This is the month of Rabi-ul-awwal according to the Hijri or the Lunar Calendar. It is believed to be the month in which Prophet Muhammad was born but, this is not a historically established fact. Because at that time, Arabs neither followed the Hijri calendar nor the Christian calendar. Their calculation was based on the aam­-­­ul-fil or the Year of the Elephant; it was the year when a king had come to Mecca with many Elephants to demolish the Kaaba. The Prophet was born in the fiftieth year of aam-ul-fil, that is, fifty years after the said event took place.

Recently I received a telephone call from a Muslim youth. He and his friends were trying to find an answer to the question of who was more beautiful: Prophet Muhammad or Prophet Yusuf and their discussion had got into a stalemate. I do not blame them for this. Such questions are the result of years of conditioning that Muslims have got accustomed to. As a result, not only the ordinary masses but even the Ulema engage themselves in such discussions. They project Prophet Muhammad as a superior prophet and do not realise that giving into such matters is a bidat or innovation as according to the following Hadith:

Don’t consider any prophet superior over any other. (Al-Bukhari)

Such a practice was not there at the time of Prophet and his Companions. It was innovated in later times. Here I am reminded of an instance when I was invited to speak on seerat or the life of the Prophet of Islam at a programme. In my speech, I spoke of Prophet’s ways, quoted Hadith and in a simple way explained his life. After my speech, a senior person came up to me and said that I had not spoken anything at all on the life of the Prophet. Responding to his statement, I referred to the Hadith and other details that I had quoted during my speech. From the reply that followed, I realised that for such people, the seerat was actually an account of the exceptional feats that Prophet had performed - miracles (mojzaat) and the various extraordinary happenings (kamalaat). What they do not realise however is that this kind of thinking is baseless. In fact at the time of printing press, story tellers used to be very rampant and several stories were construed during those days. But Muslims satiate themselves with only these stories of miracles.

Today I shall throw light on some aspects of the life of Prophet Muhammad.

Prophet’s early years

Prophet Muhammad was born in Mecca in the fiftieth year of aam-ul-fil or 610 AD, according to the Christian Calendar. He was born in Abu Hashim, a respectable tribe of Mecca.

While he was still in his mother’s womb, Prophet’s father Abdullah passed away. His mother Amena died when he was three.  Hence Prophet Muhammad became an orphan at a very early age. Then his grandfather, Abdul Muttalib took him under his shield. Abdul Muttalib was a man with a strong personality. The following incident is illustrative of his courage. When Abraha had come to attack Mecca, the people of his army took away some of the camels, which were left to wander in the city. These camels belonged to Abdul Muttalib. So, he went to Abraha to bring them back. Abraha was surprised to know the reason of Muttalib’s visit and asked him why he was not at all worried about the impending attack on Kabah but about his camels. To this, Abdul Muttalib replied: “I am the owner of the camels so I have to take care of it and as far as the Kabah is concerned, God is its owner and He would save it.” In reality Abraha failed in his attempt to attack the Kabah.

The name Muhammad was given to the Prophet of Islam by his grandfather; he was then a member of Dar-un-nadwa, a gathering of some of the people of Mecca. The Prophet at a very young age accompanied his grandfather in these gatherings. The senior people objected to this on account of the Prophet being too young. But Abdul Muttalib told the people that his grandson was a boy with exceptional qualities. Hence Prophet gained experience in his childhood by meeting people in such gatherings.

At that time in Mecca, children were sent to live with the Bedouins of Arab. These tribal nomadic people had retained the Arabic language in its original, pure form unlike the form which it takes in the town where the Prophet lived. Hence the Prophet was sent to live within the natural environment of the Bedouins where a woman called Halima became young Prophet’s governess. There the Prophet lived in nature, in the desert where civilisation and culture had not yet developed. When Prophet returned from the desert, his mother and grandfather died. The Prophet was then taken care of by his Uncle, Abu Talib. As a business requirement, Abu Talib often travelled to Syria on camels. The Prophet used to go along with his Uncle to Syria. On one such visit, they met a Christian hermit. The hermit on seeing the Prophet asked his Uncle not to take him anywhere; he said that there was a prophecy in the Bible of a messenger to come from God and that Muhammad appeared to him to be that same person, coming of which, the Bible alludes.

