THE LAST PROPHET

A Brief Biography of the Prophet Muhammad
(Peace and Blessings of God be upon him)
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE MOST MERCIFUL

Among the prophets whom God has sent to humanity, the only one whose biography has been preserved is the prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his is a complete account of his life, words and instructions.
The prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Mecca in 570 AD., at 9 am. on Monday 12 of Rabi I, April 29. His father, Abdullah, died a little before his death; his mother, Amina, for being very poor, sought help and refuge in Abdul- Muttalib’s house, Muhammad’s paternal grandfather who was very generous but was very old. The situation was very difficult for the mother and her son.
Amina could not feed her son for more than a few weeks, since her breast got dry and she had to search for a Bedouin nurse by the name of Halima bint Zu’aib, who too, was very poor and lived in a valley of the desert; but from the moment she took the child to her house, they had rain and they pastured, bringing them well-being. The Bedouins used to say that Muhammad (PBUH) was Baraka, blessing. That is, God brought them blessing and well-being through the child.
When Muhammad (PBUH) was five years old, his mother Aminah missed him and demanded him back; and Halima, though sad, understood and gave the child back to his mother. A year later, his mother, Aminah fell ill and died, leaving him orphan. His grandfather, Abdul-Muttalib remained with the child but when Muhammad (PBUH) was eight years old, his grandfather and first tutor died too, leaving the child alone again.
His uncle, Abu Talib, received him in his house, but he also was poor and had a big family. Muhammad (PBUH) had to work as a shepherd, dependent on trade, water carrier, messenger and assistant in caravans in order to help and support the family financially.
Muhammad (PBUH) never lied not even before his prophet-hood. His people were a witness for his loyalty; even his worst enemies did not accuse him of having ever uttered a lie in his entire life. He always spoke courteously, he never used obscene language. His personality and manners were very charming; in his relationships with his fellow men he always followed precepts of justice. He never deceived anybody in trade; the entire community used to call him Al Amin (the honest and the trustworthy); even his enemies would put their goods with him in order to take care of and keep them secure for them.
The town where he live considered drunkenness and gambling as virtues, but Muhammad (PBUH) did not drink alcohol at all, nor did he ever gamble. Although his town worshiped idols, Muhammad (PBUH) always had a pure soul knowing that nothing in the heavens and the earth is worthy of worship except the Unique, the only true God, and that no image or idol can be the All-Knowing and Omnipotent God. As such, Muhammad (PBUH) before his prophet-hood would not bow himself to/before any creature nor would he participate in the offerings given to the idols.
In 595 AD., Muhammad (PBUH), 25 years old, married Khadija who was then forty and had six children from her.

THE KAABA
The Kaaba locates in Mecca, the altar which the prophet Abraham (PBUH) and his son Ishmael (PBUH) built for worshiping God. In the era of the prophet Muhammad (PBUH) many tribes would come to the Kaaba and each one would bring a different god/idol and put them in the Kaaba to be worshiped, thus they brought more than 360 gods and images. This was Mecca, with much pilgrimage and trade that were exploited by the leaders of the city.

THE FIRST REVELATION
Muhammad (PBUH) received the first revelation of God when he was forty. When he was in one of his frequent retreats and meditations in the cave of Hiraa, something occurred to him that would change the direction of humanity. In one of the last nights of the month of Ramadan, Muhammad (PBUH) saw an intense light penetrating the silence of the cave and heard a voice that said to him “Read”, Muhammad (PBUH) responded “I cannot read”. The apparition ordered him; “Read”, Muhammad (PBUH) responded again “I cannot read”, and the Light told him; “Read in the name of your Lord, who created; created the human from a (blood) clot. Read! Your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught the human what he did not know.” (Quran 96: 1-5). After this, Muhammad (PBUH) felt that the message was engraved in his heart and memory.
When he came out of the cave, he heard a voice coming from heaven that told him;” Oh Muhammad, you are the prophet of God, I am the angel Gabriel.” Muhammad (PBUH) looked up and saw the radiant figure of the angel going up high to heaven.
Revelations continued coming to the prophet (PBUH) through the Archangel Gabriel and descended at the most unexpected moments by God’s decree. During the following 23 years, God revealed to Muhammad (PBUH) the Holy Quran, the message that contains the teachings of Islam.
The principal characteristic of Islam is that it does not permit any separation the affairs of the worldly life and the affairs of the spiritual life. Not only does it purify the spiritual part of man but also its domain extents to the social, political, moral, economic, etc., order. In other words, Islam combines both spiritual and practical life together without anything escaping the verdict of God in the Islamic form of life.

