Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) 570–632 AD

Arabia

Justinian, the great emperor of Eastern Rome, died in 565 AD, and five years later Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born into a poor family in Arabia. The land of Arabia, three-quarters of which was barren and waterless, was the home of primitive tribes whose entire wealth would not suffice to decorate a building like the Church of Santa Sophia. At that time, no one could even dream that a century later these nomadic people would conquer half of the Asian possessions of the Roman state, all of Iran and Egypt, and most of North Africa, and advance toward Spain. Truly, this historical phenomenon that arose from Arabia, resulting in Arab domination over half the Mediterranean basin and the spread of Islam there, is one of the strangest social events of the Middle Ages.

Arabia is the largest peninsula in the world. Its maximum length is 2,500 kilometers and its maximum width is 2,000 kilometers. Geologically, this vast peninsula is a continuation of the great Sahara of Africa and part of the arid desert climate that stretches from parts of Iran to the Gobi Desert. The word “Arab” means dry and barren. Arabia is a vast plateau that rises abruptly 3,650 meters within 48 kilometers of the Red Sea (Bahr al-Ahmar) and then slopes gently eastward and toward the Persian Gulf through dry mountainous regions. In the heart of the peninsula, where shallow wells yield water, there are green oases and villages with date palms, while vast sand deserts stretch for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. Snow falls in Arabia once every forty years; at night the temperature drops to 3 degrees Celsius above zero, but the daytime sun scorches faces and boils the blood in the veins. In that scorching, sandy air, people must wear long garments and cover their heads with an aqal. In this land the sky is always clear and cloudless, and the air sparkles with light. Along the coast, occasional rains fall that prepare the ground for civilization. These occasional rains are more frequent on the western coast and in the Hijaz region, with the cities of Mecca and Medina, and also in the southwest and Yemen, which were the main centers of ancient Arabian states.

A Babylonian tablet dating to about 2400 BC records the fall of Magan to Naram-Sin, the ruler of Babylon. Magan was the capital of the Ma’in country that arose in southwestern Arabia; from Arabic tablets dating to 800 BC, we know twenty-five kings who ruled it after this defeat. There is another tablet that some scholars believe dates to 2300 BC; of course, there is no complete certainty in this regard. This tablet records the name of another Arabian country called Saba, which arose in the land of Yemen. It was from this country of Saba or its colonies in northern Arabia (on this point historians agree) that around 950 BC the Queen of Sheba went to Solomon. The kings of Saba made Ma’rib their capital and usually fought (of course for defense); they created notable installations such as the dams of Ma’rib, whose remains still exist; they built magnificent fortresses and temples; and they spent much wealth on religion and used religion as a means of governance. The tablets that have survived from them — and are probably no older than 900 BC — are beautifully carved with syllabic letters. The Sabaeans produced frankincense and myrrh, which had great importance in the religious ceremonies of Asia and Egypt. The people of that land also controlled maritime trade between India and Egypt; the southern part of the caravan route that ran from Mecca and Medina to Petra and Jerusalem (Bayt al-Muqaddas) was under their control. Around 115 BC, another small state called Himyar arose in southwestern Arabia; it attacked Saba, defeated it, and thereafter controlled Arabian trade for centuries. In 25 BC, Augustus, who could not tolerate Arabia’s control over trade between India and Egypt, sent an army under Aelius Gallus to conquer Ma’rib; but Arab guides misled the Roman legions, heat and disease destroyed them, and the campaign ended in failure; however, another Roman army captured Aden, and the trade of Egypt and India fell into Roman hands (in the present age the English did the same thing, that is, by controlling Aden they gained control over the trade route to India).

In the second century BC, a group of Himyarites crossed the Red Sea, made Abyssinia their colony, spread Semitic culture, and also intermixed racially and by blood with the black Abyssinians. The Abyssinians received Christianity, handicrafts, and art from Egypt and Byzantium (Eastern Rome); Abyssinian merchant ships plowed the seas and advanced as far as India and Ceylon, and accepted the seven smaller Najaši states as their kings. In Arabia itself, many Himyarites, following their king Dhu Nuwas, adopted Judaism. Dhu Nuwas, under the influence of his religious zeal, began persecuting the Christians of southwestern Arabia; they sought help from their co-religionists; the Abyssinians responded to their call and defeated the Himyarite kings (522) and installed an Abyssinian dynasty there. Justinian made an alliance with the newly founded state; the Iranians supported the deposed Himyarite kings, drove out the Abyssinians, and established an Iranian government in Yemen (575); this government lasted sixty years and was overthrown with the Arab attack on Iran.

In the north of the peninsula also, some small Arab states arose that did not last long. The Ghassanid sheikhs ruled from the third to the seventh century in the northwestern part and the area around Tadmor (Palmyra), which was part of Syria, under Byzantine protection. In the same period, the Lakhmid kings also established a court in Hira near Babylon and spread a semi-Iranian culture famous for music and poetry. Thus, the Arabs had reached Syria and Iraq long before the appearance of Islam.

The political organization of pre-Islamic Arabia was based on primitive kinship relations, clans, and tribes. Each tribe was named after a supposed common ancestor; for example, the Ghassanids considered themselves descendants of Ghassan. Before the time of the Prophet, Arabia did not appear as a political unit except in vague Greek expressions. The Greeks called all the people of the peninsula Sarakenoi, and the word Saracen is derived from it, apparently the word Sarakenoi itself being taken from the Eastern Arabic word for Easterners. The Arabs, who were subject to limitations in their contact with the outside world, necessarily emphasized local and tribal possibilities and became a self-sufficient people. The Arab man felt no duty or interest except toward his tribe. The degree of his attachment was inversely proportional to the size of the tribe to which he belonged, and without any hesitation, and with complete peace of mind, he did all the things that a civilized man does for his country, religion, or race, for the sake of his tribe. That is, he lied, stole, killed, and gave his life. The government of the tribe or clan was in the hands of the sheikh, who was chosen by the heads of families from a family that had long been famous for wealth, ability, or courage.

Rural men obtained some grains and vegetables from land that had little fertility and also engaged in animal husbandry and horse breeding. But from their point of view, establishing palm groves and cultivating and growing peach, apricot, pomegranate, lemon, orange, banana, and fig trees was more profitable; some also cultivated fragrant plants such as frankincense, thyme, jasmine, and lavender; and some extracted perfume from mountain roses, and others split the stems of certain trees to obtain myrrh and balsam. Probably one-twelfth of the population lived in the cities of the western coast or around them. On this coast there were a number of ports and markets where Red Sea trade was exchanged. In the interior of Arabia, major caravan routes extended as far as Syria. The history of mutual commercial relations between Arabia and Egypt dates back to 2743 BC. It is highly probable that Arabia’s commercial relations with India are as old as trade with Egypt. The annual fair markets drew merchants sometimes to this city and sometimes to that. In the fair market of Ukaz, which was held near Mecca, hundreds of merchants, actors, orators, gamblers, poets, and prostitutes gathered.

