KOFI OSEI-KUSI

BASIC 7AL

Muhammad is born as a member of the tribe of  Quraysh  and the clan of
Hāshim. His hometown of  Mecca  houses an ancient and famous
pilgrimage sanctuary, the  Kaʿbah. Although founded by  Abraham,
worship there has over time become dominated
by  polytheism   and  idolatry. Muhammad’s conception is preceded by a
dramatic crisis: his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib narrowly fails to
implement a vow to sacrifice his favourite son and Muhammad’s future
father,  ʿAbd Allāh, an obvious adaptation of the biblical story of the
binding of  Isaac  (Genesis  22). Muhammad himself is born in 570, the
same year in which the South Arabian king  Abraha  attempts to conquer
Mecca and is thwarted by a divine intervention later alluded to in sūrah
105 of the Qurʾān. Muhammad’s father passes away before his birth,
leaving him in the care of his paternal grandfather, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. At
the age of six Muhammad also loses his mother  Āminah, and at eight he
loses his grandfather. Thereupon responsibility for Muhammad is
assumed by the new head of the clan of  Hāshim, his uncle  Abū Ṭālib.
While accompanying his uncle on a trading journey to Syria, Muhammad
is recognized as a future prophet by a  Christian   monk. At the age of 25,
Muhammad is employed by a rich woman,  Khadījah, to oversee the
transportation of her merchandise to Syria. He so impresses her that she
offers marriage. Khadījah is said to have been about 40, but she bears
Muhammad at least two sons, who die young, and four daughters. The
best known of the latter is  Fāṭimah, the future wife of Muhammad’s
cousin  ʿAlī, whom  Shiʿi  Muslims regard as Muhammad’s divinely
ordained successor. Until Khadījah’s death some three years before
Muhammad’s emigration (hijrah) to Medina in 622, Muhammad takes no
other wife, even though  polygamy  is common. Muhammad’s prophetic
initiation occurs at the age of 40. During a period of devotional
withdrawal atop one of the mountains in the vicinity of Mecca, the
angel  Gabriel  appears to him in an awe-inspiring encounter and teaches
him the opening verses of  sūrah  96 of the Qurʾān: “Recite in the name of
your Lord who creates, / creates man from a clot! / Recite for your lord is
most generous….” Muhammad is greatly perturbed after this first
revelation but is reassured by Khadījah and her cousin,  Waraqah ibn
Nawfal, a learned Christian who confirms Muhammad’s prophetic status.
Muhammad continues to receive revelations but for three years limits
himself to speaking about them in private. When God finally commands
him to take up public preaching, he initially encounters no opposition.
However, after the Qurʾānic proclamations begin to deny the existence of
gods other than Allāh and thereby to attack the religious beliefs and
practices of the  Quraysh  tribe, tensions arise between Muhammad and his
small circle of adherents, on the one hand, and the remaining inhabitants
of Mecca, on the other. As a result, some of Muhammad’s followers are
forced to seek temporary refuge with the Christian ruler of Ethiopia. For
some years, the other chief clans of Mecca even refuse to trade and
intermarry with Muhammad’s clan, since the latter continues to offer him
protection. Sometime after the end of this boycott, one of the most famous
events in the Prophet’s ministry takes place: his so-called  Night Journey ,
during which he is miraculously transported to  Jerusalem   to pray with
Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. From there Muhammad
continues to ascend to  heaven, where God imposes on him the  five daily
prayers  of Islam. About 619, both Khadījah and Muhammad’s uncle Abū
Ṭālib die, and another uncle,  Abū Lahab, succeeds to the leadership of the
clan of Hāshim. Abū Lahab withdraws the clan’s protection from
Muhammad, meaning that the latter can now be attacked without fear of
retribution and is therefore no longer safe at Mecca. After failing to win
protection in the nearby town of Al-Ṭāʾif, Muhammad secures a pledge of
protection from a representative number of the inhabitants of the oasis
town of Yathrib, also known as  Medina  (from its Qurʾānic appellation  al-
madīnah, “the town”). This promise enables Muhammad and his followers
to leave Mecca for Medina, which, unlike Mecca, is partly inhabited by
Jewish tribes. Together with  Abū Bakr, the future first caliph, Muhammad
is the last to depart. It is only because he is warned by Gabriel that he
narrowly escapes an assassination plot by the Quraysh.
