Who was Muhammad?
570 CE Muhammad was born in Mecca into the tribe of the Quraysh.
595 He married Hadiga, the widow of a wealthy merchant. In the course of his mercantile expeditions to Palestine and Syria, he encountered Jews and Christians.
610 Muhammad received his first divine revelation.
613 He began to preach openly as a prophet. 622 Muhammad was forced to migrate with his followers to Medina (Hijra, “the migration”).
622-630 He founded the first Muslim community and waged war against the Meccans.
630 Then he returned in triumph to Mecca, where he “purged” the Kaaba, a religious shrine, of idolatrous elements.
632 Muhammad died while visiting Medina. Muhammad’s message:
• Confronted people with the coming judgment, threatening dire punishments in the next life and calling for justice and social solidarity.
• Called for submission to the one and unique God (in Arabic “Allah”), who is just and merciful; Arab speaking Jews and Christians also use the word “Allah” to designate the One God.
• Fought against polytheism and the commercialized pagan pilgrimage to the Kaaba, Mecca’s central sanctuary.
• Provoked the merchants,
threatening their religious
business interests.
• Came increasingly in conflict with the Meccans, so that in 622 he was forced to flee with his followers to the neighbouring city of Medina, some 300 km distant. – The year 622 CE corresponds to the year 1 of the hijri calendar (AH = anno Hegirae), by which the years are numbered in the Islamic world.