THE PROPAGATION OF ISLAM IN MECCA
When God commanded Muhammad (PBUH) to preach Islam, the latter called his people to gather on the top of Safa (a hill in Mecca) and asked them: “Would you believe me if I were to say that your enemy is beyond these hills about to attack you?” they replied “Yes, surely we would, we have never heard nor found you telling a lie.” And they asked ‘’ who is our enemy and where is he?” Then the prophet (PBUH) told them: “you yourselves are your enemy that is in your hearts, mouths and minds….. It is in your hearts for you worship false gods; in your minds because you are idolaters, and in your mouths because you praise inanimate idols, images and objects. God is unique and has no intermediaries, mediators nor any associates. If you worship Him and comply with his rituals and commands, I offer you in His name the blessings of this would and the delights of Paradise. Turn to the right path. Glorify God, Creator of the Worlds, Lord of the Day of Judgment.”
The people were astonished at hearing these words because they believed in many gods and worshiped not less than 360 gods and images in the Kaaba. For them, to worship one Omnipotent and Omnipresent God meant getting rid of their gods and changing their way of life. If they submitted God, the y had to give up their passions, vices and corruption. Abu Sufian was one of the leaders of Mecca who opposed the prophet (PBUH). One day with his friends, went to Abu Talib’s house and called him to silence his nephew, because he tried “ to prohibit the cult from the gods that our ancestors used to worship” he said. “We will declare war against him if you did not silence him.” he added. Abu Talib narrated this to his nephew Muhammad (PBUH) and the latter responded: “Oh my uncle! How pleasant would be to please you! But by God, if they put the Sun in my right and the Moon in my left to give up the message of God, I will not give it up, even if it costs my life.”
Before this categorical refusal, a fierce persecution against Muslims started: they were tortured, assassinated and banished; using the most radical and the most violent means. Abu Sufian would say: “any means is legal before the imperious necessity of quieting the one who speaks ill of the gods of our forefathers.”
The idolaters and materialist inhabitants of Mecca could not accept the prophet’s preaching which would change the system of life that they did not want to renounce. Muhammad’s ideas were unacceptable to them for two reasons. One moral: to admit that their parents and forefathers had been worshiping false gods, idols and images, would imply an eternal censure and punishment that would destroy the glorious picture of their forefathers. The other reason was economic: Mecca did not have industries, agricultural areas, minerals nor any handicrafts; its whole economy was based on pilgrims and caravans who brought vices, alcoholic drinks, prostitution and usury that were well-exploited by the leaders of Mecca.
Whenever Muhammad (PBUH) tried to preach, a group of Abu Sufian’s men would interrupt him with shouts and obscene songs; at nights, they would put rubbish and carrion remains at his door. They could not kill him because they feared the vengeance of his tribe that was very influential.
One day in the afternoon when the prophet (PBUH) was praying in the Kaaba, Abu Jahl covered his head with the stomach of a dead camel full of blood and excrement; Ruqayya, Muhammad’s daughter, took the rubbish and threw it away trying to save her father from asphyxia. Stained with blood and filth, the prophet (PBUH) said to his daughter: “Let us go home; I have to perform the prayer, the most sacred and the most comforting of all duties.”
Muhammad (PBUH) sent a group of Muslims to refuge in Abyssinia that was governed by a Christian king. The king received them with a warm welcome as the fundamentals of Islam did not differ much from the then monotheistic Christianity. Muhammad’s worst enemies in Mecca sent emissaries and valuable presents to the king so as to deliver them the “fugitive rebels”, but the king, conscious of Islam and the great respect it shows for Jesus and Mary, told them after drawing a line in the ground between him and the Muslims: “the difference between their religion and ours is not more than this line, take back your presents, the Muslims are my guests and the can stay for as long as they want.”
The Muslims who stayed in Mecca were tortured or dead, almost all of them lost their properties such as Suhaib Arrumi. He had hundreds of camels and one of the most sumptuous villas in Taif, even so he preferred to renounce them all for the sake of Islam.

THE FIRST MOSQUE OF ISLAM
Muslims finally immigrated to Medina where they were welcomed by their new brothers of faith; the prophet (PBUH) was the last one to leave Mecca in spite of the great risk it meant. Once arrived in Mecca, he started the construction of the first mosque of Islam. The prophet (PBUH) worked as a bricklayer on the mosque for several hours a day, then he was not young, he was in his fifties. He thought that any type of job was decent, but building a house for worshiping God was something really praiseworthy which made him feel very happy. For the call of the prayers human voice was used; the Muathin (caller to prayers) called the believers to the prayer, to happiness, reward and success in this life and in the next.
In Medina, the first Islamic state was established and Muhammad (PBUH) was the governor and the judge as well as the military leader in campaigns. The situation was quite difficult for the Muslims at first, but with much patience and devotion, they could put up with the attacks of the idolaters of Mecca on one hand, and the intrigues of the hypocrites and Jews of Medina on the other.
The prophet (PBUH) was leading the Muslims on foot reciting for them Suras (chapters) of the Quran that spoke of the unity of God, His magnificence, justice and mercy. The prophet (PBUH) enjoined the Muslims to the do good deeds and charity. To smile at your brother’s distressed face is charity. To show the way to the lost is charity. To guide the blind is charity. To keep company with the lonely is charity. To host the traveler is charity. He also taught that he, who sleeps with a full stomach while his neighbor is hungry, is not a believer.

