Abu l-Qasim Muhammad ibn
‘Abd Allāh al-Hashimi al-Qurashi
The principal and most credible source of information for the life of Muhammad is the Qur'an Next in importance are the historical works by writers of third and fourth century of the Muslim era Sources on Muhammad’s life concur that he was born ca. 570 CE in the city of Mecca in Arabia He was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his uncle, later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26. At some point, dis*******ed with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic tradition, it was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he 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)[16] is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and other prophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was largely met with hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly and so were his followers. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina. in the year 622. This historic event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.
The revelations (or Ayats, lit. Signs of God), which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur'an. regarded by Muslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims.
Figurative depictions of Muhammad were a significant part of late medieval Islamic art; however, such depictions were generally limited to secular contexts and to the elite classes who could afford fine art. The taboo on depictions of Muhammad was less stringent during the Ottoman Empire, although his face was often left blank.
Sources for Muhammad's life
Main articles: Historiography of early Islam and Historicity of Muhammad From a scholarly point of view, the most credible source providing information on events in Muhammad's life is the Qur'an. The Qur'an has some, though very few, casual allusions to Muhammad's life. The Qur'an, however, responds "constantly and often candidly to Muhammad's changing historical circumstances and contains a wealth of hidden data that are relevant to the task of the quest for the historical Muhammad. All or most of the Qur'an was apparently written down by Muhammad's followers while he was alive, but it was, then as now, primarily an orally related document, and the written compilation of the whole Qur'an in its definite form was completed early after the death of Muhammad. The Qur'an in its actual form is generally considered by academic scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad because the search for variants in Western academia has not yielded any differences of great significance.]
Next in importance are the historical works by writers of third and fourth century of the Muslim era. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him (the sira and hadith literature), which provide further information on Muhammad's life. The earliest surviving written sira (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah (Life of God's Messenger). Although the original work is lost, portions of it survive in the recensions of Ibn Hisham (Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, Life of the prophet) and Al-Tabari. According to Ibn Hisham, Ibn Ishaq wrote his biography some 120 to 130 years after Muhammad's death.[29] Another early source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by al-Waqidi (death 207 of Muslim era), Maghazi al-Waqidi, and the work of his secretary Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era) Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd The biographical dictionaries of Ali ibn al-Athir and Ibn Hajar provide much detail about the contemporaries of Muhammad but add little to our information about Muhammad himself. Lastly, the hadith collections, accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Muhammad, date from several generations after the death of Muhammad. Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as accurate historical sources
Many, but not all, scholars accept the accuracy of these biographies, though their accuracy is unascertainable. Studies by J. Schacht and Goldziher has led scholars to distinguish between the traditions touching legal matters and the purely historical ones. According to William Montgomery Watt, in the legal sphere it would seem that sheer invention could have very well happened. In the historical sphere however, aside from exceptional cases, the material may have been subject to "tendential shaping" rather than being made out of whole cloth.
There are a few non-Muslim sources which, according to S. A. Nigosian, confirm the existence of Muhammad. The earliest of these sources date to shortly after 634, and the most interesting of them date to some decades later. These sources are valuable for corroboration of the Qur'anic and Muslim tradition statements]
The Arabian Context
Economic basis
The Arabian Peninsula was dominated by volcanic steppes and desert wastes. It was therefore not suitable for agriculture except where the feasibility of irrigation existed (such as in oasis and at certain spots high in the mountains).[37][38] Thus the Arabian landscape was dotted with towns and cities, two prominent of which were Mecca and Medina.[39] People of Arabia were either nomadic or sedentary. The latter were the descendants of nomads and had preserved many of the desert-born habits of their ancestors. The nomadic life was based on stock-breeding traveling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks. Their survival was also to some extent dependent on raiding on caravans or on oases; thus no crime in the eyes of Bedouin.[38] Agriculture and trade were two important occupations of the sedentary Arabs. Medina (then known as Yathrib) was a large flourishing agricultural settlement.[38] Mecca, another important city in Arabia, on the other hand was an important financial center in which operations of considerable complexity were carried out and had created a financial net involving Meccans and many of the surrounding tribes. The Meccan leaders were "skillful in manipulation of credits, shrewed in their experience and interested in lucrative investments from Aden to Gaza or Damascus". Islam was thus born in an atmosphere of high finance.
