Nathan Richelle
Life of Mohammed
Mohammed, who's name means highly praised in Isalm, was born in Mecca in 570 AD. Mohammed is the founder and chief prophet of the religion Islam. Unfortunately, shortly before his birth, his father passed away. In addition he lost his mom when he was the mere age of six. This meant that he was primarily brought up by his uncle who he admired greatly. Moreover, he worked as a Shepard for his uncle. And at the age of only 9, he joined his uncle on a caravan to Syria. During thee following years, Mohammed worked as a camel rider between Syria and the rest of Arabia. He then elected to follow his uncles footsteps by establishing a career with caravans. This meant that he would be in charge of managing caravans on the behalf of merchants. Due to this profession, Mohammed encountered people of many different nationalities and beliefs including Christians, Jews and also pagans. At the age of 25, Mohammed was employed by a Meccan widow named Khadijah. They fell in love and this resulted in the pair getting married. That had a very long, happy and successful marriage that was only ended by the death of Khadijah at the age of 64.
Divine Relation and Hijra
In his late 30s Mohammed elected to start visiting a cave frequently which was located in Mount Hira. When Mohammed reached the age of 40, Mohammed returned home telling his wife he had seen an angel. This lead to Mohammed believing that he was a prophet. After a while, Mohammed discovered that he had been chosen as a messenger of Allah. He became determined to convert people in his country from pagan polytheism to worship one God, Allah. His wife was the first to convert to into a Muslim. After three years, Mohammed gained only 40 followers. His beliefs that he shared disobeyed and did not follow the Meccan way of life. This resulted in Mohammed and his followers being persecuted. This soon escalated into serious violence and battles between member of the movement and disapproving Meccas. Some of Mohammed's followers were stoned, covered in dirt, or thrown into prison.
Persecution continued against the small movement and Mohammed felt as if he was not getting anywhere until he heard some positive news. 280 miles north of the city of Mecca, Mohammed discovered that he had gained some more followers. Mohammed got his new followers to swear to pray for only Allah and that they would defend him to the death. Soon after this, Mohammed made a plan to escape to yathrib to go face to face with his new followers. The leaders in Mecca heard about the escape plan andtried to stop it from happening. However, to no avail as he and his best friend evaded search parties to arrive in the city of yathrib. This event of the safe arrival of Mohammed is celebrated by Muslims as the Hijra. Many years later the city of yathrib was renamed medinat Al-Nabi (the city of the prophet).
Persecution continued against the small movement and Mohammed felt as if he was not getting anywhere until he heard some positive news. 280 miles north of the city of Mecca, Mohammed discovered that he had gained some more followers. Mohammed got his new followers to swear to pray for only Allah and that they would defend him to the death. Soon after this, Mohammed made a plan to escape to yathrib to go face to face with his new followers. The leaders in Mecca heard about the escape plan andtried to stop it from happening. However, to no avail as he and his best friend evaded search parties to arrive in the city of yathrib. This event of the safe arrival of Mohammed is celebrated by Muslims as the Hijra. Many years later the city of yathrib was renamed medinat Al-Nabi (the city of the prophet).
Spread of Islam
Ultimately, Mohammed played a vital part to help Islam spread. Not only was he the founder of the religion but through his sheer determination, he was able to gain followers and get himself noticed. Overall, it goes without saying that if it was not for Mohammed, the religion of Islam would not be supported by over billion people all around the world today.