At Medina, Muhammad has a house built that simultaneously serves as a
prayer venue for his followers. He also drafts a covenant that joins
together “the Believers and Submitters [or Muslims] of Quraysh and of
Yathrib” as well as some of Medina’s Jewish tribes into a community
(ummah) recognizing Muhammad as the “Messenger of God.” However,
relations with the Jews of Medina steadily worsen. Eighteen months after
the emigration, a revelation bids the Muslims to pray in the direction of
the Meccan Kaʿbah, rather than to continue facing toward Jerusalem as is
Jewish practice. At about the same time, the Medinan Muslims begin
raiding Meccan caravans. When, during one of these raids, they are
surprised by a Meccan relief force at Badr in 624, the Muslims, aided by
angels, score a surprising victory. In response, the Meccans try to capture
Medina, once in 625 in the  Battle of Uḥud and again in 627 in the so-
called  Battle of the Trench ; both attempts to dislodge Muhammad are
ultimately unsuccessful. After each of the three major military encounters
with the Meccans, Muhammad and his followers manage to oust another
of the three main Jewish tribes of Medina. In the case of the last Jewish
tribe to be displaced, the  Qurayẓah, all adult males are executed, and the
women and children are enslaved.
In 628 Muhammad makes the bold move of setting out to perform
the  pilgrimage   to Mecca. The Meccans are determined to prevent the
Muslims from entering the city, and Muhammad halts at Al-Ḥudaybiyyah,
on the edge of the sacred territory of Mecca. A  treaty  is concluded
between the two parties: hostilities are to cease, and the Muslims are
given permission to make the pilgrimage to Mecca in 629. Two months
later Muhammad leads his forces against the Jewish oasis of  Khaybar,
north of Medina. After a siege, it submits, but the Jews are allowed to
remain on condition of sending half of their  date  harvest to Medina. The
following year, Muhammad and his followers perform the pilgrimage as
stipulated by the treaty of Al-Ḥudaybiyyah. Subsequently, however, an
attack by Meccan allies upon allies of Muhammad leads to the latter’s
denunciation of the treaty with the Meccans. In 630 he marches a
substantial army on Mecca. The town submits, and Muhammad declares
an amnesty. After his return to Medina, Muhammad receives deputations
from various Arabian tribes who declare their allegiance to the Muslim
polity. Still in 630, Muhammad embarks on a campaign to the Syrian
border and reaches  Tabūk, where he secures the submission of various
towns. Muhammad personally leads the pilgrimage to Mecca in 632, the
so-called  Farewell Pilgrimage, the precedent for all future Muslim
pilgrimages. He dies in June 632 in Medina. Since no arrangement for his
succession has been made, his death provokes a major dispute over the
future leadership of the community he has founded. Unsurprisingly, the
figure of Muhammad plays a seminal role in Islamic thought and practice.
In certain respects, his post-Qurʾānic standing markedly surpasses the way
in which he is presented in scripture. For example, the Qurʾān emphasizes
that Muhammad, like earlier messengers of God, is a mere mortal (e.g.,
14:11, 17:93), whereas  Sufi   thinkers of a speculative bent, such as  Sahl al-
Tustarī  (died 896), describe him as the incarnation of a preexistent being
of pure light, the “Muhammadan light” (al-nūr al-Muḥammadī). The
Qurʾān also enjoins Muhammad to ask God for forgiveness of his sins
(40:55, 47:19, 48:2), and one passage (80:1–10) bluntly reproaches him for
disregarding a blind man who “came to you eagerly / and in fear [of
God]” and preferring to attend to someone who haughtily “deemed
himself to be self-sufficient.” In contrast to such scriptural statements, in
later centuries there emerged the doctrine that Muhammad and other
prophets were free of sin (although there was disagreement as to
whether they could commit minor and unintentional infractions) and the
belief that Muhammad exemplified “the perfect human being” (al-insān
al-kāmil).