Muhammad was the Prophet of the God. He was the last and final Prophet. His sudden death in 632 CE marked a time of challenge for Muslims as they faced the uncertainty of the future. The most imminent challenge the Muslim community faced was the prospect of who would be the heir to Muhammad. Who was the rightful heir? There was much divide on this subject throughout the Muslim community between the Sunnis and the Shi`a. Along with the uncertainty of who the authority of Islam would now be, the challenge of what kind of authority they would bring also plagued Muslims. Islam was still a developing religion amongst the already dominant religions of Judaism and Christianity so the Muslim community now had the challenge of still expanding their …show more content…
Questions surrounding legitimacy and what authority the next caliphs would hold created the most tensions within each caliph’s successorship. However, Muhammad had a legion of followers who were well versed in his teachings and style of rule that “before the Prophet died, he had created the conditions for a universal brotherhood on the basis of faith, a principle which he vigorously substituted for the old blood-ties and tribal loyalties of the Arabs” (Rahman 25). Muhammed preached monotheism, which “demanded a radical break from the polytheism of pre-Islamic Arabia” (Berkey 72). This set up the concepts of authority that the caliphs that took over Muhammad’s rule after his death and unified the authority to conduct themselves to the laws and rules on the one God. Therefore, this united the tribes that became part of the Islamic Empire through the authority of a monotheistic state and religion. The Rashidun dynasty became the first to rule after the death of Muhammad. However, this decision created a divide amongst the two sects of Islam; the Sunnis and Shi`a. Their opposing views about legitimacy ignited the instability that would reign towards the end of the Rashidun rule and still marks for the tensions between the two groups in the Muslim community today. Yet, because of the expansion of Islam with the Near East, the caliphs had to draw in multiple …show more content…
In the beginning, “the institutions of Islam at this point were still grounded in Arabian identities”, but with the erection of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem a more Islamic identity emerged as the essence of Islam through the preservation of the Qur`anic text – the epitome of the Islamic tradition (Berkey 77). Islam had expanded on such a large scale geographically that it was only natural that their presence on the religious scale be established. It proclaimed the emergence of Islam as a supreme new faith linked to biblical tradition yet distinct from the religions of the conquered people. The Dome contrasted against the other religions already heavily present in the Near East. It was “in the thick of a competition, almost a confrontation, between Christianity and Islam”, but inexplicitly also shaped the original perception of the Dome through this competition (Grabar 54). By explicitly inscribing the text of the Quran for the first time it signified that the people of Islam had now reached a point after the death of Mohammed that they felt they knew who they were and were coming to realize what they were as Muslims. In this way “the Dome reflects the process by which Islam gradually came together in a distinctive shape” (Berkey
There are two declarations of faith in Islam: That there is only one God and that Muhammad is the Messenger of God. In Memories of Muhammad, Omid Safi explores the ways in which Muhammad – both the historical and spiritual Muhammad – is remembered, commemorated, and contested by Muslims throughout the centuries. Safi focuses on the movements and moments in Muhammad’s life and after his death that for many Muslims best exemplify the teachings of Islam. He succeeds in opening up the dialogue to correct the negative portrayals of Muhammad and the religion of Islam, calling it a “Muhammad problem” in his introduction. Furthermore, he provides a book that is accessible and intelligible to both Muslims and non-Muslims, drawing from historical and spiritual sources, and addresses relevant issues contested between Muslims in relation to other religions, presenting Muhammad as a historical figure and one who is beloved by the Umma.
Muhammad was born in Mecca, in around 570 C.E. Mecca was a great city for trading, and most of Muhammad’s relatives were traders and business people. He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan, a prominent familiy of Mecca, but the clan was not prosperous during Muhammad's early life. He became an orphan at the age of 6 as his father, Abdullah, died before Muhammad was born, and his mother, Amina, died of illness. His grandfather and uncle looked after him during his early years. He later worked as a merchant or a shepherd, and married at the age of 25. Muhammad married a widow named Khadijah and joined her in business. He started off very poor, but then he became a very skilled trader and manager.