Five-sixths of the population were nomadic and desert-dwellers who lived by herding and, according to the seasons of the year and winter rains, moved their flocks from one pasture to another. These people paid great attention to horses, but in the waterless and grassless desert, the camel was their greatest helper, moving with dignity. Although it did not travel more than thirteen kilometers per hour, it could endure thirst for five days in summer and twenty-five days in winter. The Bedouin Arabs drank camel’s milk, washed their hair with its urine, burned its dung as fuel, made much use of its meat, and made clothing and tents from its hair and skin. With these various means, the Bedouin could face the difficulties of desert life with the patience of a camel and the intelligence of a horse. The Bedouin, who had a short stature and slender build but at the same time a trained body and strong constitution, could live for days on end with a few dates and a little milk and continue his life. He made wine from dates that took him from the earth to the realm of poetic imagination and cured the hardship and monotony of life with love and war; he quickly became angry and, like the people of Spain who inherited quick temper from the Arabs, was ready for revenge in the face of insult or injury directed at him or his tribe. He spent a significant part of his life in war, the fire of which was kindled among the various tribes; and when he conquered the countries of Syria, Iran, Egypt, and Spain, his action was in truth an extension of the war and plunder in which he engaged in the days of ignorance. Certain times of the year were designated as sacred months of peace for the performance of pilgrimage rites and trade; but at other times he believed that the desert was his special domain and whoever entered it except in the sacred months and without paying the usual tribute had trespassed against him and his homeland, and plundering the trespasser’s property was in truth a tribute received from him in a simple way. He despised city life, for its result was obedience to legal regulations and the requirements of trade. He loved the desert, where he enjoyed complete freedom. The Bedouin was both kind and bloodthirsty, both generous and stingy, both treacherous and faithful, both cautious and brave; although poor, he faced the world with dignity and nobility, took pride in the purity of his race, and was interested in adding to his genealogy in his own name.

In the Bedouin’s view, there was no discussion in one matter; he deeply believed that in the arena of beauty his women had outstripped all other women. Of course, it should be noted that the wheat-colored women of the Bedouin Arabs possessed a natural beauty of unparalleled charm that could inspire any poet to describe it, but this beauty did not last long and could not withstand the harsh conditions of desert life and soon faded. Before the appearance of Islam, and even after it, Arab women, apart from a short time when they were the object of intense worship and affection from men, had a life full of hardship. Later this way of life changed very little. Every father, if he wished, could bury his daughter alive after birth, and if he did not, at least he would become sad at her birth and hide his face from people out of shame, for he felt that his effort had been wasted. The charm of her childhood influenced the father for a few years, and as soon as she reached the age of seven or eight, she could marry any young man of the tribe who was pleasing to the father and paid the bride price. Her husband and lover, if necessary, would fight the world to protect her and defend her honor. Some of these extreme courage customs were transferred to the enamored lovers of Spain. Nevertheless, this beloved was nothing more than a commodity and was counted as part of the property of her father or husband or son, who inherited her along with other things. She was always a servant to the man and rarely rose to the rank of companion and mistress. The man’s expectation from his wife was that she would bear many children and especially a son. The woman’s duty was nothing but bearing and raising warrior men. Often she was one of several wives, and the man could dismiss her whenever he wished.

Nevertheless, her beauties, like war, inspired the imagination of poets and became the subject of their poetry. The pre-Islamic Arab did not know how to read and write, but after the horse, woman, and wine, he loved poetry more than anything else. Among the Arabs of the Age of Ignorance there was no scholar or historian, but there was a great interest in eloquence, correct speech, and various rhythmic poems. The Arabic language, like Hebrew, had complex inflection and abundant vocabulary, its word distinctions were very precise, and in those days it was capable of expressing the feelings of poets and later of explaining philosophical subtleties. The Arabs prided themselves on the antiquity and perfection of their language and repeated its melodious words with interest in interesting sermons, fluent poetry, and firm prose. The poems of poets who in villages and cities or in desert tents and in markets recounted the stories of love or the wars of heroes or tribes or kings in long odes delighted their hearts. The poet was for his people a historian, genealogist, satirist, moralist, newspaper and harbinger of the future, and also a means of declaring war. When a poet won a prize in one of the poetry competitions that were occasionally held, his tribe considered this event a source of pride and became very happy. The most important poetry competition each year was held in the Ukaz market and for a month, almost every day, the various tribes competed in the language of their poets. In this market, apart from the group of listeners who confirmed or despised what they heard, there was no other judge. The best odes recited in this market were written with shining letters, which were called golden odes and were recorded in the treasuries of emirs and kings as precious and eternal works. The Arabs also called these odes “Mu’allaqat,” because the odes of the competition winners, as is clear from repeated accounts, were recorded with golden letters on Egyptian silk and hung on the walls of the Kaaba.

Of the Mu’allaqat of the Age of Ignorance, seven odes remain whose date goes back to the sixth century AD. These are long odes with various meters that usually speak of love and war. One of these odes, namely Labid’s Mu’allaqa, recounts the story of a warrior who left his wife in the village and, as soon as he returns from war toward home, notices that his wife has left the house and gone with another man. Labid narrates this scene so effectively that the heat and excitement of his speech is no less than that of the Irish writer Goldsmith, and in the eloquence of poetry and strength of expression he surpasses him. In another Mu’allaqa, women urge men to war and say:

We are the daughters of Tariq
We walk on soft carpets
If our men advance toward the enemy
We will embrace them and spread beds for them
And if they turn their backs on the enemy
We will separate from them
So that we no longer take them as beloved

And it also says:

O sons of Abd al-Dar
O defenders of this land
Strike, with every sharp sword

In Imru’ al-Qais’s Mu’allaqa there are verses that speak of the sensual love of the Arabs:

And how many a woman who in tenderness and purity and whiteness resembles an egg and although she did not set foot outside her tent and no one had access to her, I, without worry and haste, would go to her and take pleasure from her.
I would pass through her tent’s guards, and if they caught me, in the darkness of night, they would secretly shed my blood.
The night was dark and the Pleiades had risen. That brilliant group on the body of the sky appeared like jewels on a delicate curtain.
When I arrived, she was standing at the door of her tent’s curtain and had removed all her clothes except her sleeping garment.
And when she saw me, she said: What can I do with you? Will the eye of your reason ever become seeing?
I took her out of the tent, and she dragged the hem of her patterned garment on the ground to erase our footprints from the sands.
When we passed through the tribe and rested in a safe place on the other side of the sand dunes,
I pressed her head to my chest and that slender-waisted woman, with her plump legs and ankleted feet, pressed herself to me each time.
She had a tall stature, white skin, a slender waist, and a breast like a shining mirror.
Like an ostrich egg, whiteness mixed with yellowness. She was nourished by pleasant and pure water.
Sometimes she would appear and sometimes she would refrain, and in that state her gaze reminded one of the eyes of gazelles and does when they seek their young.
A neck adorned with a necklace and proportionate, which when she raised it had the appearance of white-bodied gazelles of the desert.
A mass of her black hair rolled like clusters of dates on her back.
Her hair was raised upward and was so curly and thick that the string of her hairband was lost in it.
Her slender waist was in tenderness like a bridle woven of leather, and her delicate legs were like “bardi” reeds over which palm trees cast shade.
My beloved is a lady who never, like slave girls, bends to a hundred tasks and sleeps until mid-morning. It is as if her bed is always full of musk pods.
For this reason she has soft and delicate fingers, like worms of the land of Zaby or like toothbrushes carved from the soft branch of the ishl tree.
Her face in that pitch-black night, like the lantern of world-renouncing monks of the monastery, had illuminated the darkness.

