Muhammad

Muhammad (circa 570-632 C.E.), (also spelled "Mohammed" or "Mahomet") is the highest prophet of Islam and unifier of the tribes of Arabia. The first of the Five Pillars of Islam, the Shahadah, contains the creed: "There is no God but God and Muhammad is his messenger."

Muslims believe that Muhammad is the principal prophet sent by God (Allah) to humankind, the "seal of prophets", an illiterate man who nonetheless delivered the miracle of the Qur'an. In contrast to Christian views toward Christ, Muslims do not believe that Muhammad was divine and do not worship Muhammad. By asserting that Muhammad was a messenger of God rather than part of God, Islam is able to avoid many of the theological complexities associated with the trinity.

Muhammad was a native of Mecca, one of the few cities in Arabia, and a member of the Quraysh, the tribe that dominanted Mecca at that time. He was orphaned at an early age and raised by his uncle Abu Talib. He married the widow Khadija, whose caravan business he managed.

It is told that the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Muhammad in a cave outside Mecca and commanded him to "Read!" three times. Each time Muhammad said that he cannot read (see Qur'an 96:1-5). This event happened around 14 BH (610 AD), and marks the period until his death in 11 AH (632 AD) in which he received various revelations from Allah. Muhammad taught these to his followers and many committed them to memory; some did so exhaustively. These revelations started to be written down sometime after Muhammad's death: most agree that this was in the 650s between 650 and 656 AD.

Muhammad and his followers withdrew from Mecca to Medina in 622 AD after severe persecution. This hegira - or withdrawal - is used as the initial date of the Islamic calendar, Annus Hegirae (abbreviated AH), which starts in the year of the Hegira, 1 AH. Years before the Hegira are denoted BH: there is no year zero.

Muhammad returned triumphantly to Mecca in 8 AH (629 AD) and proceeded to unite the Arabian tribes as Muslims. Within 20 years of Muhammad's death, these Muslims would go on to conquer large parts of the middle East and northern Africa.

Beside the Qur'an, much information about Muhammad's life is transmitted in the hadith, or the "traditions of the Prophet". Muhammad's daily habits, responses to questions, and reactions to events were repeated by his followers and eventually recorded - thus forming the sira (see that article for more). Together, the hadith and sira are the sunnah, the example to all Muslims.

Muhammad was of course the first figure of early Muslim philosophy, which began with this recording and imitation of him, and expanded it into a vast and thriving literature. Later medieval Islamic philosophy fused these traditions into Christian philosophy and the earlier Greek philosophy - and in modern Islamic philosophy it is still interacting today, e.g. in the highly political Islamist movement. This has altered the geopolitics of the Islamic World, over a billion people whose faith was founded by Muhammad. A nonbeliever in the divinity of the Qur'an has no choice but to marvel at the incredible political astuteness of this single man, who started from no power clique whatsoever, and founded a movement that still dominates world politics over fourteen hundred years later. A believer, of course, merely smiles at this, and argues that this success is clear evidence of the revelation itself.

Sources

W.M. Watt, Muhammad at Mecca, Oxford 1953
W.M. Watt, Muhammad at Medina, Oxford 1956
Abd al-Malik ibn Hisham, As-sira an-nabawiya, Cairo 1955, engl. translation: A. Guillaume, The life of Muhammad, London 1957