Social factors
Communal life is essential for survival in desert conditions. Men need help of each other against the forces of nature and against other human rivals. The tribal grouping was thus enhanced by the need to act as a unit This unity was based on the bond of kinship by blood. The accumulation of capital and the commercial life of Mecca had however fostered individualism and had created a growing awareness of the existence of individual in separateness from the tribe. This tendency had in turn produced a greater interest in pursuing the problem of cessation of man's individual existence at death: Was death the end? According to William Montgomery Watt,
In the rise of Mecca to wealth and power we have a movement from nomadic economy to a mercantile and capitalist economy. By the time of Muhammad, however, there had been no readjustment of the social, moral, intellectual, and religious attitudes of the community. These were still the attitudes appropriate to a nomadic community, for the most part. The tension felt by Muhammad and some of his contemporaries was doubtless due ultimately to this contrast between men's conscious attitude and the economic basis of their life.
Muslim scholar Muhammad Mohar Ali however argues, among other things, that the above view is a simplistic one since commercialism and nomadism existed side by side each other long before Muhammad, so did exist certain forms of individualism; and that the early Muslims were not inspired by a commercial and self-interest form of individualism
Miracles in the Muslim biographies
Main article: Islamic view of miracles
According to historian Denis Gril, the Qur'an does not overtly describe Muhammad performing miracles, and the supreme miracle of Muhammad is finally identified with the Qur’an itself.[181] However, Muslim tradition credits Muhammad with several supernatural events.[182] For example, many Muslim commentators and some western scholars have interpreted the Surah 54:1-2 to refer to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they had begun to persecute his followers.[181][183] This tradition has inspired many Muslim poets, especially in India.[12]
Muhammad
Main article: Medieval Christian view of Muhammad
While Muslim writers have tended to speak highly of Muhammad, Western tradition has at times been critical of him.[191][192]
Popular image of Muhammad in medieval times
In the 12th century, chanson de geste that mentioned Muhammad presented him as an idol to whom Muslims prayed for aid in battle.[12][193] Some medieval Christians said he had died in 666, alluding to the number of the beast, instead of 632;[194] others changed his name from Muhammad to Mahound, the "devil incarnate".[195] Bernard Lewis writes "The development of the concept of Mahound started with considering Muhammad as a kind of demon or false god worshipped with Apollyon and Termagant in an unholy trinity."[196] To discredit Islam, Muhammad was represented as an idol or one of the heathen gods during the first and second Crusade.[12]
Later medieval representations
From the middle of the 13th century, mentions of Muhammad in vernacular chivalric romance literature begin to appear. A poem represents Muhammad as "someone in bondage. Through his cleverly contrived marriage to the widow of his former master, he not only attains his freedom and wealth but also knows how to cover up his epileptic attacks as phenomena accompanying visitations of angels and to pose as a new messenger of God's will through deceitful machinations."[12] From this period is Scala Mahomete, a translation of an Arabic text, largely without Christian evaluations.[12] In a polemical tone, Livre dou Tresor represents Muhammad as a former monk and cardinal.[12] Dante's Divine Comedy (Canto XXVIII), puts Muhammad, together with Ali, in Hell "among the sowers of discord and the schismatics, being lacerated by devils again and again."[12]
Early modern times
After the reformation, Muhammad was no longer viewed as a god or idol, but as a cunning, ambitious, and self-seeking impostor.[196][12]
Guillaume Postel was among the first to present a more positive view of Muhammad.[12] Boulainvilliers described Muhammad as a gifted political leader and a just lawmaker.[12] Gottfried Leibniz praised Muhammad because "he did not deviate from the natural religion".[12]
Modern times
Friedrich Bodenstedt (1851) described Muhammad as "an ominous destroyer and a prophet of murder."[12]
According to Watt and Richard Bell, recent writers have generally dismissed the idea that Muhammad deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad “was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith”.[197] Watt says that sincerity does not directly imply correctness: In contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken for divine revelation his own unconscious.[198] Although Muhammad's image in the west is much less unfavorable than in the past, prejudicial folk beliefs remain.[199]
Watt and Lewis argue that viewing Muhammad as a self-seeking imposter makes it impossible to understand the development of Islam.[200][201] Welch holds that Muhammad was able to be so influential and successful because of his firm belief in his vocation.[12] Muhammad’s readiness to endure hardship for his cause when there seemed to be no rational basis for hope shows his sincerity.[202]
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers Muhammad, along with Confucius, the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, to have received a portion of God´s light and that moral truths were given to them to enlighten nations and bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.[203]
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