The Prophet Muhammad was the son of Abdullah, who was the
son of Abdul-Muttalib, who was the son of Hashim; whose ancestry
reaches the Prophet Ismael son of the Prophet Abraham, peace be upon
them.
Muhammad was born in the city of
Mecca
, in
Arabia
, on a Friday, the 17th
day of the lunar month of Rabi‘-I, in the year 570CE into a noble
family whose fathers and ancestors were amongst the chiefs of the
Quraysh tribe, and the Bani-Hashim clan.
His Prophetic mission began in the year 610CE on the 27th
day of the month of Rajab, when he first received the divine
revelation. Then the Qur'an was revealed to the Prophet progressively
according to the circumstances of the time over a period of 23 years.
The Prophet Muhammad was killed by poisoning on the 28th day of the month of Safar in the 11th year of the Hijrah, 630CE.
His Childhood
Muhammad's father Abdullah son of Abdul-Muttalib was the
best and most pious among the sons of Abdul-Muttalib and his most
beloved. Abdullah died while Muhammad was still in his mother's womb.
All that he left behind were five camels and a servant girl named
Barakah, also known as Omm Ayman, who was Muhammad's nanny. Abdullah was
a true believer and a monotheist.
After Abdullah's death, Muhammad's grandfather,
Abdul-Muttalib, became his guardian. Abdul-Muttalib was one of the
chieftains of the tribe of Quraysh, and a believer in Allah [in the way
of Prophet Abraham], as was Abu Talib, a brother of Abdullah.
Abdul-Muttalib always respected and honoured treaties and adopted the
finest of morals. He loved the poor and helped pilgrims. He would even
feed the wild beasts and the birds of the mountaintops. He would feed
people in times of famine and would restrain wrongdoers.
Muhammad's mother was Aamenah daughter of Wahab son of Abd Manaf son of Kilab. She was also a believer in Allah.
When Muhammad was born his mother said: ‘As soon as I put
my child on the ground he leaned with his hands on the ground, raised
his head to the skies and looked at the horizons all the while speaking
in phrases of monotheism. Then a voice called out to me saying: ‘The
best of mankind has been born so name him Muhammad.'
Then Aamenah sent for Abdul-Muttalib. He came to her and
she said: ‘A wondrous boy has been born to you.' Then she brought baby
Muhammad to him. Abdul-Muttalib looked at him then took him and entered
the Ka‘bah and prayed to Allah. Then he left the Ka‘bah and returned him to his mother and named him Muhammad.
Muhammad was not yet seven years old when his mother
died. After his mother's death, his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib assumed
guardianship of him. Because of his knowledge of the status of the child
and his faith in him he treated Muhammad with more care and attention
than his other children. A group of the Medlaj Clan came to
Mecca
and when they saw Muhammad they said to his grandfather:
‘Take good care of him for we have never seen another of his station.'
Abdul-Muttalib said to Abu Talib in his will to heed what
they say and take care of him. Muhammad was eight when his grandfather
died, and he was taken into the care of his uncle Abu Talib.
Abu Talib, chief of the Bani-Hashim clan within the Quraysh,
then became the guardian of Muhammad from his eighth year. Abu Talib
went on to protect and serve the Messenger of Allah, defending him and
honouring him throughout the testing times of his Prophethood, until the
last breath of his life.
His Adulthood
Muhammad grew up to become a fine young man. He became
known for his excellent manners, and because of the honesty in his
conduct and dealings he was referred to as al-Saadiq (The Truthful One)
and al-Amin (The Trustworthy One).
As a youngster Muhammad used to accompany his uncle on his business trips to
Syria
. When the Messenger of Allah reached the age of twelve he
journeyed with his uncle Abu Talib as far as Busra. There he was seen by
a Christian monk named Georges who recognised him by his description.
He took his hand and said: ‘This is the chief of the Worlds, God will
send him as a mercy to the Worlds.' Abu Talib said: ‘How do you know
this?' He said: ‘We find mention of him in our books.' He asked Abu
Talib to take him back fearing for his safety.
As an adult, Muhammad worked as a trader between the cities of
Mecca
and
Damascus
, and earned a great reputation in the process. Having
heard of the reputation of Muhammad, Lady Khadijah, one of the noblest
of the Quraysh, on one occasion commissioned him to take charge of some
of her trading business between the two cities. Lady Khadijah sent one
of her servants, Maysarah, along with him to keep an eye on him and
report back to her. Having seen his performance in the business, and
the returns he had produced as well as his honesty, Lady Khadijah put
Muhammad in charge of her business. Although she had many proposals of
marriage from various dignitaries of the Quraysh, Lady Khadijah declined
them all. It is reported that it was Lady Khadijah who, albeit
indirectly and discreetly, made the marriage proposal to Muhammad. Some
historians have reported that when they married in 595CE they were both
25.
Lady Khadijah gave birth to three children. All of the
Prophet's children were from Khadijah except Ibrahim who was from Mary
the Copt, who was born in
Medina
and lived for a year and ten months. The male children who were all born in
Mecca
were; al-Qasim which is where Muhammad's epithet
(Abul-Qasim; meaning Qasim's father) comes from, and Abdullah. The
boys all died young during the lifetime of the Prophet. His only
daughter was Fatimah, who married Imam Ali son of Abu Talib, and bore
him Imam Hasan and Imam Husayn, Zaynab and Omm Kolthuom, and another son
who was named Mohassen by the Prophet before his birth. Fatimah was the
only one of the siblings to survive the Messenger of Allah. The
Prophet Muhammad used to say Hasan and Husayn are two Imams (leaders)
whether they rise up (against tyranny) or not.
Ali was born to Abu Talib and his wife Fatimah bint Assad
in 600CE. Ali's birth was associated with a particularly significant
phenomenon. When Fatimah bint Assad was in labour she came to the
Ka‘bah pleading to God for help with her labour. It is reported by
various narrators and recorded by many chroniclers that as she was
engaged in her prayers by the southern wall of the Ka‘bah, the wall
split open and she entered the House, whereby the wall returned to its
normal state. Having observed this extraordinary phenomenon, people who
were present tried to follow her into the House through the opening but
did not succeed. They then tried to go inside the House through its
door but could not unlock the door. Reports indicate that she was
inside the House for three days, and when she left the House with her
newborn she did so in the same manner as she entered the House.
The Prophet Muhammad took particular interest in baby
Ali, and he played a major role in Ali's upbringing and education. Ali
would be the most ardent supporter of the Prophet throughout the
difficult years of the Prophet Muhammad's mission to convey the divine
message and the teachings of Islam to the masses.
Start of His Mission
The Prophet Muhammad used to spend much time in prayer
and worship of the one God. This he used to do in a cave, known as
Hira, in the al-Noor mountain near the city of
Mecca
.
In 610CE, at the age of forty, Muhammad received the
first of the divine revelations when he was engaged in devotion and
prayer inside the
cave
of
Hira
:
In the name of Allah the Merciful, the Compassionate;
Read in the name of thy Lord who created,
Created man from a clot,
Read and thy lord is the most noble,
Who taught by pen,
The Prophet Muhammad conveyed the news and the Message to
Ali and Lady Khadijah. Ali and Lady Khadijah both embraced the new
revelation instantly and without any hesitation.
Khadijah was thus the first woman to believe in the
Messenger of Allah and the first woman to pray with him. She supported
him wholeheartedly and spent all her wealth in the way of Allah. She was
the first woman that the Prophet married and he married no other during
her lifetime. She was immensely loyal to the Prophet. The Angel Gabriel
ordered him to convey a special greeting and a blessing from God as
well as ordering that he give the land of Fadak to Fatimah as an
appreciation for what her mother had spent in the way of Allah.
The Prophet Muhammad begins to invite individuals to the
new revelation but in secret. There were very few supporters and
believers. When the Prophet used to perform a congregational prayer,
those who were with him were Lady Khadijah and Ali. This low-key
approach continued for three years.
Afterwards, on instructions from the Almighty, the
Prophet's invitation to Islam started to became more and more public.
The Almighty instructs His messenger to begin with his clan, And warn
your nearest kinsmen.
For this purpose the Prophet Muhammad prepared a banquet and invited
the elders and chiefs of the Bani-Hashim, who totalled forty. After
they were served with a good feast, the Prophet invited them to Islam,
called upon them to support him in his mission, and promised them that
whoever does so would be appointed as his successor, but none took up
the offer dismissing the Prophet and his mission as nonsense, with the
sole exception of Ali. Ridiculing the whole thing, they turned to Abu
Talib saying, “Your son will be your commander, you should obey him!”
Nevertheless the mission continues unabated albeit with very few
supporters.
Resonance of His Call
The followers of the new religion start to grow, and so
does the concern of the Quraysh towards them. The elders of Quraysh
send Abu Talib, the trusted uncle of the Prophet to him, asking him to
stop his call for this new religion, and in return they would give him
whatever he would want. “If you want wealth, we will give you as much as
you want, if you want women we will marry you the most beautiful women
of Arabia, and if you want position and status we will make you the
owner-king over us.” When Abu Talib conveys the message of the elders
of Quraysh to his nephew-prophet, the Messenger of Allah replies, “I
swear by the Almighty that if they put the Sun in my right hand and the
Moon in my left on condition that I desist from this affair I would not
leave it until Allah causes it to prevail or I die in the process.” Then
the Messenger of Allah began to weep and rose and made to leave, but
Abu Talib called him and said: ‘Come back my nephew. Say what you like
my nephew, for by Allah I will never hand you over to them ever.'
The Quraysh realised that it is dealing with a true and
determined prophet. From then on, open hostility towards this new
religion, its prophet, and its followers started to increase. Lady
Khadijah dedicates all her wealth and resources for the cause of her
prophet-husband's mission. The extent of this hostility reaches blatant
persecution of the followers of the new religion and its prophet.
‘Neutralise the Messenger and his Message'
Then the Quraysh plotted amongst themselves about the
companions of the Messenger of Allah who had entered Islam with him from
amongst the tribes. Each tribe pounced upon any of its own who were
Muslims by tormenting them and forcing them from their religion. Abu
Talib protected the Messenger of Allah, and seeing what the Quraysh were
doing to the sons of Hashim and Abdul-Muttalib, he called for them to
protect the Messenger of Allah just as he was protecting him. So they
gathered with him and stood up with him, except for Abu Talib's brother
Abu Lahab and his sons who had assisted the Quraysh against the Prophet.
Then the Quraysh openly decided to kill the Messenger of
Allah. When this news reached Abu Talib he gathered the sons of Hashim
and Abdul-Muttalib and took the Messenger of Allah to his quarter and
protected him from those who sought to kill him.
The Quraysh imposes total and complete embargo against
the Prophet and his followers in all its forms; social, economic,
political, etc. No citizen of Mecca is allowed to buy from or sell to
them, no one is allowed to marry anyone of them, or even befriend or
socialise with them, not even help them. Nor should a peace settlement
be accepted from them ever, nor should they be shown mercy until they
hand over the Messenger of Allah to be killed.
The Quraysh agreed to draw up a document to this effect,
and one of them wrote this document in his own hand, which subsequently
was afflicted by paralysis, and then they hung the document inside the
Ka‘bah.
The Prophet and many of his followers, and members of the
Hashim clan withdrew to Abu Talib and entered the Abu Talib Quarter
known as She'b Abu Talib, which had become their virtual open-top
prison. Their condition deteriorated as time went by, and although some
friends of sympathisers managed to smuggle in some help to the Muslims,
but this was few and far between. There they remained in the quarter
for three years until they were exhausted. The voices of the children
could be heard from the quarter crying of hunger. They also increased
the pressure on those who had entered Islam but had not entered the
quarter. The trials became grave and the Muslims were severely shaken.
It is reported that Ali son of Abu Talib used to secretly leave the
quarter in disguise and fetch foodstuff to the besieged, carrying it on
his back, into the quarter.
On one of the divine revelations made to him, the
Messenger of Allah informed his uncle Abu Talib that Allah had sent
woodworms to their document that had eaten every word except the name of
Allah. Having heard this Abu Talib said: ‘No by the falling stars, you
have not lied to me.'
Abu Talib set out with a group of the clan of
Abdul-Muttalib until he reached the vicinity of the Ka‘bah, which was
full of the people of Quraysh. He spoke and said to them: ‘Something has
occurred which may be a cause for a settlement between you and us so
bring out your document.
They said: ‘The time has come for you to accept and
recant. Only one man has caused the split between us and you, and you
have put your people in jeopardy because of him.'
Abu Talib said: ‘I propose a matter for you in which
there is fairness. My nephew has told me and he has not lied to me, that
Allah distances Himself from this document and has erased all your
treachery and enmity and all that remains written is His name. If it is
as he has said then by Allah, we will never hand him over to you until
the last of us dies. If what he has said is false then we will hand him
over to you so that you may kill him or spare him as you wish.'
They said: ‘We agree.' Then they opened the document and
found it as they had been told but some of them clung to their
falsehood and obstinacy and said: ‘This is sorcery from your companion.'
Then some of those who had made the pact spoke and tore up the document.
Facing the Torments
The clan of Hashim then felt safe enough to emerge from
their quarter and once more mingle with the people. This was in the
tenth year of the noble prophethood, circa 620CE.
