Islamic prophet
Muhammad |
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| Born | Muḥammad ibn `Abd Allāh
c. 570 CE
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| Died | 8 June 632 CE (aged 62 or 63)
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Resting place
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| Other names |
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| Ethnicity | Arab |
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| Years active |
583-609 CE as merchant
609-632 CE as religious leader
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| Employer |
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| Notable work(s) | Sunnah |
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| Predecessor | (as prophet:) Isa ibn Maryam (Jesus) |
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| Successor |
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| Opponent(s) | Polytheists (609–630 CE) |
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| Religion | Islam |
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| Spouse(s) |
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| Children |
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| Parents |
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| Relatives | Ahl al-Bayt ("Family of the House") |
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Born in about 570 CE in the
Arabian city of
Mecca,
[8][9] Muhammad was orphaned at an early age; he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle
Abu Talib. After his childhood Muhammad primarily worked as a merchant.
[10] Occasionally he would retreat to a cave in the mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer; later, at age 40, he reported at this spot,
[8][11] that he was visited by
Gabriel and received
his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started
preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "
God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit.
islām) is the only way (
dīn)
[n 3]acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as
other Islamic prophets.
[12][13][14]
Muhammad gained few
followers early on, and met
hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, Muhammad
sent some of his followers to
Abyssinia before he and his followers in Mecca migrated to
Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the
Hijra, marks the beginning of the
Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the
Constitution of Medina. After eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and
marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad took over the city with little bloodshed. He destroyed the pagan idols in the city
[15] and sent his followers out to destroy all remaining pagan temples in Eastern Arabia.
[16][17] In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from
The Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the
Arabian Peninsula had
converted to Islam, and he had united Arabia into a single
Muslim religious polity.
[18][19]
The revelations (each known as
Ayah, lit. "Sign [of God]") which Muhammad reported receiving until his death form the verses of the
Quran, regarded by Muslims as the "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings and practices (
sunnah), found in the
Hadith and
sira literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as
sources of
Islamic law. Muslims discuss Muhammad and other prophets of Islam with reverence, adding the phrase
peace be upon him whenever their names are mentioned.
[20]While conceptions of Muhammad in
medieval Christendom and other
premodern contexts were largely negative, appraisals in
modern historyhave been far more favorable.
[14][21]
