Rise of Islam
Prophet Muhammad, the founder of
Islam, was born in A.D. 570 at Mecca in Arabia. His father, Abdullah, belonged
to the Quresh tribe among the Arabs. The prophet had not yet seen the light of
the day when his father breathed his last. Amina, his mother, also did not
survive long and expired when he was six years of age. Therefore, the early
life of Prophet Muhammad was full of difficulties. He was brought up by his
uncle Abu Talib. He was not a very rich fellow.
Prophet Muhammad was very thoughtful
from the very childhood. He came in contact with the Jews and Christians in
connection with the business of his uncle. After this the feeling of oneness of
God developed in his heart. He could come out from his financial difficulties
after marrying Khadija, a rich widow. She was quite elder to him but her riches
gave him an opportunity to think about God without worrying for bread and
butter.
Gradually his religious and spiritual
thinking turned him into a great devotee of God. After his marriage and at the
age of abut forty, he underwent a spiritual transformation which invoked in him
the feeling that he was a prophet and a messenger (Nabi and Rasul) of God on
earth and he should try to do some goods for the suffering humanity.
By this time, the Arabs were idol
worshippers like the Hindus. There were more than three hundred idols of
different gods in Mecca. Among them the idols of Lat, Manat and Uzza, the
supposed daughters of Allah, were most popular. Kaba, where these idols
existed, was a famous religious place of the Arabs. It was founded by Ismail
and Ibrahim and it was standing as such since then. Prophet Muhammad having
established a new religion, called Islam, opposed the worship of idols so far
performed by the Arabs.
The people of Quresh tribe opposed
Islam vehemently for it was against idol worship which was the source of income
of Quresh tribe and the prophet stressed that God needs no intermediaries
between him and man. Therefore, only Allah should be worshipped instead of his
mediators. In the beginning, he preached the new faith secretly but after three
years when he started preaching Islam openly, some people of Mecca opposed him
and he decided to leave Mecca.
The people of Yasrib, later known as
Madina, invited him and he went there in A.D. 622. This date is regarded as
very significant in the history of Islam as the Hijri calendar begins from this
very year. The people of Madina not only welcomed Prophet Muhammad but also his
new faith and ideas and they became the followers of Islam. During his stay at
Madina, Muhammad, the prophet, compiled the Quran, the religious text of Islam.
The people of Mecca were finally
defeated in the battle of Badir in A.D. 630 and soon Islam spread in the entire
Arab countries. Prophet Muhammad breathed his last in A.D. 632 but it did not
put a stop to his mission. The work of the expansion of Islam was carried on by
the Omayyad and Abbasid Khalifas even after his death. V.A. Smith has written
in this context, “The rapidity of the spread of Islam, the religion of
Muhammad, and the dramatic suddenness with which the adherents of his creed
rose to a position of dominant sovereignty constitute one of the marvels or it
might be said, miracles of history.”
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