Khadeeja, a very rich lady in Mecca had a flourishing business that required her to send material to Syria. In exchange of their services to her business, Khadeeja used to give one camel to those who traded on her behalf. Prophet Muhammad also worked for her. And as she gained much more profit that time, she gave two camels instead of one to the Prophet. After some time, Prophet got married to Khadeeja.

Prophethood

The Prophet, before receiving Prophethood, started living in seclusion. He often went to seclusion in a cave in Mount Hira. Since by nature, the Prophet was a thinker, in the cave he used to sit and think about life, purpose of creation etc. (Ibn Hisham)

It was on one such occasion that Angel Gabriel, came to Prophet Muhammad and revealed the first verse of Quran:

“Read!”

This experience shook the Prophet greatly. He immediately returned home and narrated the events to Khadeeja. She then took him to a Christian called Waraqa-bin-Naufil, who was a very learned man. Upon hearing the experience of Prophet Muhammad, he said that the angel which came to him was the same which had come to Prophet Moses and this meant that God had appointed him as His messenger. (Citing this incident, traditions often refer Waraqa-bin-Naufil as being the first believer.)

Beginning of dawah work

Prophethood marked the beginning of dawah work for Prophet Muhammad. In his first public address, the Prophet stood on a rock which was then used as a platform to warn people of the danger from other tribes approaching to attack Mecca. The Prophet used this platform and said: “O! People, one day you will die the way you sleep and then you’ll be raised the way you wake up every morning”. One of the persons in the audience was Abu Lahab, Prophet’s Uncle. After listening to what the Prophet, he said: “May you be ruined, is this what you have called us for?”

On one occasion, Prophet Muhammad invited the people of his family for a simple lunch (of camel milk) so that he could disseminate the message to them. After the lunch he told them about him being appointed as a messenger” of G'od and asked his family to give him their support. No senior person in the gathering got up to show his support to Prophet Muhammad. From amidst them however, a 12 year old boy, Ali, the son of Abu Talib, stood up and agreed to extend his support. The Prophet said: ‘O! Ali, “You?”’

Shirk in Mecca

Shirk or polytheism was much prevalent in Mecca at the time when Prophet initiated his dawah mission. The word “Allah” was used even before the people of Mecca embraced Islam; the difference was that they also associated partners with Allah.

Kabah was held to be the most sacred place in Mecca; it had 360 idols and had therefore become a pilgrimage spot. Tribes from all over Arabia came to Mecca to worship their respective idols placed in the Kabah. Prophet used to go to the Kabah and address the gathering assembled there for worshipping the idols. By ignoring the idols, Prophet kept himself focussed upon disseminating the message of Islam.

An extremely pertinent observation at this point is that the verses revealed in the Quran during this period commanded the Prophet to “purify” himself.

“Purify your garments” (74:4)

The verses revealed did not command the Prophet to purify the Kabah, despite the presence of 360 idols in it. Hence, the above verse gives us an example of a starting point for doing dawah work - in this case it was the recitation of the Quran. The Prophet therefore, ignored the idols in the Kabah and addressed the gathering by reciting the verses of the Quran.

Steady Progress

Slowly and steadily people started embracing Islam. When the leaders of Mecca became aware of this trend, they turned hostile to the Prophet. According to the culture that existed in Mecca at that time, members of a tribe could not attack the members of the other tribes. Hence the Prophet was not beaten up but he was made to face opposition by the hands of the leaders of Mecca through other means.

