Muhammad was a prophet and a statesman
Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was born in the year 570 in the city of Mecca, a mountain town in the high desert plateau of western Arabia. His name originates from the Arabic verb hamada meaning "to praise, to glorify". He was the only son of Abd Allah bin Al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. Abd Allah died a few months before Muhammad's birth and Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was raised by his mother Amina who in keeping with Meccan tradition entrusted her son at an early age to a wet nurse named Halima from the nomadic tribe of the Sa'd ibn Bakr. (Azzam and Gouverneur 2003; Hayes 2004).When Muhammad(Peace Be Upon Him) was 6 years old his mother took him to an oasis town named Yathrib to meet with his relatives and visit his father’s grave. However on the way back Amina took ill and died. He was then adopted by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, who loved him dearly. Upon his grandfather's death in 578, Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was 8 years old and was passed into the care of a paternal uncle, Abu Talib. As a young boy Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) worked as a shepherd and occasionally traveled with Abu Talib, who was a merchant, accompanying caravans to trade centers. Later on in his early 20’s he started working for a wealthy merchant named Khadija bint Khawalayd. Impressed by Muhammad's honesty and character, Khadija eventually proposed marriage. They were happily married and for a few years Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) lived a calm and quiet life as a merchant in Mecca. (Azzam and Gouverneur 2003)
Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) believed that there was only one Allah, Creator of the sun, the moon, the earth, the sky, and of all living things, and that all people should worship only Him. He w...
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... them. (Hayes 2004).
In 632, Muhammad died. The Muslim community was in shock at the loss of their leader. Abu
Bakr reminded them that Muhammad was a mortal, and that only Allah should be worshipped.
He was buried in the mosque in Medina. Within a hundred years Muhammad's teaching and way of life had spread from the remote corners of Arabia as far as Spain in the West and Afghanistan in the East.
Firstly, there is Muhammad’s wisdom as a statesman. In the course of Quran much has been said about Muhammad’s political strategy and his social reforms. His wisdom in these matters is shown by the rapid development of his small state to a world-empire after his death. Secondly he was a Prophet a man who was able to provide millions of men with a better religion than they had before they testified that there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah.
In the late 1980’s Muhammad changed his life around. He and his wife had separated, he converted to Islam, and he joined the U.S. Army (Biography, par 4). He later changed his name to Muhammad (Death, par 2). He was stationed in Washington State. There he married Mildred Green. They ended up having three children. Being in the army was good for Muhammad. He served in Germany and the Middle East and was skilled in marksman (Biography, par 4, 5).
Elijah Muhammad, son of a sharecropper, was born into poverty in Sandersville, Georgia, on October 7, 1897 (biography.com). After moving to Detroit in 1923, he met W. D. Fard, founder of the black separatist movement Nation of Islam (biography.com). Muhammad became Fard’s successor from 1934-75 and was known for his controversial preaching (biography.com). Muhammad faced many challenges during his life span. He declared that Fard had been an incarnation of Allah and that he himself was now Allah’s messenger (biography.com). For forty-one year’s Muhammad spread the word of the Nation of Islam, slowly but steadily attracting new members (biography.com). Muhammad built the religion from a small fringe group into a large and complex organization that attracted controversy along with its new prominence (biography.com).
There are two declarations of faith in Islam: That there is only one God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. In Memories of Muhammad, Omid Safi explores the ways in which Muhammad – both the historical and spiritual Muhammad – is remembered, commemorated, and contested by Muslims throughout the centuries. Safi focuses on the movements and moments in Muhammad’s life and after his death that for many Muslims best exemplify the teachings of Islam. He succeeds in opening up the dialogue to correct the negative portrayals of Muhammad and the religion of Islam, calling it a “Muhammad problem” in his introduction. Furthermore, he provides a book that is accessible and intelligible to both Muslims and non-Muslims, drawing from historical and spiritual sources, and addresses relevant issues contested between Muslims in relation to other religions, presenting Muhammad as a historical figure and one who is beloved by the Umma.
The book lays the foundation of Islamic basic beliefs and practices. Muslims believe in one God, and feel their religion continues the Judaic and Christian traditions. Arab peoples "trace their origins to the patriarch Abraham, who, according to the Koran was neither Jew nor Christian, but a kind of universal ancestor of monotheists" (5). Thus, Muslims believe in the same God as Jews and Christians.
