About prophet muhammad biography book pdf

Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book. Texts Video icon An illustration of two cells of a film strip. Video Audio icon An illustration of an audio speaker. Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses.

Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape "Donate to the archive" User icon An illustration of a person's head and chest. Sign up Log in. Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Metropolitan Museum Cleveland Museum of Art. Internet Arcade Console Living Room. The hadith tell us more about how Muhammad experienced revelation. Often, he saw Gabriel.

Sometimes, revelation was preceded by what sounded like the ringing of a bell. The words seemed as if they were burnt into his heart, and he had no choice but to proclaim them. Even on bitterly cold nights, the experience left him dripping with sweat. Tradition says that before Muhammad died, Gabriel recited the whole of the Qur'an again to ensure that no content was lost and that all the verses were correctly remembered.

He often wrapped himself in his cloak during the experience of receiving revelation. According to tradition, Muhammad was unlettered. He is described as the al-nabiyy-al-ummiy Q; , which is usually understood to mean that he was illiterate. This safeguards the Qur'an's integrity for Muslims as completely divine, containing no human content. Non-Muslims, who often claim that Muhammad wrote the Qur'an, dispute this—but Muslims argue that even if Muhammad was not entirely illiterate , no human could have composed the Qur'an, which is a miracle of language and incomparable as a work in Arabic.

Muslims often dislike calling the Qur'an a 'text,' since this compares it with human creations while it has no human author. Nasr compares the unletteredness of Muhammad with Mary's virginity :. The human vehicle of a Divine Message must be pure and untainted If this word is in the form of flesh, the purity is symbolized by the virginity of the mother Around , Muhammad began to spread his message amongst the people.

Most of those who heard his message ignored it. A few mocked him, calling him a magician, a soothsayer, a poet the Qur'an is rhymed prose but Muhammad always rejected the accusation that he was a poet. Some, however, believed—and joined his small following of companions called the believers, al-mu'minum. Many of these supporters were from the poorest and most oppressed classes, although some were powerful and influential.

As the ranks of Muhammad's followers swelled, he became a threat to the local tribes and the rulers of the city. Their wealth rested on the Ka'bah, a sacred house of idols and the focal point of Meccan religious life. If they threw out their idols, as Muhammad preached, there would be no more pilgrims, no more trade, and no more wealth. Muhammad and his followers were persecuted.

Muhammad's enemies boycotted his supporters' businesses and sometimes attacked them in the streets. Poets denounced him. His own prestigious pedigree protected him from physical harm. Concerned for the safety of his small following, Muhammad sent a group to Abyssinia and founded a small colony there. The Christian ruler received them with courtesy.

The one just God , Allah, whose existence Muhammad proclaimed was incomparable, could not be represented and, unlike the gods and goddesses surrounding the Ka'bah, Allah God in Arabic, a masculine form has neither partners nor offspring. The Arabs did revere Allah but thought him remote and aloof, while impersonal and arbitrary time zaman controlled human destiny.

As well as fearing that their income stream was under threat, the polytheists were also alarmed by the egalitarian message that Muhammad proclaimed. The nobility controlled justice, to their own advantage, and they had no desire to relinquish their elite privileges. Several suras chapters and parts of suras are said to date from this time, and reflect its circumstances: see for example al-Masadd , al-Humaza , parts of Maryam and Al-Anbiya , al-Kafirun , and Abasa.

It was during this period that the episode known as the "Satanic Verses" may have occurred. Some non-Muslims think that Muhammad was briefly tempted to relax his condemnation of Meccan polytheism and buy peace with his neighbors, but later recanted his words and repented see Q and also Q which says that whenever Muhammad received revelation, Satan tried to substitute his words for the divine words.

The incident is reported in only a few sources see Guillaume , , and Muslims disagree as to its authenticity. In , both Muhammad's wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib died. It was known as "the year of mourning. Muslims patiently endured hunger and persecution. It was a bleak time. About , Muhammad went on the Isra and Miraj night journey and ascension , a two-part journey he took in one night.