It was less than six months after the end of this trial
when Abu Talib passed away. Then the Prophet's wife Lady Khadijah also
died only three days after Abu Talib according to some accounts. The
Messenger of Allah was very saddened and named this year the ‘Year of
Sorrow'.
The loss of Abu Talib and Lady Khadijah dealt a severe
blow to the Prophet at a time when he needed these two most. The death
of Abu Talib cleared the last hurdle for the Quraysh, and if the
presence of Abu Talib imposed certain limits and drew some red lines for
the Quraysh that they could not cross, now his death leaves them free
to do what was the unthinkable to the Prophet while Abu Talib was alive.
With the death of Abu Talib, the trials meted out by his tribe to the Messenger of Allah grew more naked and audacious.
When the Prophet was praying by the Ka‘bah, one of the idolaters approached and violently tried to strangle him.
The Quraysh encouraged the foolish ones to throw dirt on
the Prophet's face and head. They used to throw filth and blood and
thorns at his door. Ommayah ibn Khalaf used to insult the Prophet until
his face became red but still the Prophet would not say anything to him.
When a fool threw the dirt in the face of the Messenger
of Allah, he entered his house with the dirt still on his head. Fatimah
began to clean the dirt from his head and crying and the Messenger of
Allah saying: ‘Do not cry my daughter, for Allah will protect your
father.'
He also said: ‘The Quraysh could not harm me until Abu Talib died.'
It is related from Khabab who said: ‘I approached the
Prophet when he was reclining in the shade of the Ka‘bah. This when we
had received some harm from the Polytheists. I said to him: ‘O Messenger
of Allah, will you not invoke Allah?' He sat up red of face and said:
‘Among those who came before you there were those whose skins would be
scraped off with combs of iron down to the bone and this did not divert
them from their religion. Allah will complete this matter until a rider
may travel from San'a to Hadramaut with nothing to fear but the wolf
getting to his sheep.'
Migration of the Messenger of Allah
The Quraysh and their allies make the decision that
Muhammad must be physically eliminated in order to finish with him and
his religion once and for all. But whoever does this would have to deal
with the consequences and face the wrath of the respectable Bani-Hashim
clan. In order to divide the guilt between as many clans and tribes as
possible, forty clans are made to be involved in the task. The best
warrior from each clan is chosen for the task. They are instructed to
storm the house of Muhammad and every single one of them is to ensure to
strike Muhammad with his sword at least once. This is so that if
Bani-Hashim, Muhammad's clan, were to seek revenge for his blood, they
would be confronted with forty clans, and thus making it impossible for
them to seek any retribution.
The Almighty instructs the Prophet Muhammad to leave for
the city of Yathreb, which later became known as Medinat al-Rasul or the
City of the Messenger, or Medina for short.
In 622CE, after some thirteen years of calling the people
to Islam, the Messenger of Allah left Mecca for Medina. The Prophet
Muhammad asked Ali son of Abu Talib to stay behind to deal with a number
of issues, and Ali volunteered to sleep in the Prophet's bed acting as a
decoy. The Messenger of Allah manages to slip through those who were
surrounding his house just before they stormed it. When they stormed
the house to kill him they found Ali instead in the Prophet's bed with
no sign of their target.
On his way out of Mecca, Abu Bakr came across the Prophet
as he was leaving the city, and asked the Prophet where he was going at
that time. The Prophet Muhammad could not tell him other than the
truth, and thereafter the Messenger of Allah asked him to join him on
his migration to Medina, in order to keep the news of this mission
secret until he is out of danger.
With first daylight, the forty brave warriors set off in
pursuit of the Prophet by following his track. They used an expert
guide to help them track him, and the guide led the warriors to the cave
of Thawr, some five miles outside Mecca, where the Prophet Muhammad and
his companion were actually inside, but the pursuers did not enter the
cave. It is reported that the pursuers did not enter the cave since by
the time they had arrived, through divine intervention, a spider had
spun its web across the opening of the cave, and a pigeon had placed its
nest near there, after the two had entered the cave. The chasers did
not attempt to enter the cave on the presumption that had anyone entered
the cave, the spider web and the pigeon nest would have been disturbed.
Having
failed to capture the Prophet, the Quraysh announced a reward of 100
camels for anyone capturing him or giving information leading to his
capture.
The
Prophet Muhammad left Mecca on the eve of the first day of the lunar
month of Rabi‘-I, and arrived at the outskirts of Medina, some 400 km
north of the city of Mecca, on Monday the 12th day of the same month.