The poets of the Age of Ignorance recited their poems accompanied by musical melody. Poetry and music were intertwined, and the nay and ud were loved more than all other musical instruments. Often in parties, female singers were invited to entertain the guests. Some of them also attended drinking parties. The Ghassanid kings had many singing slave girls who helped them forget the hardship of governance with their aid. In 624, when the Meccans left the city for war with Muhammad (PBUH), they brought a group of female singers with them to provide consolation and encouragement to the warriors. Arabic melodies were even moving and sad in the Age of Ignorance, and words were used in them that had a deep tone, and the poetry occupied the singer for some time.

The desert Arab had a primitive yet delicate and clear religion. He worshiped multiple gods in the stars, the moon, and the depths of the earth and feared them; from time to time he sought mercy from the vengeful sky, but often so many jinn swirled around him and confused him that he despaired of pleasing them, accepted submission to fate and power, prayed with manly brevity, and shrugged his shoulders before the infinite. Apparently he did not think much about life after death, but sometimes he demanded that his camel be tied beside his grave and left hungry so that it would reach him sooner in the other world and save him from the humiliation of entering paradise on foot. From time to time he offered human sacrifices to his gods and in some places worshiped stone idols.

Mecca was the center of this idolatry. This holy city, where it is, did not come into existence because of good climate. The bare mountains that almost surround it on all sides have made the summer heat of this city unbearable. The valley in which Mecca arose was barren; in this city, in the form that Muhammad (PBUH) was familiar with, there was not a single garden, but its location halfway along the western coast of Arabia, 77 kilometers from the Red Sea, had turned this city into a suitable stopping place on the route of large caravans that sometimes had a thousand camels following one another and carried trade goods from southern Arabia to India and central Africa and Egypt and Palestine and Syria. The owners of this trade had joint-stock companies among themselves, dominated the Ukaz market, and led the profitable religious ceremonies around the Kaaba and its sacred stone.

The Kaaba means a four-sided house and is the same as the English word Cube (meaning cube). It is a common belief that the Kaaba was rebuilt ten times. In the beginning of history it was built by the angels of heaven, the second time by Adam the father of mankind, and the third time by his son Seth. After that, for the fourth time Abraham and his son Ishmael, who was born of Hagar, built it ... the seventh time by Qusay, the leader of the Quraysh tribe, the eighth time by the elders of Quraysh during the lifetime of Muhammad (PBUH) they built the Kaaba (605), and the ninth and tenth times by the leaders of Islam in the years 62 and 79 AH (681 and 696 AD) they renewed its construction. The Kaaba that was built the tenth time is almost the same as it is now. The location of the Kaaba is inside the vast courtyard of the Grand Mosque; its four-sided building is all of stone and measures twelve meters long, ten and a half meters wide, and fifteen meters high. On the southeast side, at a height of one and a half meters from the ground, the Black Stone is located. It is an oval black stone eighteen centimeters in diameter that many believe came from heaven and was perhaps a meteorite. Many people believe that this stone has been in the Kaaba since the time of Abraham. According to Muslim scholars, the Black Stone is a sign of one branch of the descendants of Abraham, that is, Ishmael and his descendants whom the Children of Israel expelled and the ancestors of the Quraysh tribe were from them; in confirmation of this statement, they cite verses 22 and 23 of Psalm 118: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This is from the Lord ...” and also verse 43 of chapter 21 of Matthew: “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth its fruits.”

In the pre-Islamic Kaaba there were a number of idols that were considered manifestations of the gods of the Arabs. One of them, Allah, was probably the idol of the Quraysh tribe; three other idols, Lat, Uzza, and Manat, were the daughters of Allah. If we know that Herodotus mentioned al-Il-Lat (Allat) as the greatest god of the Arabs, we can understand the antiquity of these Arabian gods. The Quraysh, by worshiping Allah as the greatest of the gods, prepared the ground for monotheism and told the people of Mecca that Allah was the god of their land and they must offer him one-tenth of the produce and the first offspring of their livestock. The Quraysh, who traced their lineage to Abraham and Ishmael, chose the curtain-keepers, servants, and supervisors of the Kaaba’s finances; and a noble minority, from the descendants of Qusay, held the reins of government in Mecca.

At the beginning of the sixth century AD, the Quraysh had split into two rival groups, one headed by Hashim, a wealthy and benevolent merchant, and the other headed by his nephew Umayya. This fierce rivalry played an important role in the history of Islam. After Hashim’s death, leadership of his family passed to his son Abd al-Muttalib. In 568, Abdullah son of Abd al-Muttalib married Amina, who was also from the family of Qusay. Abdullah spent three days with his bride and then went on a trading journey and died in Medina on his return, and two months after his death (569) Amina gave birth to the greatest personality in the history of Islam.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Mecca: 569–622 AD (51 BH – 1 AH)

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was a descendant of a noble and distinguished family who inherited little wealth from his father. His father Abdullah left him five camels, a number of sheep, a house, and a slave girl, and it was this slave girl who took care of his upbringing in childhood. There are spiritual connections between the word Muhammad, which means “highly praised,” and some phrases of the Holy Book, and this has led to the belief that the Holy Book foretold the appearance of Muhammad (PBUH). Muhammad (PBUH) was six years old when his mother died; at first his grandfather, who was then seventy-six years old, and after him his uncle Abu Talib took charge of his upbringing, and Muhammad (PBUH) received all kinds of affection and care from them, but apparently no one thought of teaching him to read and write. At that time the art of reading and writing had no importance in the eyes of the Arabs; for this reason, in the Quraysh tribe no more than seventeen people knew how to read and write. It is not known whether Muhammad (PBUH) himself wrote anything. After attaining the position of prophethood, he had a special scribe; nevertheless, the most famous and eloquent book of the Arabic language flowed from his tongue and he knew the subtleties of matters better than educated people.

