Chapter Nine

A Brief Biography Of The Prophet On Whom Be The Peace And Blessing Of Allah

Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) was born in Mecca in the year of the Elephant, 571 after Christ, of the Noble Arab family. 'Banu Hashim, whose lineage is traced to Isma'il, son of Ibrahim , (On both be peace) .

When Mohammad was a fetus in the womb of his mother; Amina , his father 'Abdullah , died His mother was left to rear him until she died while he was only six years of age. Then his grandfather, Abdul Muttlib, took over his guardianship; and he too died only two years after. Then his uncle Abu Talib became his guardian.

Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) began his adulthood as a shepherd and this is in keeping with the tradition of prophets, as rightly said in the Hadith.

He was also engaged in trade, where he used to accompany his uncle to Syria. He was later engaged in a trade venture for the Lady Khadijah, whom he shortly afterwards married, while he was only twenty-five years of age. The prophet joined his people in important projects like, "The Pact of the Noble for the Project relief of the Oppressed"; and he took part in the rebuilding of the Ka’abah.

After taking Khadijab as a wife, he took to seclusion, away from where he used to see among his people the worshipping of idols and similar behavior. So he would go, for contemplation , in to the Cave of Hira‘, overlooking the Ka'abah for nights on end. During one of these seclusions, the Angel GABRIEL descended with the ‘Message‘ or ‘Revelations‘. This was when he was forty years of age. The Angel GABRIEL recited to him and he recited after him)

        the words of Allah Most High: 

“ Read in the Name of God, your Creator who created and brought everything, spiritual, animate and inanimate into being. He created man from a clinging organism. Read: and realize that God, your Creator is most generous. He taught by the pen, the main instrument of learning and knowledge, and the instrument of authorship. He taught man, what he did not know. “  (Sura 96:1-5)

Returning from this meeting in great fear, his wife consoled him; and he was also consoled by Waraqah bin Nawfal , who had known something about Christianity.

Among the first who believed him was his wife, Khadijah., and his servant, Zaid Ibin Harithah , and his cousin , ‘Ali Ibn Abu Talib, who was under his guardianship, and Abu Bakr At Sidiq, ( on them all be peace).

When he called Quraish to Islam, they disbelieved him, and so obstructed him to their utmost. Thereafter some of the Muslims were forced to migrate to Abyssinia. 

The ill treatment by the Quraish became severe, after the death of his wife, Khadijah, and his uncle Abu Talib the same year, which was ten years into his Prophethood.

So he set out for the city of Ta'if calling the people to Islam, and. they turned away in a hostile manner, and so Allah graced him with the Night Journey (to Jerusalem) and Ascension (to Heaven), in which Allah ordained the five obligatory prayers.

Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) presumed him self to the tribes during the pilgrimage season in the market places; and by this acquaintance the call reached “Yathrib”, and in it many disciples were made for him. When the Quraish was determined to get rid of him, by killing him.  Allah ordained the migration to Madjnah , (Yathrib) to which most of the Muslims had migrated. The people of Madinah who came to be called "AI-Ansar"', welcomed them in a hospitable way ; and all  cooperated in the founding of the new Islamic society .They stood as one, hand in hand, united against antagonist trends from the Polytheists of Madinah, and of Mecca, and others like them .

Armed confrontation (Chazawat) took place, the most important of which were the Battles of Badr, Ohod,  Ahzab and Khaibar, ending with the conquest of Mecca in the eighth year of Hijrah. This made the religion and its followers victorious, and the people began to enter Islam in great leaps and bounds.

The Prophet, (PBUH) had seized the opportunity of truce which was concluded by the Treaty of AI-Hudiybiyjah, in the sixth year of Hijrah; and he sent letters to kings and leaders calling them to Islam, in-keeping with its universality.

The most distinguished of the contents of those letters, was epitomized in. the citation of a verse (from the Qur'an ) showing faith In the One Allah-alone, and portraying the dignity of man, for whom it was not proper   to adopt  a god from among members of his race; and for people to come to terms, on one word, If they did not respond to the Call, at least they should accept the new situation and agreement of the Islamic society, which was formed in the Arabian Peninsula, to deliver the trust of the call to all people. This verse is

     the word of Allah Most High:

"Say to them: "O you people of the Book ( Torah and  Gospel ),: let us come to terms to agree among ourselves  that we venerate and worship no one but God and shall not incorporate with Him other deities nor shall any of us take another for a godhead or a tutelary guardian besides God". And if they turn a deaf ear and insist upon hugging their irreverent conviction to their hearts, then say to them: Do then bear witness that we conform our will to God's blessed will, and this reflects conformity to Islam." (Sura 3:64 )

And after exhausting the resistance on the part of the Polytheists and others, the Prophet (PBUH), began to secure  the boundaries of the Arabian Peninsula against the two great powers of the time , the Persians and the Romans. He proposed an army under the command of Osamah Ibn Zaid. However at this time, the Prophet (PBUH) passed away, at the age of sixty-three, after an eventful life of glorious deeds and continuous struggle for the sake of delivering the message, whose responsibility the Rightly Guided caliphs (the Prophet's four immediate successors) and succeeding generations have been born following in his footsteps, in the call, whose tenets

        Allah the Almighty, has laid down in word:

“ Invite people (O Mohammad) graciously to the path of God, the path of rectitude, with wise, graceful and appropriate inducements which meet them on their own ground and propitiate them, each in his own capacity, to open the ears of their hearts and the eyes of their minds. And reason with them in a logical, peaceable and gracious manner." (Sura 16: 125)

The result of this activity was a vast Islamic state with boundaries from China in the East, until it reached Europe in the West. Islam now has followers in almost all parts of the globe) approximately l000, 000,000 million Muslims.