eat,
and how to travel. For centuries Muslim children have been brought
up in these ways” (p. 55).
The prophetic tradition has not only influenced every detail of
the life of the individual believer, but it has also been the foundation
of Islamic law and social government. Despite Muhammad’s importance
in Islam, it must be remembered that his position in Islamic theology
is not comparable to that of Christ in Christian theology. The
ultimate foundation of Islam is the Koran, perceived by Muslims to be
the uncreated and eternal work of Allah.