We have little information about the youth of Muhammad (PBUH), but the stories narrated about him reach ten thousand volumes. According to one of these accounts, his uncle Abu Talib took him with a caravan to Busra (Bostra), a city in the land of Syria, after he was twelve years old. It is not unlikely that in this journey he encountered some aspects of the teachings of Judaism and the Christian faith. Another account also indicates that a few years after the first journey, Muhammad (PBUH) again traveled to Busra for the trading affairs of Khadijah, who was a wealthy widow. At the age of twenty-five he married this wealthy widow, who was then forty years old and the mother of several children, and until twenty-six years later when Khadijah passed away, he did not marry another woman. In those days, for wealthy Arabs limiting themselves to one wife was not usual, but perhaps in the case of Muhammad (PBUH) and Khadijah this was ordinary. Khadijah bore Muhammad (PBUH) several daughters, of whom Fatimah is the most famous; she also bore two sons who died in childhood. Muhammad (PBUH) took Ali (AS), son of Abu Talib, whose father had died, as his adopted son and consoled himself. Khadijah was a virtuous woman, a worthy wife, and a capable merchant who remained faithful to him in all the events of Muhammad’s (PBUH) life; and after Khadijah’s death, Muhammad (PBUH) always remembered her as better than all his wives.

Ali (AS), the husband of Fatimah (AS), describes Muhammad (PBUH) at the age of forty-five as follows:

He had a color tending to red and large black eyes, smooth uncurled hair and a smooth cheek and thick beard, his neck was like white silver, he had a line of hair from the chest to the navel and no hair on the chest and under the armpits except that; his hands and feet were thick; and when he walked it was as if he was descending from above or coming down from a rock, and when he looked at a place he turned toward it with his whole body, he was neither short nor tall, neither weak nor mean; the sweat on his face was like pearls and ... was more fragrant than musk; I have not seen anyone like him before or after him ... peace and blessings of God be upon him.

Muhammad (PBUH) had a majestic appearance, he laughed little; he had a talent for humor but did it less, he knew that humor is dangerous for someone who is responsible for public affairs. His constitution was not strong, he was delicate-natured and quick to be affected. He tended to melancholy and thought a lot. When he became angry or excited, his face would swell and become terrifying; but he knew how to calm his feelings, and he could immediately forgive his unarmed enemy if he repented.

In Arabia there were many Christians, some of whom lived in Mecca. Muhammad (PBUH) had close relations with at least one of them, namely Waraqa, son of Nawfal and cousin of Khadijah, “who was familiar with Jewish and Christian religious texts”; and he often traveled to Medina, the city where his father had died. Perhaps there he encountered some followers of Judaism who were numerous in Medina. Many verses of the Quran show that he praised the moral principles of Christianity and the monotheism of Judaism and considered the religious texts of these two faiths as the product of revelation. In the view of Muhammad (PBUH), idolatrous polytheism, moral licentiousness, tribal conflicts, and political discord that prevailed in Arabia were very shameful and primitive compared to the teachings of Judaism and the faith of Jesus. For this reason, he deeply realized the necessity of a new religion that could unite conspiratorial groups and turn them into a healthy nation and eliminate the ways of rebellion and earthly revenge and put heavenly ethics and instructions into practice. Perhaps these ideas occurred to others as well. We know that at the beginning of the seventh century there were a number of claimants to prophethood in Arabia. Many Arabs were familiar with the idea of the awaited Messiah, which was believed by the followers of Judaism; they too were impatiently waiting for a prophet to come from God. A group of Arabs who were called Hanifs denied the divinity of the idols of the Kaaba and spoke of a single God whom all the people of the world should be servants of and worship with pleasure and willingness. Muhammad (PBUH), like all messengers of God, was the voice of the people of his age and expressed their needs and desires.

As he approached the age of forty, he became more absorbed in religion. When the blessed month of Ramadan arrived, he would go alone to a cave in Mount Hira, which is five kilometers from Mecca, and spend several days and nights in fasting, reflection, and prayer. One of the nights of the year 610, while he was alone in the cave, that great event that is the axis of all Islamic history occurred to him. According to the account of Muhammad ibn Ishaq, the most famous person who has recorded the biography of the Prophet, Muhammad (PBUH) himself described this great event as follows:

When I was asleep, Gabriel brought a page of silk before me on which there was writing and said: “Read.” I said: “I do not know how to read.” He pressed me so that I thought I would die; then he released me and said: “Read.” I said: “I do not know how to read.” He pressed me again so that I thought I would die, and then he released me and said: “Read.” I said: “What shall I read?” I said this lest he press me again. He said: “O honored Messenger, recite the Quran in the name of your Lord who is the Creator of the world. The God who created man from a clot [which is the transformation of the sperm], recite the Quran and [know that] your Lord is the Most Generous of the generous. The God who taught man to write with the pen. And taught Adam by His inspiration what he did not know.” I also read. When I reached the end, he left and I woke from sleep and it was as if a writing was recorded in my mind. I left the cave; when I reached the middle of the mountain, I heard a voice from the sky saying: “O Muhammad! You are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.” I raised my head to the sky and looked. I saw Gabriel in the form of a man, his feet spread in the clear sky and he said: “O Muhammad! You are the Messenger of God and I am Gabriel.” I stood and began to look at him and did not take a step; in the horizons of the sky I turned my face toward him and wherever I looked I saw him, and I was still standing. I did not go forward and did not turn back, until Khadijah sent her messengers in search of me.

When he came to Khadijah, he narrated to her what he had seen. According to the account, Khadijah was assured that what Muhammad (PBUH) had seen was true heavenly revelation, and she encouraged him to announce his mission to the people.

After that, revelation was repeated many times. Many times in this state of witnessing he would fall to the ground, tremble or lose consciousness; sweat would pour from his forehead; and even the camel he was riding would feel this excitement and move with difficulty. Later Muhammad (PBUH) said that his aging was the result of these states. When they asked him to describe the manner of revelation’s descent, he said that the Quran is recorded in heaven and is gradually revealed to him in the language of Gabriel. When they asked him how he could memorize these sacred verses, he said that Gabriel makes him repeat them word for word. At this time the companions of the Prophet did not see Gabriel and did not hear his voice. Sometimes it was accompanied by a sound that, according to him, was like the sound of a bell. Throughout his life until the age of sixty, with the progress of age, the clarity of his mind and the power of his thinking constantly increased and his spiritual power and skill in command rose.

During the next four years, Muhammad (PBUH) gradually announced that he was the Messenger of God and was sent to guide the Arabs to monotheism and a new morality. In his mission he faced many difficulties, because people do not easily accept new ideas unless they hope for quick material benefit from them. Muhammad (PBUH) dealt with a skeptical merchant society whose income partly came from pilgrims who came to the Kaaba to worship multiple gods. The promise of salvation from the fire of hell and enjoyment of the bliss of paradise in the other world that he gave to the believers somewhat eased some problems. He accepted all those who had any interest in listening to his words — whether rich, poor, slave, Arab, Christian, or Jew — in his house; a few of those who came to him were attracted by his passionate words and believed. The first believer in his mission was his elderly wife, then his cousin Ali, then his servant Zayd, whom he had bought and freed. Then his relative Abu Bakr [of course he became a relative later] who had a respectable position among the Quraysh believed, and under the influence of his influence, five of the leaders of Mecca converted to the new faith, who with him are counted as the six companions of Muhammad (PBUH) and are considered sources of highly respected Islamic hadiths. Muhammad often went inside the Kaaba and addressed the pilgrims and preached monotheism. The Quraysh at first did not take his call seriously, but were patient with it; the polytheists said he was light-minded, and suggested that they send him at their own expense to a doctor to treat him, and as soon as he attacked their religion and said that the ceremonies performed in the Kaaba were in truth the worship of idols, they rose to defend their religion, which was the source of their livelihood, and if it were not for the unwavering support of his uncle Abu Talib, they would have severely harmed him. Abu Talib had not converted to the new faith, but, as a result of his interest in the old customs of the Arabs, he was obliged to support the members of his tribe.

