The Prophet of Islam was born in Makkah in Arabia in 570 A.D. and died in 632 in Madinah, another city in Arabia, at the age of 62 years.

The Prophet Muhammad’s father had died before his birth; therefore, his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib, brought him up. After the latter’s death, the duty devolved upon his paternal uncle, Abu Talib.

Muhammad (May God’s blessings be upon him) was twelve years old when he accompanied his uncle and patron, Abu Talib, on a caravan journey to Syria, in the course of which their trading party camped at Busra. There, he met a Christian monk known as Bahira, who was well versed in Christian scriptures. This monk happened to come out of his cell and saw Muhammad. He recognized in Muhammad the signs of prophethood as recounted in Christian books. Therefore he asked Muhammad some questions, which he answered quite satisfactorily. Afterwards Bahira went up to his uncle, Abu Talib, and said, ‘How is this youth related to you?’ ‘He replied, ‘He is my son.’ Bahira said to him, ‘He is not your son; this young man’s father cannot be alive.’ Abu Talib said, ‘Indeed, he is my brother’s son and my brother died even before his birth.’

‘True,’ he said. ‘Return to your land with your nephew and protect him against enemies. For, by God, if they see him and know about him what I know about him, they will do him harm. A great future lies in store for him. So hurry to your land with the young boy.

Abu Talib felt a little alarmed and took him back to Makkah soon after he had finished his trading in Syria (Seerah Ibn Hisham, part I). Much later, at the age of forty, when the Prophet was in a cave called Hira, situated near Makkah, he was visited by the angel Gabriel, who came to him with the first revelations from God. (Quran, chapter No. 96.)

“Read in the name of your Lord Who created, created man from clots of congealed blood. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, Who taught by the pen, taught man what he did not know.”

The Prophet’s biographers write that after this extraordinary experience with the Angel Gabriel and the First Revelation of the initial verses, he rushed back home from Hirah. Trembling with fear, he said to his wife Khadijah, ‘Cover me with a cloak, cover me with a cloak.’ After a while, when he had recovered a little from his state of anxiety, he related what he had experienced to his wife and said, ‘I feel there is danger to my life.’ She responded, ‘No, never, God will never bring you to grief.’ Then she took him to Waraqa ibn Naufal, who was her cousin. He had embraced Christianity and had a good knowledge of the religion.

Hearing from him what had happened, Waraqa said without any hesitation, ‘The One who came to you is the same Namus (the specially appointed Divine Messenger) who came to Moses. I wish I were a young man and could live till the time when your people will expel you.’ The Prophet said, ‘Will my people expel me?’ He replied: ‘Yes, no one has been before, who brought the same thing that you have brought, without the people turning hostile to him.’

The third encounter between Christianity and Islam took place a few years after the Prophethood of Muhammad, may God’s blessings be upon him. During this period, Makkah was dominated by the idolaters. They vigorously opposed the call of monotheism by the Prophet of Islam, and began to persecute the Prophet and his Companions. At this juncture, the Prophet advised his followers to leave temporarily for Abyssinia (in Africa), a Christian kingdom—where “a king rules with justice, a land of truthfulness—until God leads us to a way out of our difficulty.” Therefore, a number of Muslims emigrated to Abyssinia on the Prophet’s advice. Here they lived under the protection of the Negus. About eighty men, not counting women and children, had migrated. They lived in Abyssinia until after the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah.

The Makkans were so upset at this exodus of the Muslims to Abyssinia that they immediately sent to the Negus a delegation carrying precious gifts in order to bring about the emigrants’ extradition and return to Makkah.

The two ambassadors, ‘Amr ibn al-A’as and Abdullah ibn abi Rabiah, presented to the Negus and his patriarchs their precious gifts and asked for permission to have the Muslim emigrants extradited and sent back to Makkah. They said to the Negus, ‘O king! A number of ignoble plebeians from Makkah have taken refuge in your country. They have apostasized from the religion of their people and have not joined your religion. They follow a new religion, known neither to us nor to you, which they created.’ The Negus refused to yield to their appeal until he had a chance to hear the refugees plead their own case. He sent for them and asked, ‘What is this new religion which caused you to separate yourselves from your people, a religion which is different from mine as well as from any other of the known religions?’

Then Jafar ibn Abi Talib rose and gave a brief description of the teachings of Islam. The Negus asked him to recite some of the revelations which their Prophet claimed to have come to him from God. Jafar then recited to the Negus the first part of the chapter entitled Mary.

When the patriarchs heard this statement, confirming the Message of the Evangel, they were pleasantly surprised and said: ‘These words must have sprung from the same fountainhead from which the words of our master Jesus Christ have sprung.’ The Negus then said, ‘What you have just recited and that which was revealed to Moses must have both issued from the same source. Go forth into my kingdom; I shall not extradite you at all.’

The Muslims found under his protection the peace and security they sought, and lived in his country until they found cause to return, while Muhammad (may peace be upon him) was still in Makkah. (The Encyclopedia of Seerah, Vol VIII, p 702-3.)

In the classical literature of Islam, Christ and Christianity are mentioned in many forms. Christ has been called ‘Spirit of God’ (Quran, 4:171)

Of Mary, the Quran has this to say:

‘We breathed into her of Our spirit, and made her and her son a sign to all men.’ (21:91)

Regarding the Christians in general, the Quran, referring to Christ and his followers, says:

‘We gave Christ the Gospel and put compassion and mercy in the hearts of his followers.’ (57:27)

In another chapter, the Quran states:

‘The nearest in affection to the Muslims are those who say: ‘We are Christians.’ That is because there are priests and monks among them, and because they are free from pride.’ (Quran, 5:82)

I would like to conclude with a hadith recorded in Sahih Muslim, which is regarded as the most authentic collection of traditions after Sahih Bukhari.

Mustaurid, a companion of the Prophet, reported that the Prophet (Blessings of God be upon him) said: “The Day of Judgement will not come until the Christians outnumber all other people.” When Mustaurid related this hadith to Amr ibn al-A’as, a senior companion of the Prophet, the latter endorsed this narration with these words:

You are indeed right. The Christians have four characteristics. They are the most forbearing in times of adversity; they do not allow their spirits to be broken but promptly recover from every setback; they are the first to charge again after retreat; and they are the best of all in caring for the deprived, the downtrodden and the weak. Amr then added that there is a fifth feature, which is the best of all. It is that they restrain the kings from perpetrating injustice and oppression.

By Farida Khanam