التصنيف: العلم

Mohammed was a contemplative individual and liked to spend his free time in isolation pondering the world in a cave called Hira outside of Mecca. It was while sitting in this cave that Mohammed began his life as a prophet at the age of forty. While sitting in Hira, Mohammed was visited by an angel who taught him a verse and made him recite back the verse. He met with this angel a few more times, he recited more versus praising Allah, God, and was told by the angel to spread this message. Mohammed told Khadija his wife about these meetings and she believed that he was a messenger of Allah and was the first to believe in Islam. Mohammed’s friend Abubakr, his cousin Ali, and Mohammed’s slave Zaid also believed in what Mohammed was saying and became followers of Islam.

Mohammed grew bolder in spreading his message and spoke from the mount of Safa to the people of Mecca proclaiming that they should give up their old gods for Allah and to follow the ways of Islam. Over the next ten years Mohammed would preach whenever he could in Mecca. Mohammed’s message began to wear on the nerves of the Quarish citizens of Mecca who were polytheists and rejected Mohammed’s idea of monotheism. They began to insult and ridicule Mohammed and his message, his uncle Abu Lahab would lead these assaults and claimed that Mohammed was crazy. After the death of his uncle Abu Talib and his wife Khadija the assaults against Mohammed grew worse. He left Mecca and went to the city of Taif to spread the message of Allah. He was only in Taif for a short time before he was forced to leave for preaching about Allah and had to return to Mecca. When he returned to Mecca, he was again subject to assault and things grew worse. Although many people heard Mohammed’s message and rejected his ideas Mohammed did gain a few converts in Mecca.

Mohammed’s message upset many and the persecution of the followers of Islam was so bad that some of his followers had to leave their homes and go to Habsha seeking the protection of the Christian king Negus. More and more of Mohammed’s followers were leaving Mecca for Habsha to escape persecution. But not all who listened to Mohammed’s message ridiculed him. In 620 A.D., he was able to win converts among the tribe of Yathrib, (Madina) and converted many of the Yathrib tribe to Islam. The Yathrib had heard of Mohammed’s reputation as a man of wisdom and hoped that he could help settle disputes in Madina, between themselves, some local Jews, and other groups of people. Mohammed converted so many members of the Yathrib tribe to Islam that he was able to form an alliance pact with the Yathrib who promised him protection if he were to come to live with them in Madina.

Following his pact with the Yathrib tribe all the followers of Islam save three left Mecca for Madina. The Mohammed’s followers had left Mecca to escape the ridicule and oppression that was carried out against them by the non-believers. Only Mohammed, his cousin Ali, and Mohammed’s friend Abu Bakr stayed behind in Mecca. Mohammed and Abu Bakr would leave Mecca after finding out about a Qurish conspiracy to kill Mohamed. With most of Mohammed’s followers gone, Qurish tribal leaders who harbored resentment against Mohammed decided to assassinate him. Their plan was to murder Mohammed in his home at night but Mohammed found out about the plot and left Mecca before they could carry out their plans. Abu Bakr and Mohammed were able to escape Mecca and were able to flee to Madina and were they fell under the protection of the Yathrib tribe.

In Madina Mohammed was no longer persecuted but was respected by the people and rose to a high position of power solving disputes between the various locales. As an arbitrator Mohammed was widely respected by the people of Madina, he also began to work on his message at this time. He had in Mecca set the codes of conduct to live by, in Madina he worked on what relations between followers of Islam should be with one another and with non-believers. It was also in Madina that Mohammed made Islam more Arabian. Mohammed believed that some Jews who lived in Madina were conspiring against him with the Qurish tribe of Mecca, those who had forced him to leave his home. Mohammed also had problems with the Hypocrites, Medinese Arabs who falsely proclaimed faith in Islam and allied themselves with the Jews who opposed Mohammed. Trouble began between Mohammed, the Hypocrites and the Jews when some of Mohammed’s people attacked a caravan during a time period that was traditionally observed as being a time of peace. The Hypocrites were upset that Mohammed did not observe this traditional cease-fire and Mohammed was upset with them for being angry at his people who did the raid out of necessity for survival.

Later Mohammed plotted to attack another caravan just outside of Mecca. The Quarish tribe learned of this attack and led a large number of attackers against Mohammed’s few raiders. The battle between Mohammed’s small force and the Quarish tribe’s overwhelming force is known as the Battle of Badr. Mohammed’s victory over the Quarish was seen as further proof that Mohammed was a prophet of God. The Quarish would attack Madina a year later and would defeat Mohammed’s forces and wound Mohammed, but withdrew before sacking the city. The Quarish would attack Madina once more in the following year but this attack would fail because Mohammed had a large trench around the city dug and the attackers had to give up the attack after their supplies ran out. This battle was known as the Battle of the Trench.