The Quraysh did not treat Muhammad (PBUH) and his free followers with much violence, because they feared the occurrence of strife among the tribes, but they could, without violating the customs of the tribe, apply measures against the slaves who had become Muslims that they thought could turn them away from the new faith. They imprisoned some of them and kept others for hours bareheaded in the scorching sun and did not give them water. Abu Bakr had saved forty thousand silver coins from years of his trade; when he saw the story of these slaves, he spent 35,000 coins to free a number of Muslim slaves. Muhammad (PBUH) also made the matter easy with the statement that if someone is forced to return from his faith, there is no sin. The Quraysh became more angry at Muhammad’s (PBUH) attention to slaves than at his beliefs, and the torture they inflicted on poor Muslims increased so much that the Prophet was forced to allow or order them to migrate to Abyssinia; and the Christian king there warmly welcomed them (615).

One year later, an event occurred that in the history of Islam has the importance of the conversion of the Apostle Paul to Christianity. Umar ibn al-Khattab, who was a fierce enemy of Islam and strongly opposed it, converted to the new faith. He was a strong man, had a respectable position in society, and was unparalleled in moral courage. His conversion to Islam aroused the confidence that the persecuted Muslims greatly needed and also caused many Arabs to enter the new faith. Thus, the Muslims, who until then had performed their religious ceremonies away from the eyes of the people, openly began to call the people. The Quraysh, who had taken upon themselves the defense of the gods of the Kaaba, gathered and swore to cut off their relations with that group of Banu Hashim who considered the defense of Muhammad (PBUH) their duty. Many of the Hashimites, including Muhammad (PBUH) and his family, decided to take refuge in a remote valley of Mecca where Abu Talib could prevent their harm (615). This division lasted for two full years among the tribes, and after that some men of the Quraysh gave up their stubbornness and told the Hashimites to return to their homes, and promised not to harm them again.

The Muslims of Mecca, who were a small group, were happy about this event, but in the year 619 three major events occurred for Muhammad (PBUH). In this year Khadijah, who was the most faithful of all to him and confirmed his call more than anyone, passed away, and also Abu Talib, who was his supporter and defender, closed his eyes to the world; Muhammad (PBUH), who knew that he was not safe from the plots of the Meccans and was also distressed by the very slow progress of the call in Mecca, traveled to Taif, a pleasant city ninety-six kilometers east of Mecca, but Taif did not accept him. Because the city’s elders did not consider it advisable to annoy the merchant nobles of Mecca. The people also feared the new faith and mocked Muhammad (PBUH) in the streets and threw stones at him, to the extent that his shins became bloody and he returned to Mecca. There he married Sawda, who was a widow, and, at this time when he was fifty years old, he proposed to Aisha, Abu Bakr’s seven-year-old and beautiful daughter.

Meanwhile, revelation continued. One night he saw that he went from his bed to Bayt al-Muqaddas, there at the foot of the Wailing Wall, which was a remnant of the Jewish temple, he saw a winged horse named Buraq waiting for him that flew him to the heavens and brought him back. After that, the Prophet returned to his bed in Mecca with a miraculous state. It was thanks to this night journey that Bayt al-Muqaddas became the third holy city of the Muslims.

In the year 620, Muhammad (PBUH) invited merchants who came from Medina to Mecca to visit the Kaaba to his faith, and some of them accepted his invitation, because monotheism and the sent prophet and the Day of Judgment were not unfamiliar to them and they had become acquainted with it through the Jews of Medina. When these merchants returned to their city, they called their friends to the new faith. Many Jews also welcomed the new call. In the year 622, seventy-three people from Medina secretly came to Muhammad (PBUH) and invited him to migrate to their city and settle there. Muhammad (PBUH) asked them if they would defend him as they defend their children? And they swore that they would do so; but they also asked him what their reward would be if they were killed in defending him? Muhammad (PBUH) replied that their reward would be paradise.

At this time Abu Sufyan, grandson of Umayya, became the leader of the Quraysh in Mecca. He, who was accustomed to enmity with Banu Hashim, resumed the persecution of the followers of Muhammad (PBUH). Perhaps he had heard that the Prophet intended to migrate from Mecca, and he feared that his work would be established in Medina and he would rise up to fight Mecca and the gods of the Kaaba; as a result of his incitement, the Quraysh assigned people to seize Muhammad (PBUH) and perhaps they said to kill him. Muhammad (PBUH) learned of the matter and went with Abu Bakr to the cave of Thawr, which is one farsakh from Medina. The envoys of the Quraysh searched for them for three days, but could not find them. Then the sons of Abu Bakr brought two camels that they mounted at night and took the northern road and, after several days of travel — having covered three hundred and twenty kilometers — [on the second of Rabi’ al-Awwal] (corresponding to September 24, 622 AD) they reached Medina. Two hundred Muslims, who said they had come from the pilgrimage to Mecca and had arrived there before them, along with a group of the city’s people who had become Muslims, stood at the gates of Medina to welcome the Prophet. Seventeen years later, Umar made the first of Muharram — the first month of the Arabic year — in which this Hijra had occurred (corresponding to July 16, 622), the beginning of the Islamic calendar.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in Medina: 622–630 AD (1 AH – 9 AH)

Yathrib, which was later called Madinat al-Nabi or “the City of the Prophet,” was located in the west of the central plateau of Arabia; in terms of climate, it seemed like paradise compared to Mecca and had hundreds of gardens, palm groves, and fields. When Muhammad (PBUH) entered the city, groups one after another demanded that he stay with them, and some of them held the reins of his camel to prevent it from continuing its journey and, according to Arab customs, were insistent in their demand. But his answer showed a complete policy that said: “Let it go, for it is commissioned;” in this way he prevented them from competing, because it was only God who guided the camel and led it to the place where it should stop. Muhammad (PBUH) built a mosque where the camel stopped and next to it built two houses, one for Sawda and the other for Aisha. Later he added other houses for the other wives.