Another
task that Ali ibn Abu Talib had to do when the Prophet had left Mecca
was to return any goods and valuables that people had given to the
Prophet for safekeeping. Many of those who were the Prophet opponents
also used to give their valuables to the Prophet for safekeeping every
time they went on a long journey and such like. This is because the
Prophet was recognised for his trustworthiness even towards his foes;
they could not trust their best friends for safekeeping of their
valuables, but they trusted Muhammad al-Amin (the trustworthy one). Ali
returned all the goods and valuables that were given to the Prophet for
safekeeping, including those of the Prophet's foes.
When
Ali had returned all the goods he was given by the Prophet Muhammad to
their rightful owners, he went to the roof of the Ka‘bah and yelled at
the top of his voice, “if anyone has any claim against Muhammad, or had
entrusted him with anything that he has not got back yet, then they
should come forward.” It is reported that nobody did.
Having
discharged all his tasks in Mecca, Ali set off for Yathreb together
with the 'Fatimahs', namely: his mother Fatimah bint Assad, Fatimah the
daughter of the Prophet, Fatimah the daughter of Zubair ibn Abdul-Muttalib, and Fatimah duaghter of Hamzah.
Messenger of Allah Arrives at Medina
When
the news of the Messenger's exodus from Mecca to Medina reached the
Muslims in Medina, they began to go every morning to the lava fields and
wait there until the heat of noon drove them back. Many days they
waited until one day when they had returned to their houses it so
happened that a Jewish man was looking out from his fortress when he saw
the Prophet shimmering in the haze. No sooner had he sighted him than
he hailed the Muslims at the top of his voice saying: ‘O Muslims, here
is your Master whom you await!'
The
Muslims immediately rushed to meet the Messenger of Allah on the crest
of the lava fields. He then kept going until they had reached Qubaa
where he stopped with the clan of Amr ibn Awf. The Muslims hailed
‘Allahu Akbar' (God is Greatest) with joy at his arrival. The Prophet
stopped at Qubaa for three days awaiting the arrival of Ali. He did not
want to enter the Medina without Ali.
The
Prophet remained with Ali with the clan of Amr ibn Awf for a day or
two. During his stay in Qubaa he established the mosque of Qubaa, and
thus it was the first ever established in Muslim era.
And
on the Friday, the Prophet entered the Qubaa mosque and led the Muslims
in the Friday prayers and gave a sermon. And this was the first Friday
sermon ever given. The Prophet prayed in the direction of Jerusalem and
one hundred men prayed behind him. After performing the prayers, the
Prophet mounted his camel, along with Ali who never left his side, and
the rest of Muslims and headed towards Medina.
Once
in Medina, Muslim families invited the Messenger of Allah to stay with
them. In order not to turn down the request of any one of them, the
Prophet decided that he would stay with the family that his she-camel
would stop by their house. He said: ‘Let her be for she is being
ordered.' The camel kept on walking until she reached the door of the
house of Abu Ayyub, who happened to be amongst the poorest in Medina.
Then Abu Ayyub hurried to the Prophet's baggage and took it into his
house.
Abu
Ayyub's mother, who was blind, said: ‘O if only I had sight so that I
could see my master the Messenger of Allah!' The Prophet Muhammad then
called to Allah for her and her eyes opened. This was the first of his
miracles in Medina.
It
is said that when the Messenger of Allah entered Medina, it was the
most joyous occasion ever witnessed by the people. One eyewitness said:
‘I saw the day when he entered Medina and I have never seen a brighter
or better day than that day. And I saw the day he died and I have never
seen a worse or darker day than the day on which he died.'
First Muslim Community
With a significant number of those who embraced Islam
migrating from Mecca to Medina, as well as the majority of the native
Medinans, it could be said that the first Muslim community began to take
shape in the city of Medina, under the guidance of the Prophet. Through
his teachings, the Messenger of Allah brought about harmony and peace
between the different rivalries and warring groups and tribes of the
city and its surroundings. Whereas prior to his arrival, greed, enmity
and wars prevailed between the inhabitants, in a short space of time the
Prophet managed to sow the seeds of a peaceful cohesive order to the
extent that they shared everything they had amongst themselves and with
the Muslim migrants from Mecca despite their poverty. With the city of
Medina being some 400 km north of Mecca, some of the Muslims considered
it to be a reasonably safe distance from the Quraysh who were mostly in
Mecca.
However, the Quraysh and their allies did not relent, and
they forced the Muslims of Medina into a number of battles and
skirmishes. These were usually unequal, especially at the early days,
with the Quraysh and their allies being superior in number and armour.