Isra is the Arabic word referring to what it regarded as Muhammad's miraculous night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem , specifically, to the site of the Masjid al-Aqsa , the al-Aqsa Mosque. It is believed to have been followed by the Miraj , his ascension to heaven, where he toured heaven and hell , and spoke with Allah and earlier prophets including Moses, Abraham and Jesus and received the instruction that his followers should pray five times daily.

Non-Muslims are skeptical about the authenticity of this event, while some Muslims suggest that it was a spiritual and not a physical experience see Asad , By , life in the small Muslim community of Mecca was becoming not only difficult, but also dangerous. Muslim traditions say that there were several attempts to assassinate Muhammad. Muhammad then resolved to emigrate to Medina, then known as Yathrib, a large agricultural oasis where there were a number of Muslim converts.

By breaking the link with his own tribe, Muhammad demonstrated that tribal and family loyalties were insignificant compared to the bonds of Islam , a revolutionary idea in the tribal society of Arabia. This Hijra or emigration traditionally translated into English as "flight" marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. The Muslim calendar counts dates from the Hijra, which is why Muslim dates have the suffix A.

After Hijra. Only after the Hijrah were the believers called Muslims, the religion Islam Q and the five daily prayers established. There has been some speculation whether the migration was voluntary or forced. Not all of Muhammad's followers fled, though those who stayed behind may have been compelled to remain by the Quraysh. Others belonged to split families which had Muslim and non-Muslim members and could not freely leave.

Muhammad came to Medina as a mediator, invited to resolve the feud between the Arab factions of Aws and Khazraj. He ultimately did so by absorbing both factions into his Muslim community, and forbidding bloodshed among Muslims. Muhammad had hoped that they would recognize him as a prophet, but they did not do so. Some academic historians suggest that Muhammad abandoned hope of recruiting Jews as allies or followers at this time, and thus the qibla , the Muslim direction of prayer, was changed from the site of the former Temple of Jerusalem to the Ka'bah in Mecca.

Muhammad built a mosque , which also contained his living quarters and those of his wives. Later, he would teach, preach, receive diplomatic delegations and adjudicate disputes in the mosque, where he was also buried. While at Mecca, the Qur'anic revelations had in the main preached justice, fair treatment of the poor, and worship of the one God and condemnation of idolatry.

Now, more detailed legal content was revealed The Muslim community ummah was to be the best community Q and Muslims were to be a people who forbid the wrong and invite goodness Q The primacy of God's will over human will and the need to submit the whole of one's life to God are dominant themes. The unity tawhid of the ummah should reflect that of Allah, holding different qualities in balance— leisure, work and prayer, for example—in equal measure.

Inner piety must accompany outward conformity to religious ritual. The created world is beloved of God; the sun, the moon, the trees and the hills praise God Q , thus Islam recognizes no absolute ownership of property and regards human domination of the planet as a sacred trust amana. All is eventually to be returned to the true owner Q The rich must care for the less fortunate, thus zakat a tithe given to the disadvantaged is one of a Muslim's obligations fard , duties.

Muhammad did not completely reject Judaism and Christianity , the two other monotheistic faiths that were known to the Arabs and which are referred to in the Qur'an; he said to have been sent by God in order to complete and perfect their teachings. He soon acquired a following by some and rejection and hatred by others in the region. In contrast to the pagans who were given the stark choice to convert or be expelled, Jewish and Christian settlements within Muslim territories were tolerated and taxed.

Muhammad drafted a document now known as the Constitution of Medina c. In this system, the Jews and other "Peoples of the Book" were allowed to keep their religions as long as they paid tribute. This system would come to typify Muslim relations with their non-believing subjects and that tradition was one reason for the stability of the later Muslim caliphate.

In this, the Islamic empire was more tolerant than the other great powers of the area, the Byzantine and Sassanid empires, which were actively hostile to any religions or sects other than the state-sponsored religions Orthodox Christianity and Zoroastrianism. Although Islam supercedes or completes the earlier religions of Judaism and Christianity see Q , Muslims recognize a family relationship between all three Abrahamic faiths.

Christians and Jews are criticized for claiming that only they are saved Q and for corrupting the originally pure messages they had received. Christians are wrong to make Jesus into God or God's son since he had pointed to God, not to himself Q The category of protected minority dhimmi established by Muhammad was permitted to retain their faith in return for relinquishing arms and payment of a tax Muhammad stipulated that they should not be taxed too heavily.