When Muhammad (PBUH) left Mecca, he had severed many kinship relations; and when he settled in Medina, he tried to replace blood relations with religious brotherhood in the new state and prevent the rivalry of the Muhajirun, who had come from Mecca, and the Ansar, who were the Muslims of Medina, because the signs of this rivalry had become apparent. For this reason, he made each of the Muhajirun a brother with one of the Ansar and said that they should be together in the mosque at the time of prayer. In the first ceremony held in Medina, the Prophet went to the pulpit and said loudly “Allahu Akbar,” and those present repeated the same word loudly. Then, while his back was to the congregation, he prostrated to God and came down from the pulpit, and when he reached the bottom, he prostrated to God three more times, and these prostrations were a sign of humility and obedience to God. For this reason, the new faith was called Islam — meaning submission, in the sense of pure obedience, and salam which means peace, and its followers were called Muslim. Then he turned to those present and ordered them to preserve these ceremonies forever. Even now Muslims in the east and west of the world, in the mosque and desert or in a foreign land where there is no mosque, observe these customs at the time of prayer. After prayer there is a sermon that in the time of the Prophet announced new revelation and determined the work plan and policy of the week.

The Prophet founded a worldly government in Medina and necessarily had to spend an increasing part of his time on organizing social and moral affairs, political relations of the tribes, and military matters, because the work of religion and the world was not separate. And all worldly and religious affairs, as was the custom among the followers of Judaism, were entrusted to the leader of the religion. Thus Muhammad (PBUH) was both Caesar and Christ. But not all the people of Medina submitted to his unchallenged power. Then a large group of dissatisfied Arabs of Medina, who saw their national traditions and freedoms being destroyed and whom Muhammad (PBUH) had drawn into war, looked with doubt at the new faith and its rites and stood against it. The Jews of Medina were among them, who still showed attachment to their faith and did not refrain from continuing trade with the Meccans. Muhammad (PBUH) made a pact with these Jews that showed complete skill. The content of this pact is approximately as follows:

This is a pact that is from Muhammad, peace and blessings of God be upon him, the chosen and Messenger of God, upon those who believe in the religion that they know that the Muslims are no more than one nation and must rise in all affairs of life like an individual personality and bind with the Jews under the following conditions:

(1) The Jews and Muslims will have equal rights in a state of peace. (2) In case of need, the Muslims will support and protect the Jews. (3) The Jews with the inhabitants of Medina (Yathrib) will be considered one nation. (4) The Muslims will behave with the Jews with friendship and affection. (5) The Jews will have freedom in performing religious acts, like the Muslims. (6) The tribes that are allied and sworn with the Jews will also be supported by them. (7) If anyone oppresses a Jew, the Muslims will pursue him and he will be retaliated against. (8) The parties will respect each other’s friends, and the Jews will cooperate with the Muslims in protecting Medina and the surroundings of the city. (9) If a dispute arises between the Jews and the Muslims, the Messenger of God (PBUH) will judge and govern according to the ruling of the “Torah” and the “Holy Quran.” (10) This pact has been concluded and exchanged between the Jews and the Muslims.

Soon all the Jewish tribes that were in Medina and around it, namely Banu Nadir, Banu Qurayza, and Banu Qaynuqa, accepted this pact. ...

The migration of two hundred Meccan families to Medina caused a food shortage in Medina. Muhammad (PBUH) solved this problem in the way that hungry people do: obtaining food from anywhere. So he ordered his followers, according to the usual custom of Arab tribes, to attack the caravans that passed through the vicinity of Medina. When these raids were accompanied by victory, he gave four-fifths of the spoils to the raiders and left the remaining one-fifth for religious and charitable works. Whoever was killed in these clashes, his share of the spoils was given to his widow, and his own reward was paradise. Attacks on caravans were repeated and the number of raiders increased and the merchants of Mecca, whose economic life depended on the security of the caravans, became terrified and sought to take revenge on Muhammad (PBUH) and the Muslims. One of these clashes was on the last day of Rajab — one of the sacred months in which the Arabs refrained from war — and during it one person was killed; this action was disgraceful for the people of Mecca and Medina, and also with respect to the customs of the Arabs that had been carefully observed since ancient times. In the second year of the Hijra (623 AD), Muhammad (PBUH) with three hundred armed Muslims blocked a caravan that was going from Syria to Mecca. Abu Sufyan, the leader of the caravan, learned of the matter and changed his route and sent someone to Mecca to seek help; nine hundred men of the Quraysh left Mecca and two small armies faced each other in the valley of Badr, thirty-two kilometers south of Medina. If Muhammad (PBUH) had been defeated in this war, his work and Islam would have ended, but he personally took command, defeated the Quraysh, and the work of Islam rose and the Muslims returned to Medina with prisoners and abundant spoils (January 624 AD). Among the prisoners, those who had harmed the Muslims in Mecca more than others were killed, and the rest were freed in exchange for a heavy ransom. Abu Sufyan escaped danger with the caravan and threatened the Muslims that he would take revenge. When he reached Mecca, he sympathized with the families of the killed and comforted them and said that they should not cry for their killed and not recite elegies because the war continues and their revenge will be taken. Then he swore that until he again rose to fight Muhammad (PBUH), he would not see his wife.

Muhammad (PBUH), who had gained strength from the victory of Badr, applied the customs of war and proceeded to repel the opponents. Among them, a female poet named Asma attacked him in her poems; Umayr, who was a blind Muslim, went to her house at night and pierced her chest with a sword while she was asleep. The next day Muhammad (PBUH) asked Umayr: “Did you kill Asma?” He replied: “Yes, O Messenger of God.” The Prophet said: “You helped God and His Messenger.” Umayr said: “Is there any responsibility on me for this?” The Prophet said: “No, in this matter even two sheep will not fight each other.” Also, one of the Jews named Abu Afak who was nearly a hundred years old satirized the Prophet; two Muslims killed him while he was asleep in the courtyard of his house; and another poet named Ka’b ibn al-Ashraf, whose mother was Jewish and lived in Medina, when he saw Muhammad (PBUH) determined against the Jews, turned away from Islam and composed odes and incited the Quraysh to take revenge for their defeat and spoke of Muslim women and aroused the anger of the Muslims. The Prophet said who will shorten the evil of Ibn al-Ashraf? The next day, the poet’s head was thrown at his feet. In the view of the Muslims, these kinds of actions were legitimate defense against traitors. Muhammad (PBUH) was the head of the state and had the right to condemn the enemies.

The friendship of the Jews of Medina toward a religion that had warlike tendencies and from the beginning of its work had been seen as similar to their own faith did not last. The interpretation that Muhammad (PBUH) made of the Torah and said that the ancestors of the Jews had foretold his appearance was mocked, and Muhammad (PBUH) said from the tongue of God that the Jews had distorted the book of God, killed their prophets, and refused to confirm Christ. The Prophet had made Bayt al-Muqaddas the qibla and the Muslims stood toward it at the time of prayer; in the third year of the Hijra (624 AD) he made Mecca and the Kaaba the qibla, and the Jews said that he had returned to idolatry. At the same time, a Muslim woman went to the market of the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa; while she was sitting in the goldsmith’s shop, a wicked Jew tied the hem of her dress from behind to the top of her dress. When the woman stood up and saw the situation, she cried from shame. One of the Muslims killed the guilty Jew and the Jew’s brother killed the Muslim. Muhammad (PBUH) gathered his followers and besieged the Jews of Banu Qaynuqa for sixteen days until they surrendered. He accepted their surrender and ordered them to leave Medina with their belongings and give up their properties. Their number was seven hundred people.