There were two men that wanted to be the first caliph (successor) of Muhammad. The first man, named Abu Bakr, many people believed he was a good candidate because he was an old friend and was one of the first ones to convert to Islam. Yet others believed that Ali Talib was the best choice because he was a cousin and a son in law to the prophet. The disputes between the two groups of people would lead to a split; the followers of Abu Bark became the Sunnis and the followers of Ali became the Shia. At the end, the majority of people decided to choose Abu Bark and he became Islam’s first caliph. Abu Bark was Muhammad’s caliph for only two years until he died; even though it was a short period of time, he accomplished big things. For example, the spread of Islam to Byzantines and the Persians. The other caliphs (Umar, Uthman and Ali) expanded the Islamic empire rapidly and grew faster than any other religion. The Muslims conquered a massive amount of land from Indus River, across North Africa and into Spain. There were many factors that help Islam succeed; for example, people would rather fight for God and their salvation instead of fighting for a king, the use of military force by the Muslims and how easy it was to convert to
Writing about a topic that has been on an upward slope of controversy and criticism within the past two decades, Fred Donner a notable Islamic History professor at the University of Chicago whom has written multiple texts about the origins of Islam, tells the tale of the beginnings of Islam and how it would be shaped into its current manifestation today with Muhammad and the Believers. Donner admirably conveys the early history of Islam and its success to its centrality and “Believers’ Movement” opposed to many western historians accrediting it to the need of social and economic reform. Muhammad and the Believers is split up into five chapters, all of which Donner imparts his main thesis of Islam being a group of believers (mu’minun) opposed
The Pillars are a list of rules that give five key practices that the observant Muslim should follow. An individual must follow these five rules: openly declare devotion to their god, Allah, pray five times daily facing towards the holy city Mecca, fast and abstain from secular pleasures during the month of Ramadan, pay an alms tax for the welfare of the poor, and make the pilgrimage to Mecca at least once during one’s life if circumstances allow (Smart 290). These guidelines provide an obvious way to distinguish the religious insider from the outsider and work to reinforce a continual sense of community among the insiders (Smart 291). The concept of jihad works to legitimize the expansion of Islam. Jihad, or the “struggle on behalf of the faith” resulted in two different interpretations (Smart 299). Firstly, the Qur’an states that it is the duty of religious adherents to fight against polytheists, Christians, and Jews until they pay the jizya, or tax, acknowledging Muslim supremacy (Smart 299). However, a branch of Islam called Sufism softened this doctrine to imply that jihad is not a physical conflict, but is instead an internal struggle to eliminate temptations and foster obedience to God (Smart 300). This concept is shown in action when examining the chronological expansion of Islam. In the classical and medieval periods of Islam, stretching from the early seventh
The second heir of Rome was the Islamic civilization. Unlike Byzantium, the Islamic civilization was not formed by political forces or bound by a shared cultural past. Instead Islam was one of the first civilizations that was formed around by religion. The religion Islam was founded by Muhammad and rapidly grew through the 7th century transforming into a strong imperial power. Muhammad’s death in 632 CE created a rift in the Islamic world as he died without a clear heir. Thus the two primary factions within Islam formed, the Shias and the Sunnis. For the next eight centuries, the Islamic empire continued to grow and expand despite internal conflicts. The Islamic empire encompassed portions of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Indian
The information provided in the Evidence of the Past regarding Muhammad's First Revelation is more than likely extremely, unintentionally distorted. This document was composed by someone who compiled four plus generation old verbal accounts from descendants of Muhammad's associates. The document would more likely to be accurate if it were documented and written by Muhammad (primary source) or his associates (secondary source) as it occurred. The main points are likely accurate consisting of who, what, when, and where. However, the finer details were likely embellished, forgotten, or muddled causing the story to change from fact to fiction over the four to five generations of verbal accounts.
At that point Shia and Sunni Muslims were separated in different directions. Sunni believed that the legitimate leaders of Islam are the leaders who ruled after Mohammed’s death (Abu Bakr- Umar- Othman- Ali). On the other hand Shia believed that Ali should’ve been the first leader of Islam after Mohammed’s death and the first three leaders just illegitimately took over Ali’s leadership. Ali had his leadership of Islamic world after Othman’s murder. Umayyah family were against Ali’s leadership and involved Ali of murdering Othman. Therefore, Ali had to fight his enemies over the first five years of his leadership.