For example at the battle of Badr, which was one of the early clashes
between the two sides, the Muslims combatants were 313 men, who had
seventy camels and two horses, while their opponents were about one
thousand, had seven hundred camels and one hundred horses.
Peace between the two sides was eventually brought about
through the peace treaty of Hodaybiyah – signed in the eleventh month of
the sixth year after Hijrah – which was highly biased in favour of the
Quraysh and their allies, to the extent that some of the companions of
the Prophet protested to him for agreeing and signing a treaty that was
‘unfair and unacceptable'. However, subsequent events after the
Hodaybiyah were pointedly in the interest of the Muslims, which in turn
exonerated the Prophet's judgement and decision, and proved his wisdom
and farsightedness.
Mecca Liberated
Less
than two years after the treaty of Hodaybiyah, Quraysh grew impatient
with the environment of peace and security that reigned in the land.
Muslim losses in the battle of Mu'tah in north Arabia – in today's
Jordan – encouraged the Quraysh to stir up unrest in the land and break
the treaty that they had signed with the Messenger of Allah at
Hodaybiyah. They began to distribute weapons to their allies and urged
them to attack the allies of the Muslims at night, in breach of the
peace treaty they had with the Muslims.
The
Messenger of Allah left Medina on a Friday in the month of Ramadan in
the eighth year of the Hijrah. He took with him all the Muslim troops
which numbered ten thousand and nearly four hundred horsemen.
Then
the Messenger of Allah proceeded until he arrived at Marr al-Dhahran,
the heights of Mecca, in the evening. He ordered his companions to light
more than ten thousand fires. News of his progress had been kept hidden
from the Quraysh who were concerned and feared that he might attack
them.
It
is reported that Abu Sufyan, the Prophet's archenemy, was saying: ‘I
have never seen such fires as last night nor such a camp.' He said:
‘What is the news and what are all these fires?'
The
narrator responded to him: ‘The news is that the Messenger of Allah has
arrived here. He has come with a force you cannot resist; with ten
thousand of the Muslims.'
Abu Sufyan said: ‘What is to be done?'
I
said: ‘By Allah, if he defeats you he will surely strike your head off
so ride this donkey with me so that I can take you to the Messenger of
Allah and I will ask him for an amnesty for you.' So he rode behind me.
It
is related that Ali ibn Abu Talib said to Abu Sufyan ibn al-Harith: ‘Go
to the Messenger of Allah and say to him what Joseph's brothers said to
Joseph: By Allah, Allah has preferred you over us and we have
certainly been sinful
Then the Messenger of Allah said in answer to him and seeking to best
him in speech: He said: Let there be no reproach upon you this day.
Allah will forgive you and he is the Most Merciful of those who show
mercy
The
banner of the Muslims was with Sa'ad ibn ‘Ibadah and when he passed by
Abu Sufyan he said to him: ‘Today is the day of slaughter, today the
women will be captured'. Abu Sufyan heard him and kept it to himself
until the Messenger of Allah passed by him when he said: ‘Do you know
what Sa'ad ibn ‘Ibadah has said?'
The
Messenger of Allah said: ‘What he has said is of no consequence.' Then
he sent someone to Sa'ad and took the banner from him and passed it to
Ali and said: ‘Enter with kindness.' Ali took the banner and began to
proclaim: ‘Today is the day of mercy, today honour will be protected.'
Then
the Messenger of Allah turned to Abu Sufyan and said to him: ‘O Abu
Sufyan, proceed to Mecca and let them know of the sanctuary.'
When
the Messenger of Allah entered Mecca, a tent was pitched for him by the
grave of his uncle Abu Talib. He refused to enter his house or the
houses of his companions in Mecca that had been confiscated by the
Polytheists.
Then
the Messenger of Allah, after having rested a little in his tent,
bathed and mounted his camel and set out for the sacred mosque. The
Muslims were before him and behind him and all around him and they were
repeating along with the Messenger of Allah the words of Allah Almighty:
The truth has come and falsehood has perished, indeed falsehood is (by
nature) perishing
Mecca
resounded with the sound of their voices until he entered the sacred
mosque and approached the black stone at the corner of the Ka‘bah, and
kissed it. Then he circled the House upon his camel and with a bow in
his hand. Around the House there were some three-hundred and sixty idols
and he began to stab at them with his bow saying: The truth has come
and falsehood has perished, indeed falsehood is perishing and The
truth has come and falsehood will not revive again and will not return
while the idols fell upon their faces. Then he raised Ali upon his
shoulders so that he could bring down the rest of the idols which were
upon the Ka‘bah.