THE LAST MESSAGE
After various battles and crowds of people entering Islam, Muslims succeeded in entering Mecca victorious without shedding a drop of blood. They cleansed the Kaaba of all the idols and images and then worshiped The Unique God, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful, Lord and Creator of the Worlds. The prophet (PBUH) was very happy to return to his home city but he now lies in Medina, the capital of the first Islamic state, founded with the act of enjoining good and worshiping God, The Unique alone and prohibiting evil.
The prophet (PBUH) returned to Mecca a little before his death, for Hajj (pilgrimage), known as the “farewell pilgrimage” because it was the last pilgrimage he would have the chance to perform. There, before around 100 thousand Muslims, he reminded the believers about the observance of the Islamic precepts: That is, adultery, prostitution, and obscenities are prohibited -- Assassination, false testimony, robbery, usurpation, pillage, usury and calumny and slander also are prohibited. All matters of the new nation are regulated: land tenure, water use, private property, trade, legal taxes and international relations. The prophet (PBUH) told them: “be witnesses that I fulfilled the mission and delivered to you the message, be witnesses.” He also recommended them: “to take care of the properties of the orphan, to be kind to the widow and the old, generous with the needy, respectful with women; modest in speaking and in the form of wearing, fair and just to and before all and to remember that the believers are all brothers of one another. All humans are equal in the sight of God except in loving, fearing or worshiping Him. All Muslims equal rights in the fold of Islam, the Umma (Islamic Community).
After this, the prophet (PBUH) returned to Medina and began to get weak. The divine revelation had already been completed and he had indeed spread the message. History would not have been the same after him, the seal of the long list of God’s prophets and messengers (may God’s peace and blessings be upon them all). He was going away, leaving behind him a generation of true believers who would be carrying the message of worshiping God, The Unique, ( the monotheism) throughout the world, bringing light and salvation to all humanity. “Seek knowledge from the cradle to the grave” he told his followers. Islamic civilization was born.
When 63 years old, 12 Rabi I, 11th year Hijri that is (632 AD), the prophet (PBUH) died. In his deathbed, he did not stop advising his people: “do not make my tomb an object of worship like other nations before you did to their prophets… Be steadfast in the prayer.” Since then, this extraordinary man who is one of the greatest prophets, statesmen, warriors, theologians, legislators, orators and philosophers but the best person ever created by God and the dearest of all to Him, rests in Medina where he died more than fourteen centuries ago. Only one hundred years after his death, the message of Islam would reach France and Spain in the Occident and China in the Orient. (Today, there are about 1.5 billion persons all over the world following the message he was given and Islam is the fastest growing religion on earth by virtue of the All-Mighty God).

Note:
Muslims do not worship any prophet, but follow all the prophets and messengers in the exclusive worship of/to the Unique and All-Powerful God, Allah.
Muslim: is somebody who submits to Allah (God) and abides by His rules regardless of his nationality.
Arab/ic: is not equivalent of Muslim, it refers to the Arabic language and race. The Arabic race has different religions, but in majority, they are Muslims.

ALL PRAISE AND GLORY IS DUE TO ALLAH ALONE

The First words

All praise and glory is due to Allah alone,the only true God, Lord of the Worlds, Creator of the heavens and the earth and whatever is between them. May God's peace and blessings be upon His last prophet and messenger Muhammad, his family and companions and upon whosoever follows them till the Last Day. We seek refuge in God from the evil of ourselves and from the evil consequences of our actions. Peace be upon you dear visitors, I am your Muslim brother Sabah Haji from Iraq, I have created this blog in order to acquaint myself with writing and translating articles from various languages into and from English, God willing. Moreover, this blog is mainly Islamic, that is, it is an attempt to convey at least some important things about the true Islamic faith for there have appeared many sects claiming to be true Muslims.Though, my blog is now empty for I have just opened it. In the near future, I will start to publish things God willing. In the end, I would like to say that I will be pleased to have your comments on the contents of this blog as well as your questions and points of view. Peace be with you.