First of all, according to an Islamic rhetoric, there is only one god who is Allah, and he is the only one who is transcend and absolute. Therefore, it is hard to say that apostles such as Muhammad, Abraham, Moses and Jesus are admired by people because they are one of gods. Abraham, Moses and Jesus are admired by Islamic people because they received a revelation from God and truly obeyed it. To sum up in a word, Islam is a religion that allowed to obey only one god which is Allah, and revealed to people by a prophet named Muhammad.
After the death of the Prophet Muhammad, the death of Islam was very possible. The Arab conquests were remembered merely as one of the history’s more improbable “might-have-beens”. It may easily have been the end, if not for the decisive action taken by the early Muslim leadership, notably by the first two caliphs (or successors of the Prophet). Like Muhammad
...s a scene from an imagined future Jerusalem where Islam’s Dome of the Rock stands beside a rebuilt Jewish temple and worshipers of different faiths mingle in the courtyard. Is this scene too good to be true? Does each religious claim to the Dome of the Rock, reinforced through visual culture, make such an event unlikely to ever occur? It is ideas such as these that I hope to examine further in my paper.
During this time, Mecca was mostly populated with polytheistic followers. In 610 C.E, Prophet Muhammad, had his first revelations that advance the Islamic culture. His revelations became a way of life for his followers. When the religion started rising in numbers, Muhammad and his followers was exiled from Mecca. When the followers migrated to Medina, Islam began to spread. This religion had much influence in the locations it was practiced in. The Quran is the way of life to its people. The five pillars expressed in the Quran were the religious laws Muslims were expected to follow. They were expected to only accept there is one God and one messenger, Muhammad, pray five times a day, give the poor 2.5 percent of their savings, fast during the month of Ramandan, and pilgrimage to Mecca, where the Holy Ka’ba is located. Besides the religious impact, Muhammad also created a political empire. He united different tribes and customs. Muhammad was very influential that after his death, the religion faced a challenge. They did not have a successor or leader, so many followers left the religion, refused to pay taxes, and wars begun. In the mid- seventh century, the Muslims started wars with the Byzantine and Persian Empires and conquered them. Muslims ruled over many religious groups including Jews, Christians, and Zoroastrians. As the Muslims became powerful, they created laws that taxed other religious groups to practice their faith. In the “Pact of Umar”, Christians agreed under extreme circumstances in order to practice their faith. They agreed to not fix the damages done to their churches, to not display any religious ornaments, to not spread the faith, and many more. The Muslims conquered and progressed in
Throughout his life, the Prophet Muhammad proved to be exceptionally adept at uniting diverse groups, negotiating a series of alliances and loyalty arrangements that spanned religious, tribal, ethnic, and familial lines (Berggren 2009). Among other things, this ability enabled Muhammad to forge a shared identity and found a nascent Islamic state from a diverse and even heterogeneous community (Rahman 1982; Ernst 2003, pp. 87-93). This diversity proved to be both a source of strength and conflict for Islam, and following the death of Muhammad early Islamic communities engaged in extensive debates not only about the nature of his teachings or how to carry his legacy forward, but also about the terms that should be used to define his authority. Although this debate produced a colorful array of movements within the tapestry of early Islamic civilization, this essay offers a critical examination of two particularly distinct perspectives on the nature of prophetic authority: namely, those articulated
The prophet Muhammad had a significant impact on the rise and spread of the religion Islam. According to World Civilizations, Muhammad “began receiving revelations transmitted from Allah,” and later these revelations became holy scripts in the Quran. Muhammad started off with very few followers but as the faith of Allah started to spread, he gained more followers and he became a threat to Mecca’s rulers. As mentioned in World Civilization, “in 622 Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where his skilled leadership brought new followers.” In Medina, Muhammad became the religious authority in the area and he used this power to conquer Mecca, a holy place for Islamic believers. By the time of his death, he was able to have created a religious empire that controlled all of the Arabian Peninsula.
After ‘The Year of Sorrow’ in which both Muhammad’s uncle- Abu Talib and wife- Kadijah died Muhammad is warned by the angel Gabriel that the situation is getting too dangerous for him in Mecca. “Muhammad knew the faith must find expression in a community which would insure its external force and the opportunity to prevail against opposition” (Cragg). It is at this point that Muhammad is invited to become a leader in Medina (622ce).