The work of Abu Sufyan is surprising, that he swallowed his anger and waited a full year before rising to fight Muhammad (PBUH), and in the third year of the Hijra (early 625 AD) with an army whose number reached three thousand, he camped near Uhud, which is five kilometers north of Medina. Fifteen women, including the women of Abu Sufyan, had come with the army to increase the excitement of the soldiers with their sad melodies and incite them to revenge. Muhammad (PBUH) mobilized only one thousand soldiers in this war and he himself fought bravely and received many wounds and was finally taken out of the battlefield and the Muslims were defeated. Hamza, the Prophet’s uncle, was killed in the war, and Hind — the most famous of Abu Sufyan’s women whose father, uncle, and brother had fallen in the Battle of Badr and whose father had been killed by Hamza — chewed his liver with her teeth and, not content with this, made anklets and bracelets for herself from his skin and nails. Abu Sufyan thought that Muhammad (PBUH) had been killed, and returned to Mecca victoriously. Six months after this event, Muhammad (PBUH) recovered and attacked the Jews of Banu Nadir, who were helping the Quraysh against the Muslims and plotting to kill him, and after a three-week siege, he allowed them to leave Medina and each family to take with them as much as the load of one camel from their belongings. The fertile palm groves of Banu Nadir came into the possession of Muhammad (PBUH), who kept part of it for himself and divided the rest among the Muhajirun. Muhammad (PBUH), who was at war with the Meccans, wanted to keep the enemy groups away from himself.

In the fifth year of the Hijra (626 AD), the Quraysh and Abu Sufyan, with an army whose number reached ten thousand and the Jews of Banu Qurayza also provided effective help, resumed the attack on the Muslims. Muhammad (PBUH), who did not have the power to confront this great force in the battlefield, preferred to dig a trench around Medina for its defense. The Quraysh besieged Medina for twenty days, and when rain and storm exhausted them, they returned to their homes; immediately, Muhammad (PBUH) with three thousand Muslims attacked the Jews of Banu Qurayza. When they surrendered, Islam gave them the choice between becoming Muslim and death. Six hundred of their warrior men were killed and buried in the market of Medina, and their women and children were sold.

At this time Muhammad (PBUH) had gained skill in command, for during ten years of residence in Medina he arranged sixty-five military campaigns, personally commanding twenty-seven of them. At the same time, he was a precise statesman and knew how to continue war in the way of peace. He, both with the Muhajirun who longed to see their homes and families who had remained in Mecca, sympathized, and with the Muhajir and Ansar who longed to visit the Kaaba that had great importance for them in their youth, shared. Just as the early Christians considered Christianity the developed form of Judaism, the Muslims also considered the Muhammadan faith the developed form of previous divine religions. In the sixth year of the Hijra (628 AD) Muhammad (PBUH), at the suggestion of peace, sent someone to the Quraysh and promised that if they let him perform the pilgrimage rites, he would not interfere with their caravans. The leaders of the Quraysh replied that accepting this proposal was conditional on one full year passing without conflict, and Muhammad (PBUH) by accepting this condition frightened his followers. The two sides signed the ten-year peace conditions. After that, an attack was made on the Jews of Khaybar, who lived six days’ journey northeast of Medina. The Jews defended themselves fiercely, and during the fighting 93 of them were killed; finally, the rest surrendered. They were allowed to stay in their place and cultivate the land, on the condition that all their properties belonged to the Muslims and they surrendered half of their produce to the conquerors. Thus, these people did not suffer from the war, except their leader Kinana and his cousin who, because they had hidden part of their property, lost their heads. Safiyya, a seventeen-year-old Jewish girl who was betrothed to Kinana, joined the ranks of the Prophet’s wives.

In the seventh year of the Hijra (629 AD), the Muslims of Medina, whose number was two thousand, entered Mecca peacefully; the Quraysh went to the neighboring heights so as not to encounter the Muslims. Muhammad (PBUH) and his followers circumambulated the Kaaba seven times. Muhammad (PBUH), as a sign of respect, touched the Black Stone with his staff and cried out “There is no god but Allah,” and the Muslims repeated it. The orderly behavior and enthusiasm of the exiled Muslims affected the Meccans and a number of the Quraysh leaders — including Khalid ibn al-Walid and Amr ibn al-As, the great commanders of Islam in later periods — became Muslims. Some neighboring desert tribes made a pact with the Prophet that they would remain on their beliefs but would cooperate with him in wars. It should be said that when the Prophet returned to Medina, he realized that he could, by resorting to his power, conquer Mecca.

Two years had not passed since the peace when one of the tribes allied with the Quraysh violated the peace conditions and attacked one of the Muslim tribes (8 AH, 630 AD). Then, the Prophet gathered ten thousand men and attacked Mecca. Abu Sufyan, who was aware of the Muslims’ force, let them enter Mecca without resistance. Muhammad’s (PBUH) reaction was very generous. He announced a general amnesty for all the people of Mecca, except for two or three of his enemies. He destroyed the idols that were inside the Kaaba and around it; but he left the Black Stone in place and ordered its kissing. He made Mecca the holy city of Islam and announced that no infidel should enter it thereafter. The Quraysh gave up direct resistance, and the man who had left his heart to migration for eight years of suffering from the Meccans became the ruler of Mecca.

The Victorious Prophet: 630–632 AD (9 AH – 11 AH)

The Prophet spent the last two years of his life, which were always accompanied by victories, mostly in Medina. In these two years, after minor events, all of Arabia submitted to his power and accepted Islam. Ka’b ibn Zuhayr, the greatest Arab poet of that time, who had satirized the Prophet in some of his odes, came to Medina, submitted to him, converted to Islam, and the Prophet forgave him. Ka’b composed a magnificent ode in praise of the Prophet and the Prophet gave him his slave as a prize. The Prophet made a pact with the Christians of Arabia and promised to support them and, in exchange for paying a small jizya, they would be free in performing their religious ceremonies, but he forbade them from usury. According to historians, in this period, envoys were sent to the kings of Rome and Iran, the emir of Hira, and the Ghassanids and invited them to the new faith. Apparently none of them answered the Prophet’s letters. He viewed the wars between Iran and Rome, which caused great losses for both sides, with the eye of an impartial thinker and apparently had no intention at all of expanding his power outside the borders of Arabia.