Secondly, Muhammad is a person who received the Koran’s revelations and founded Islam as a prophet. Muhammad was born in Mecca, and when he became 12, he followed his uncle, and served as a caravan trader. While
Unlike Christians, Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad spread their religion throughout the world. Islam began in the year 610, when the prophet Muhammad started receiving messages from Allah, through the Angel Gabriel. He started spreading the word to others and that is how the Islamic faith began. The Prophet Muhammad was born in 570 AD in Saudi Arabia, Mecca. Both of his parents passed away by the time he was 6 years old and he was raised by his uncle. Muhammad’s first job was a camel driver and later he started managing caravans for many merchants. In doing so, he was employed by a woman named Khadija. They soon got married and it was said that she made his life easier because Allah was through her. When Muhammad was in his 30’s, he would go to Mount Hira to be alone and pray.One day on the mountain while in solitude an angel came to him saying he was chosen to spread the word of Allah. At first, Muhammad said he was not the right one to do this mission however, the angel persisted. He went home to tell his wife and through his wife he found the courage to follow what the angel told him. Khadija was his first follower. In the first three years, he only converted 40 people in Mecca. It was only a small amount of people but it caused a lot of chaos in Mecca. Many of his followers were sentenced to death and Muhammad was next. As persecution was rising, Muhammad found out that he had followers in a city
Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad proved to be exceptionally adept at uniting diverse groups, negotiating a series of alliances and loyalty arrangements that spanned religious, tribal, ethnic, and familial lines (Berggren 2009). Among other things, this ability enabled Muhammad to forge a shared identity and found a nascent Islamic state from a diverse and even heterogeneous community (Rahman 1982; Ernst 2003, pp. 87-93). This diversity proved to be both a source of strength and conflict for Islam, and following the death of Muhammad early Islamic communities engaged in extensive debates not only about the nature of his teachings or how to carry his legacy forward, but also about the terms that should be used to define his authority. Although this debate produced a colorful array of movements within the tapestry of early Islamic civilization, this essay offers a critical examination of two particularly distinct perspectives on the nature of prophetic authority: namely, those articulated
He was born in the town of Mecca, which at the time, followed mostly a polytheistic religion (Haleem x). At the young age of six years old Muhammad’s mom passed. Orphaned at this age and his grandfather took care of him till he died as well, two years later. Finally, at the age of eight years old, his uncle took guardianship of Muhammad. Muhammad, being orphaned, had no one to educate him, so he lived an illiterate but very knowledgeable lifestyle (Gabriel 55). Muhammad was employed as a trader by a wealthy and well-respected widow named Khadija. He married Khadija and did not remarry until after her death (Haleem x). Muhammad died at the age of sixty-two in 632ce (Haleem xiii). He was buried where he died (Gabriel
During this time, Mecca was mostly populated with polytheistic followers. In 610 C.E, Prophet Muhammad, had his first revelations that advance the Islamic culture. His revelations became a way of life for his followers. When the religion started rising in numbers, Muhammad and his followers was exiled from Mecca. When the followers migrated to Medina, Islam began to spread. This religion had much influence in the locations it was practiced in. The Quran is the way of life to its people. The five pillars expressed in the Quran were the religious laws Muslims were expected to follow. They were expected to only accept there is one God and one messenger, Muhammad, pray five times a day, give the poor 2.5 percent of their savings, fast during the month of Ramandan, and pilgrimage to Mecca, where the Holy Ka’ba is located. Besides the religious impact, Muhammad also created a political empire. He united different tribes and customs. Muhammad was very influential that after his death, the religion faced a challenge. They did not have a successor or leader, so many followers left the religion, refused to pay taxes, and wars begun. In the mid- seventh century, the Muslims started wars with the Byzantine and Persian Empires and conquered them. Muslims ruled over many religious groups including Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. As the Muslims became powerful, they created laws that taxed other religious groups to practice their faith. In the “Pact of Umar”, Christians agreed under extreme circumstances in order to practice their faith. They agreed to not fix the damages done to their churches, to not display any religious ornaments, to not spread the faith, and many more. The Muslims conquered and progressed in
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, Jr.; name changed to Muhammad Ali, 1963; born January, 17, 1942, in Louisville, KY; son of Cassius (a piano player) and Odessa Clay (both deceased); first wife, Belinda; second wife, Aaisha; third wife, Veronica Porche; fourth (and current) wife, Yolanda Williams, married in 1986; children: nine (one with Yolanda). Religion: Muslim. Addresses: Home--P.O. Box 187, Berrien Springs, MI 59103.
Muslims believe that the absolute deity is Allah. However, they also believe that there was a string of prophets sent by God to teach his word. The last of these prophets was Muhammad. His life is used as a foundation for Muslims to see how they are supposed to live and to help explain the teachings of the holy book of Islam, which is called Holy Qur’an. These teachings are said to have been revelations that Muhammad received that confirmed the God’s unity and the direct life in the world.
...s I believe that without his role as a statesman, a religious leader, a Warner and a warrior He would not have been recognised as the man or the prophet that He was. “He was a prodigy of extraordinary merits, a paragon of virtue and goodness, a symbol of truth” who shon in all areas of his life and duties. I conclude that Muhammad had many roles in his life and that his role of a Prophet which is what many believe He was sent from God to be was possibly his most influential role as the changes He has made have affected individuals and groups world wide. But we have to remember that God is all knowing and therefore knew that Muhammad would also be a “shrewd military strategist” etc proving that God chose him for more reasons than to merely be a Prophet. In conclusion I believe that Muhammad was more that just a Prophet, He was “an ideal religopolitical leader”.
Lings, Martin. Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources. Revised edition. Bartlow, Cambridge, UK: Islamic Texts Society, 1991.
During Muhammad’s time, he united many areas in Arabia and was able to establish a religious communi...
The word Muhammad is known as the praised one. His mother heard an angelic voice while she was pregnant and he was born covered in light. He was born to Hashim clan of Quraysh tribe in 570 CE. (Fisher 176) Muhammad was visited by two angles at the stage of infancy and they removed sin from his heart by using a pure white snow. He have a birthmark in his back which is surrounded by hair and Jews identified this as the mark of godliness. Muhammad’s father died before he was born. His father was doing a trading journey and after his father’s death his family fell on hard times. Muhammad was sent to a Bedouin tribe to be wet nursed as per the custom and a poor woman took him in so Muhamm...