According to Islam, the only official prophet of God is Mohammed ben Abdallah. Born in Mecca in 571 to poor parents he belonged to the Qurayis one of the Beduin tribes of Arabia. In the sixth year of his life, he became an orphan and was cared for by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalibra. After his grandfather's death, his uncle Abu Talib took over to care for young Mohammed. To assist his family, he hired himself out to tend livestock for the rich merchants of Mecca. Later he joined his uncle to help him during his business trips. Mohammed was twenty five years old, when his life took a turn for the better. He joined the household of a rich widow by the name of Khalidja, also a Qurayis, who had extensive investments in the caravan business. Mohammed married the woman, fifteen years his senior. They had six children, two boys and four girls. Unfortunately they all died young except Fatima, who was given in marriage to Ali, son of his uncle Abu Talib. Mohammed carried on as a merchant until he was forty years old. He then decided to spend his life in the service of Allah and teach his people to worship a single God. Consequently he withdrew to the caves around Mecca, where he had several visions. Himself being illiterate, his assistants wrote down the heavenly messages he was teaching to his followers. The work of Zaid ibn Thabit, one of his scribes, was used to codify the holy book of Islam, the Koran. At the beginning of his carrier as the Prophet of Allah, Mohammed met ridicule and persecution in Mecca. His wife was his first follower joined later by the poor, the slaves and outcasts of society. One of his converts was an important official by the name of Omar, whose daughter Hafsha he later married. His tribe was also persecuted and locked out of the tribal community. By 615, the situation became so difficult, that Mohammed and his followers withdrew to Ethiopia, where they were given refuge in the independent state of Axum. The turnaround came in 622 when the residents of Yathrib invited Mohammed to come to their city and teach them his ideas. This exodus known as the Hegira marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Yathrib became the City of the Prophet (Medinat al-nebi) or Medina. The residents supporting Mohammed became known as Ansars or helpers and the ones who came with Mohammed the Muhadjirun. This two groups were organized by Mohammed, mosques were built and the custom of calling the faithful to prayer was introduced.
Yathrib had a large
Jewish population, descendants of former Babylonian captives who were returning
to their ancestral places in West Arabia nearly a thousand year earlier and
chose to stay there. Consequently they were more intimately exposed to
monotheism than the residents of Mecca. The city of Yathrib sided with Mohammed,
whose work they were familiar with through information they picked up during
their trips to the great fair, regularly held in Mecca. Mohammed, who wanted to
nourish an understanding and brotherhood based on religious traditions between
his followers and the Jews, was trying to form an alliance with them, but his
efforts were rebuffed. Eventually he conducted several campaigns against Jewish
tribes who sided with Mecca. The first encounter took place in the year 624 in
the month of Ramadan by the town of Bedr. It ended in victory for Mohammed, as
his campaign in 625 against some Beduins and the Jewish Kainuka tribe. His
defeat at Mount Ohod was followed by a victory over the Jews of Nadir. In 627
Mecca, allied with Beduin tribes, attacked Medina.
The faithful dug a maze
of fortifications around the city and in the ensuing Battle of the Ditches, the
Mecca alliance was defeated. This success was followed by aggressive campaigns
against the Beduins of Syria. In 628 Mohammed attacked Mecca. Eventually he
achieved an armistice for ten years, assuring permanent participation for the
residents of Medina to visit the great fair of Mecca on regular bases. This move
freed Mohammed's hands. He attacked and defeated the Jews of Khejbar and subdued
all Jewish resistance within his territory. Koran (Quran)is an Arabic word
meaning reading. It is also the name of the sacred book of Islam. According to
Islamic belief, it was revealed by God to the Prophet Mohammed in separate
revelations during the Prophet's life at Mecca and Medina. The canonical text
was established A.H. 30 (651) under the Caliph Othman. The editors based their
work on the notes made by Zaid ibn Thabit, the Prophet's secretary. At the same
time, save Zaid's, the Caliph ordered all other collections destroyed making it
the only -obviously one sided- record available regarding Mohammed's teachings.