The work of government took all his time, for he paid complete attention to the details of legislative, judicial, religious, and war matters. He even paid attention to the calendar and organized it for his followers. The Arabs, like the Jews, divided the year into twelve lunar months and added one month every three years to make it equal to the solar year. Muhammad (PBUH) ordered that the Islamic year always be twelve months, each month having thirty or twenty-nine days, and naturally the result was that after that the Islamic calendar did not correspond with the seasons of the year and thus every thirty-two and a half years one year advanced from the Gregorian calendar. The Prophet was not a scientific legislator and did not bring a book or summary of law for his nation and in the work of legislation, according to his position, he acted on the basis of revelation, just as instructions for ordinary affairs of life were also announced through revelation.

Although the Prophet personally attended to all matters, he was popular with everyone due to his extreme humility and often confessed that he did not know some things and protested against those who considered him beyond an ordinary human and free from death and error. He never claimed to be aware of the unseen or to perform miracles. Sometimes God’s revelation was also revealed about his human and personal works, as in the case of his marriage to the wife of Zayd — his adopted son — revelation came to confirm his behavior.

His ten wives and two slave girls have become a source of astonishment and criticism for the people of the Western world, but we must remember that the high mortality of men among the Semites of ancient times and the beginning of the Middle Ages had raised polygamy in their view to the rank of a vital necessity and almost a moral duty. In the view of the Prophet also polygamy was an ordinary and unproblematic matter, for this reason, with a peaceful mind, he took wives repeatedly, but his goal was not to satisfy sexual desires. A doubtful hadith has been narrated from Aisha that Muhammad (PBUH) said: “Three things from your world are beloved to me: perfume, woman, and prayer.” Some of his marriages were motivated by benevolence and compassion for poor widows who had remained from his followers or friends; others were political marriages, such as marriage with Hafsa, Umar’s daughter, that he wanted to strengthen his relations with her father through it, or with Abu Sufyan’s daughter that he wanted to win over the old friendship through it. Perhaps some marriages were in the hope that he would have a son, and this was a desire that he had been deprived of for a long time. Except for Khadijah, all his wives were barren, and this matter had become a pretext for his enemies. Of all the children he had from Khadijah, only Fatimah remained. From Maria the Copt, whom the Negus of Abyssinia had given him, he had a child whose birth made him very happy, but this son (Ibrahim) lived no more than fifteen months.

Often his house was disturbed by the quarrels and rivalries and financial demands of the women, but he paid no attention to the women’s demands. He gave them the promise of paradise and spent part of his time on observing justice among them. He spent every night with one of them, because the ruler of all Arabia did not have a special house for himself. But Aisha was more favored than others, and this matter caused the anger of his other wives. Then this verse was revealed:

You, O Messenger, may delay the turn of any of your wives you wish and may accept any you wish to yourself, and may not accept any you wish and if you call back the one you [harshly] sent away, there is no blame on you, this is better for the joy of their hearts and the brightness of their eyes and none of them should ever be sad. Rather, they should all be pleased with what you have given them, and God is aware of everything that is in your hearts and God is Knowing and Forbearing.

The Prophet’s life, except in the case of women and power, was very simple. The houses in which he successively resided were all made of mud bricks and were no more than two and a half meters high. Their roofs were of palm branches and their doors were curtains of goat hair or camel wool. His bed was a mattress spread on the ground. Many times he was seen mending his shoes, or patching his clothes, or lighting a fire, or sweeping the house, or milking a domestic goat in the courtyard, or buying food from the market. He ate with his hand and after eating cleaned his fingers. His main food was dates and barley bread, milk and honey were all the luxury he sometimes enjoyed. He never drank wine, which he had forbidden to others. He was kind to the great and open-faced to the weak, and in front of the arrogant proud, he was great and majestic. He was not strict with his companions, he visited the sick, he participated in the funeral of every corpse that passed by him. He never displayed the grandeur of power, he did not like to be treated with special respect toward him. He accepted the invitation of a slave for food. He did not assign to a slave a work that he had the strength and opportunity to do. Although much wealth reached him from spoils and other sources, he spent very little on his family; what he allocated for himself was less than little; most of the money that reached him he spent on charities.

Like all people, he paid special attention to his outward appearance. He wore perfume, applied kohl, dyed his hair, and had a ring on his hand whose inscription was “Muhammad the Messenger of God,” and perhaps he kept it for sealing documents and letters. His voice was sonorous, sweet, and pleasant. He was very sensitive, he could not tolerate unpleasant smells or the sound of a bell or loud voices: “Observe moderation in your walking and lower your voice, for the most detestable of sounds is the voice of donkeys.” He was very sensitive and quick-tempered, sometimes he was sad and suddenly became happy and talkative. He had a sweet sense of humor; once he said to Abu Hurayrah who visited him a lot: “O Abu Hurayrah, visit less often so that you may be more beloved.” He was a fierce warrior and did not show leniency toward the enemy. He was a just judge and could be harsh and deceitful, but his merciful works were many. His friends loved him to the point of worship. His followers collected his saliva, or the hair that fell from him, or the water with which he performed ablution, because they believed that these things would save them from illness and weakness.

Muhammad (PBUH) enjoyed complete strength and health, and this matter caused his success in his affections and struggles. But when he reached the age of fifty-nine, both of these began to weaken. He thought that the Jews of Khaybar had fed him poisoned meat a year earlier. After that he suffered from fever and unknown attacks; according to Aisha, at midnight he would leave the house, go to visit graves, seek forgiveness for the dead, and pray for them loudly and congratulate them. When he reached the age of sixty-three, the fevers became more severe. One night it happened that Aisha complained of a headache, he also had a headache and jokingly asked Aisha if she would like to die before him and be buried by the hand of the Messenger of God. Aisha, as usual, replied that when she returned from burying him, she would bring another bride in his place. After that the fever would stop for fourteen days and then return. Three days before his death, he rose from the bed of illness, went to the mosque and saw Abu Bakr leading the Muslims in prayer in his place; he sat beside him until he finished his prayer. On the 13th of Rabi’ al-Awwal of the eleventh year of the Hijra (July 7, 632), while his head was on Aisha’s chest, he closed his eyes to the world.

If greatness is to be measured by the effect of a great man on people, we must say that Muhammad (PBUH) is one of the greatest of the great in history. He sought to elevate the level of spirituality and morality of a people who had fallen into the darkness of savagery due to the heat of the air and the dryness of the desert, and in this field he achieved a success greater than all other reformers. It is hard to find anyone except him who has realized all his desires. He achieved his purpose through religion, because he believed in religion; moreover, in those days no other force was effective among the Arabs. He used their imaginations, fears, and hopes and spoke to them within the limits of their understanding. When he began his call, the Arabs were idol-worshiping tribes who lived scattered in the dry desert of Arabia; but at the time of his death they had become a nation. He limited superstitions and fanaticism and instead of Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism, and the old religion of Arabia, he created a religion that was simple, clear, and powerful, with spiritualities that were the basis of national courage and dignity; he was victorious in one hundred battles during one generation; and in the course of one century he created a vast empire — even now, in our time, it is a valid force that influences half the world.