And
thus a whole era of idol worshipping in Arabia was brought to an
irreversible end, and Mecca was liberated. The conquest of the Capital
City of the idolaters and the liberation of the holy city of Mecca at
the hands of Prophet Muhammad took place without bloodshed.
But
the Prophet never again took his birth city, Mecca, as his abode. The
Prophet only stayed in the city for fifteen days to manage its affairs.
When he left the city of Mecca for Medina, he appointed Etab ibn Osayd,
21 years of age, as the city's governor.
Ideal Islamic Order
From early days, the Prophet gradually established an
Islamic system of governance and a way of life. In its first years, the
nascent Muslim community in Medina had to contend with a number of
attacks and onslaughts by the Quraysh and their allies. The Prophet
used every opportunity to teach the Muslims the right code of conduct
for a Muslim in times of war and peace; from personal and ethical
qualities they must aspire to, to social, political and fiscal
policies.
On the political front, the Prophet enjoined the
community to avoid wars and violence as far as possible, and it should
only be the absolute last resort, when all other avenues have been
exhausted. The Prophet Muhammad went out of his way to avoid conflict
and violence, and it is recorded that in the ten years that the Prophet
was in Medina and despite the many battles that the Muslims were drawn
into, a total of some 800 were killed on both sides throughout the
period. The Prophet instructed his army against destroying houses or
pillaging or cutting down fruiting trees. He ordered them not to draw
their swords except in dire need. He used to rebuke some of his
generals and physically put right their mistakes.
Another social-political principle instilled by the Prophet Muhammad was that “Land belongs to Allah and whoever develops it” .
This had a very significant impact on the development of the country
both socially and politically, not to mention the economic progress and
revival it entailed.
Another socio-economic policy was established by the Prophet's declaration “I am responsible for them” .
He who dies and leaves family who do not have enough to make ends meet,
then the Prophet would be responsible for them and they should go to
him. On the other hand, “he who dies and leaves a wealth behind, it is
for his heirs” [12].
All that wealth is for the family he leaves behind, i.e. no inheritance
tax in Islam. But this policy did not stop there, and it went further
when the Prophet announced that if a person dies and leaves a debt
behind, then he [Muhammad, and subsequently the leader of the Islamic
state in general] is responsible for paying it .
The Prophetic legislation also addressed the interest of
the non-Muslims living under the Islamic state, referred to as dhimmy;
literally means “the responsibility of” [the Islamic state]: “He who
hurts a dhimmy, then indeed he has hurt me” .
Such laws, and the peaceful liberation of Mecca, encouraged
many to come and live under the Islamic State, for there was at least
economic and security guarantees for them and their families, present
and future. People started to embrace Islam as a way of life en masse.
Thus came the divine revelation:
By the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful,
When came Allah's succour and the conquest,
And thou saw the peoples entering into the religion of Allah in troops -
The Two Momentous Things
In
the holy city of Medina, Messenger of Allah ensured that he addresses
the two most vital issues during his lifetime, for these should be the
sanctuary, guide and leader for the Muslims after his departure from
this life. These were the compilation of the Holy Qur'an as a bound
copy, and the appointment of his successors to lead the nation after
him, both of which he did on direct instructions from the Almighty.
The Holy Qur'an
The
Prophet ensured arrangements be made to compile a ‘bound' copy of the
Holy Qur'an – known at the time of the holy Prophet, and also today, as
the mus}h}af. The Messenger of Allah commissioned Ali son of Abu-Talib
to gather and compile the entire Qur'an, which Imam Ali did during the
lifetime of the holy Prophet and under his supervision.
The Messenger of Allah validated and authenticated the end result – the
mus}h}af – even verifying the order and position of the individual
verses within a given chapter or surah, as instructed by the Almighty.
According to traditions, when archangel Gabriel used to reveal a
particular ayah or verse to the Prophet, the former would also indicate
its position within the surah or chapter of the Qur'an and the surah it
belonged to.
Reports
state that during the lifetime of the Prophet, when the entire text of
the Holy Qur'an was committed to writing and it had been compiled as
mus}h}af, people used to come to the mosque of the Prophet, where the
compiled Qur'an – the mushaf – was kept by the pulpit, to make their
copies of the Holy Scripture.
