Muhammad ibn Abdullah: Difference between revisions

[[Image:Maome.jpeg|thumb|220px|right|15th century illustration in a copy of a manuscript by Al-Bīrūnī, depicting Muhammad preaching the Qur'ān in Mecca.<ref name=maome> Bibliothèque nationale de France [http://expositions.bnf.fr/livrarab/grands/0_01.htm Le Prophète Mahomet] L'art du livre arabe</ref> ([[Images:The Koran and the life of the prophet Mohammed|more pictures of Muhammad]])]]

Born to ''‘Abdu’llah ibn ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib'' in what was said to be "the year of the Elephant", his family belonged to the Hashim, a branch of the Quraysh tribe. Unwanted by his mother<ref>Katib al Waquidi p. 20</ref> and fully orphaned at the age of six, he was brought up by his uncle Abu Talib. Muhammad initially adopted the occupation of a shepherd, later becoming a merchant, robber, baron and eventually warlord. Many claim that in his youth, Muhammad was called by the nickname ''Al-Amin'' (الامين), meaning "faithful, trustworthy" and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator.<ref>Esposito(1998), p.6 </ref> However, historian Alford Welch holds that "Al-Amin" was a common Arab name and further suggest that al-Amin might have been Muhammad's given name, a masculine form <ref>Alford Welch - cf. "Muhammad","Encyclopedia of Islam"</ref>  from the same root as his mother's name, ''Āmina'' (أمينة). Physically, he was described as a "[[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Muhammad's White Complexion|white man]]",<ref>"''....My father said, "I heard Ibn 'Umar reciting the poetic verses of Abu Talib: And a white (person) (i.e. the Prophet) who is requested to pray for rain and who takes care of the orphans and is the guardian of widows."....''" - {{Bukhari|2|17|122}}</ref> and in later years as a "[[Islam Illustrated: Muhammad the Fat Dwarf|fat dwarf]]".<ref>"''....When Ubaydullah saw him, he said: This Muhammad of yours is a dwarf and fat. The old man (i.e. AbuBarzah) understood it.....''" - {{Abudawud|40|4731}}</ref> In 595 AD, aged twenty-five, Muhammad married his employer  [[Khadijah]]. She was a wealthy women aged forty, who had three children from two previous marriages. She would eventually bear him two sons (both died in childhood) and four daughters. Khadijah's father Khuwaylid bin Asad was opposed to the idea of his affluent daughter marrying such an "insignificant youth," so the couple used deception. Plying her father with alcohol until he lost his senses, the marriage ceremony went ahead as planned.<ref>LIFE OF MAHOMET. Volume II. Chapter 2,WIlliam Muir, [Smith, Elder, & Co., London, 1861], pg. 24</ref>

== The Revelations ==

After the death of his uncle Abu Talib, who, although not becoming a Muslim, had protected Muhammad throughout, in 622, Muhammad left Mecca in a journey known to Muslims as the ''Hijra'' (هِجْرَة ''Migration'').<ref name="EncWorldHistory"/> He, along with his followers, settled in Medina (then known as ''Yathrib'') a large agricultural oasis, where he was the leader of the first Islamic theocracy. He ordered his followers not to contact their relatives who were left behind in Mecca. By severing links between his followers and their non-Muslim relatives, Muhammad furthered his hold on them. This ''Hijra'' (traditionally translated into English as "flight") marks the beginning of the (rather crude) Islamic lunar calendar. The Muslim calendar counts dates from the Hijra, which is why Muslim dates have the suffix AH (After Hijra).

Medina was home to a number of Jewish tribes, divided into three major clans: Banu Qainuqa, Banu Qurayza and Banu Nadir, and some minor groups.<ref name="Cambridge39">''The Cambridge History of Islam'' (1977), p. 39</ref> Among the things Muhammad did was draft a document known as the Constitution of Medina (date debated), "establishing a kind of alliance or federation" among the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca, which specified the rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina.<ref name="Cambridge39"/>

*[http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/Pages/History.htm The Life of Muhammad: An Inconvenient Truth]