The revelations are divided into 114 suras, many of them include several
revelations. The first sura, the Fatihah, is a short exultation in God. The rest
graded by length from the longest to the shortest, making it impossible to
ascertain a chronological order. The Sunna is the
way or example of the Prophet which supplement the Koran along the lines of the
Talmud. It is made up of traditions, moral sayings and anecdotes of Mohammed,
sifted and collected from the earliest times of Islam. These are by Bukhary,
Muslim, Abn Daud, An-Nasai, At-Tirmidi and Ibn Maja. The first two are probably
more reliable than the others if the truth is desired about Mohammed. The
language of the Koran is called classical Arabic. The Koran is the most
influential book in the world after the Bible. Moslems are required to memorize
much, or all of it. Islam is one of the world's most wide spread religions,
because of its simplicity strongly unites all believers. Moslems are united in
one basic belief: 'There is no god but God and
Mohammed is his prophet.'
The religion of Mohammed's followers is called Islam or is'lum, Arabic word meaning submission to, or having peace with. Islam is a principal religion in Asia, North West China, Indonesia, Malaya, Pakistan, large portion of the former Soviet Union in Asia, in Crimea and much of the lower Volga, the European side of Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the Arab states, Egypt, Lybia, Morocco, central and east Africa.The feature of Islam is its devotion to the Koran. The Koran is written in classical Arabic which is the preferred language for conducting Islamic services and subsequently the custom of referring to God as Allah. Moslem children all over the world are encouraged to learn Arabic to read the Koran in its original form, subsequently many believers consider translations of the Koran heretical. Islam is basically one's attitude toward God. To his will Moslems submit, him they constantly praise and glorify and in God alone they hope. No creature may be compared to him and to him alone Moslems pray. Moslems ask intercession of the prophets and saints, but they seldom ask God for favors, limiting their prayers to thanksgiving and adoration. The chief angels of the Moslems are: Gabri-el, Micha-el, Azra-el and Uri-el. Devils are the evil jinn. The five principal prophets are: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Abraham was the Father of the Faithful, the first Moslem. According to Moslems, Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, did great miracles but was not crucified. Instead taken away by God who left a shadow in his place (the Gnostic view).
There are five duties in Islam, and once in his life, the believer must say with full understanding and absolute acceptance:
Moslem sectarianism is
virtually negligible, except for the fundamental division of Islam into Sunnites
and Shiites. The division arose over the caliphate in the first centuries of the
Islamic calendar. It is conventional to treat Sunnite Islam as the norm because
they represent the vast majority of believers. In addition Shiites represent a
major departure from the original Islam since all other Moslems regard it
monstrous and blasphemous that Shiites consider the Caliph Ali a vice regent of
God and claim that his successors are infallible and sinless. The appeal of
Islam as a universal religion is based on its awesome simplicity. Definite
promises and comparatively easy rules indubitably added much to that appeal. The
development of organized pilgrimage to Mecca greatly strengthened Mohammed's
hands. He sent emissaries everywhere to obtain allegiances peacefully, failing
that he conquered the resistors by force. In 629 he attacked Syria but was
defeated by the Dead Sea at Muta. In 630 Mecca reneged on the armistice and was
subsequently defeated by Mohammed. He destroyed the idols, seized the Kaaba, a
black meteoric stone of which the Quraysh are guardians, and Mecca became the
center of Islam. Following his victories, the pagan chieftains undertook to
travel to Mecca, join Islam and pay homage to the Prophet. Soon the whole of
Arabia became followers of the new religion. Mohammed's greatest ambition, to
defeat Byzatinum was not to be realized. In 632 he paid his last visit to the
Kaaba. Shortly after he became ill and on June 8 632, in the room of his favored
wife Aisa, he died. This room, surrounded by a great mosque, is now a major
religious center for Islam. His followers selected the aging Abu Bakr to succeed
as the leader of Islam. He was followed by Caliph Umar who in 638 took Jerusalem
from the Byzantines.
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