It
is sometimes stated, through a minor misunderstanding, that the Holy
Qur'an was first compiled during the reign of the third ruler Othman ibn
Affaan, some twenty years after the death of the Prophet Muhammad. The
root of this misunderstanding stems from the incorrect assumption of
the meaning of the Arabic word jamc that means ‘to collect',
but instead it is taken to mean ‘to compile'. What was in fact
commissioned at that time was to collect the incomplete documents
holding some verses or chapters of the Holy Qur'an and to complete them
as copies of the entire Qur'an. Any compilation that took place during
this time was to reproduce the authentic copy of the Holy Qur'an as per
the version compiled by Imam Ali during the lifetime of the Prophet
Muhammad and under his supervision.
The Ahl al-Bayt
The
other fundamental and vital task that the Prophet had to secure during
his lifetime was to address the question of his successorship. On instructions from the Almighty, the
Messenger of Allah named and appointed the successors who must lead the
Muslim community after him according to the teachings of the Holy
Qur'an and the Messenger of Allah. The
Prophet Muhammad used numerous occasions to instruct the people to
follow and adhere to his twelve appointed successors, ‘Caliphs' or
‘Imams', the first of whom was Imam Ali son of Abu Talib, and the
twelfth is the living Imam Mahdi, who is hidden from public view
until such a time when the Almighty instructs him to reappear in public
“to lead the nations of this world from tyranny and oppression to
tranquillity and bliss”. [The Prophet Muhammad, his daughter Fatimah,
his cousin and son-in-law Imam Ali and the eleven impeccable Imams
descendents of Ali and Fatimah form Ahl al-Bayt as referred to in the
holy Qur'an 33:33.]
In 630CE, seventy days before his death, and just after
performing the farewell Hajj pilgrimage, on instructions from the
Almighty, at the location of Ghadir Khum, the Prophet appointed Ali as
his successor and ordered the Muslims who were present there to pay Ali
homage of allegiance as The Commander of the Faithful, and their leader
after the Prophet. The revelation from the Almighty on this day in this
particular respect was:
O
Messenger! Convey that that has been revealed to thee from thy Lord,
and if thee do not, then thee would have not conveyed His Message; and
Allah will protect thee from the people. Surely Allah guides not the
disbelieving people.
After the revelation of the above instruction, the Messenger of Allah declared:
“Whoever
I am his master and leader, then Ali is his master and leader too. O
Lord support whoever supports Ali, and oppose whoever opposes him.”
“Ali is my caliph and successor upon ye after me.”
Some
chroniclers put the number of those present at Ghadir Khum who gave the
homage of allegiance to Imam Ali as the Commander of the Faithful and
the successor of the Prophet Muhammad at up to 120,000 men and women.
To confirm and conclude this momentous event, the Almighty then revealed:
Today I have perfected your religion for ye, completed My favour upon ye and have sanctioned Islam for ye as a religion.
In
order to reveal the station of his successors present and future, the
Prophet frequently used to refer the Muslims to the Ahl al-Bayt – at the
time notably Ali – for they were the most knowledgeable about the
teachings of the Qur'an and the Prophet himself. To clarify any
possible doubt about his immediate successor, in the famous tradition of
“City of Knowledge”, the final Messenger of Allah states:
“I am the City of Knowledge and Ali is its Gate, so whosoever wishes to access this City, then let him do so through its Gate.”
According
to many Prophetic teachings and traditions the Holy Qur'an and the Ahl
al-Bayt are considered as the two inseparable and complementary
components of the divine message. Towards the end of his life, the
Messenger of Allah often used to say:
“I
leave with ye the two momentous things – the book of Allah and my kin
the people of my Ahl al-Bayt. As long as ye adhere to them both ye will
never go astray after me.”
However,
after the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the people did not honour
their pledge of allegiance that they had given at the time of the
Prophet to the successor he appointed on instructions from the Almighty.
After several failed attempts on his life, and by various
means, the culprits eventually succeeded in assassinating the Prophet
Muhammad - this time through poisoning. The final Messenger of Allah to
humanity died on the 28th day of the lunar month of Safar in the 11th year of the Hijrah, circa 630CE.
The
Prophet Muhammad brought about a nation and a civilisation that in a
relatively very short space of time won the prime position amongst all
other nations. The Muslims attained such achievement so long as they
adhered to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad. Today although the
Muslims are numerous, they do not occupy the eminent station amongst the
nations anymore, for they did not adhere to “the two momentous things”
that the Prophet Muhammad left behind for them. The Muslim nation may
still be a candidate to lead mankind to bliss and prosperity if they
ensure to adhere to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad and his
appointed successors.