For example, poetry in those days was akin to the present day journalism. A man once came to the Prophet and ridiculed (through poetry) him by calling him as Muzzammum[1], which meant, ‘the condemned one’ instead of Muhammad which meant ‘worthy of praise.’ The Prophet only smiled and replied to one of his concerned companions that his name was Muhammad and not Muzzammum, so the curse of the man would go to the person whose name was Muzzammum and not to him as his name was Muhammad. In this way, Prophet avoided hostility.

When the number of people accepting Islam grew rapidly, the leaders became worried and made every possible effort to prevent people of Mecca from interacting with Prophet.

For example, a person was told that the Prophet was a magician and therefore he should avoid him. When this person went to the Kabah, he stuffed cotton in his ears in order that he could avoid listening to what the Prophet was saying. After doing so for a while, he thought that he should remove the cotton and himself go and listen to what the man claiming to be the Prophet had to say. After all, he thought he was mature enough to judge between good and bad influences. When he went, the Prophet recited the Surah Fateha from the Quran. Upon listening to this verse, that man was so moved that he said:

“You have put me in an ocean of meaning.”

This shows that the people at that time were completely on their nature and hence when truth comes before them, they immediately accept it rather than ignoring it.

Why did Meccans turn hostile to Prophet Muhammad?

A question which is often asked is that if the people of Mecca at that time of Prophet Muhammad were completely on their true nature (as in the above example), then why did the Meccans turn hostile to the Prophet and even plotted to kill him?

The reason can be understood by comparing Mecca and Medina. Meccan economy or business was based on tourism; many tourist tribes from all over Arabia came to Mecca to worship their respective idols in the Kabah. This was because Shirk or polytheism was prevalent in Mecca at that time. When the Prophet began his mission of monotheism and several people started embracing Islam, the authorities or the leaders of Mecca became very worried as their financial or economic interests were being severed. To accept the message of monotheism of the Prophet, they had to compromise upon the money they were earning due to shirk culture in Mecca. Because, their interest was being killed in accepting Islam, they turned hostile to the Prophet.

However, in Medina, the economy was based on agriculture and horticulture, therefore shirk or polytheism there was of a superficial nature. When the message of Islam reached, they readily accepted it and abandoned shirk. This explains that Meccans were initially hostile because their interests was linked while people of Medina accepted the message easily as their interest was not being killed and also because they were on their nature.

Here I am reminded of an instance of Khalid bin Waleed. As he was leaving for Mecca to Medina, he met a person on the way who asked him why he was leaving. Khalid replied,

     “All the men of taste have migrated to Mecca.”(Al-Baihaqi)

This incident shows that only very selected people came to the Prophet and not crowds or hoards of people as are addressed by leaders today.

Migration

When many people started accepting Islam, the leaders of Mecca decided to kill the Prophet. Killing or murder was not a part of the Arab culture. However, since all the tribes were getting affected because many people were accepting Islam, all the tribesmen together decided to kill the Prophet.

As the tribesmen plotted against Prophet Muhammad, Angel Gabriel came and warned the Prophet. He then decided to migrate. The Prophet quietly moved out of his house in the night. Hazarat Omar also migrated later; before doing so, traditions have it that he announced in the Kabah: “...whoever wants to make their children orphans or their wives widowers then they should come and stop me.”However, this was the personal style of Hazarat Omar; this is not the model for us.

The correct model for us is that of the Prophet who quietly migrated in the night without announcing and without anybody getting to know.

While going to Medina, the Prophet did not leave for Medina straight away; rather he started from the opposite route. Despite this strategy, the people following the Prophet to kill him reached where the Prophet was hiding. The Prophet was with Abu Bakr, they were hiding in a cave. When the hostile people reached the mouth of the cave, Abu Bakr said worriedly: “O Prophet they have reached here also.” However, a verse in the Quran was revealed with reference to this incident, it says “Don’t be scared, God is with us.”

A Hadith with reference to the same incident says: “O Abu Bakr what do you have to say to those who have their third companion as God?”

This Hadith has lesson for all humanity. It means that God is with His believers. Muslims generally take this incident as Prophet’s fazilat or superiority. However, it is applicable to all human beings.