Muhammad said that whoever harms a dhimmi , harmed him. On one occasion, when a Christian delegation from Najran visited him in Medina, he allowed them to pray in his own mosque, as there was no church available see Guillaume , Relations between Mecca and Medina rapidly worsened see surat al-Baqara. Meccans confiscated all the property that the Muslims had left in Mecca.

From Medina, Muhammad signed treaties of alliance and mutual help with neighboring tribes.

About prophet muhammad biography book pdf

At a certain point, Muhammad began to engage in the old Arabian practice of raiding caravans bound for Mecca. Some have criticized this decision and practice, but others insist that it is justified by the circumstances. Meccan-Muslim relations had degenerated virtually to a state of war. As such it is argued that Islam's very survival depended on such action.

Muslims owned no land in Medina and absent such raids they would have to live on charity and on sparse chances for wage labor. In March of , Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Meccans successfully defended the caravan, and then decided to teach the Medinans a lesson. They sent a small army against Medina.

On March 15, , near a place called Badr , the Meccans and the Muslims clashed. Though outnumbered eight hundred to three hundred in the battle, the Muslims met with success, killing at least 45 Meccans and taking 70 prisoners for ransom; only 14 Muslims died. This marked the real beginning of Muslim military achievement and followed from a verse of the Qur'an that gave them permission to fight against persecution Q Previously, all resistance to oppression had been non-violent.

The verse that allowed Muslim men to marry, in certain circumstances, up to four wives Q is widely believed to have been revealed shortly after this battle, which left some widows without protection. Other revelations became known as the "sword verses," such as Q and Q Muslim rulers subsequently used these verses to justify aggressive war to extend the borders of the Islamic empire; however when these verses were first revealed the Muslim community was already engaged in a war for Islam's very survival.

Defenders of these verses' subsequent use to justify conquest remark that it was a time when many empires were competing for supremacy and used force to do so. Islam, while no different from other contemporary powers in using force to spread its empire, nonetheless set out strict rules for the conduct of war that protected civilians, places of worship, crops and animals from harm.

The accusation that Islam spread by means of the sword, forcing to convert at the point of a sword, is hotly contested by Muslims who argue that what spread was Muslim rule, while embracing the faith was voluntary. Evidence is that large portions of the empire remained non-Muslim for centuries, although over time the non-Muslims became minorities in many regions.

It is, however, documented that overzealous Muslim conquerors sometimes did use force to convert the vanquished but this should not be taken as the norm. To the Muslims, the victory in Badr appeared as a divine vindication of Muhammad's prophethood , and he and all the Muslims rejoiced greatly. Following this victory, after minor skirmishes, and the breaking of a treaty that risked the security of the city-state , the victors expelled a local Jewish clan, the Banu Qainuqa.

Virtually all the remaining Medinans converted, and Muhammad became de facto ruler of the city. Alongside the Qur'an, his own edicts sunnah became part of the sacred regulations that governed the life of the community. Many Muslims regard this as the ideal for all human society—to be governed by an individual whose life is centered on God and who has no self-interest.

While measures promulgated during the war with Mecca and the consolidation of Islamic rule helped to ensure Islam's survival, they may not necessary represent precedents for all times and places. Muslims are careful to ascertain whether Muhammad intended a particular edict to be universally binding, before they deem it to be mandatory for all Muslims.

Knowledge or information about the context in which a verse of the Qur'an or a saying of Muhammad was first uttered depends on the witness statements of Muhammad's companions. These accounts describe the context and whether or not the revelation addressed a general situation, or responded to a particular question asked by someone, or to a specific issue.

If the former, the verse or saying becomes universally binding. If either of the latter, the witness who must be a close companion or relative of Muhammad will detail whether, in their view, the verse was only intended to speak to the specific situation, or applies to all Muslims. Some debate, clearly, can result and there is a strong tradition in Islam that all such rulings are tentative.

However, the ijma or consensus rule, based on Muhammad's advice that his people would not agree in error, often results in agreement. Others insist that any Muslim state that substitutes an alternative penalty departs from true Islam. Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. Uploaded by islamic books free on January 28, Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon.