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A Brief Biography of the Holy Prophet of
Islam(S.A.W.)
The State of the World before Islam
When Almighty Allah sent His last and greatest
Prophet, Muhammad [s], mankind was immersed in a state of degeneration.
The messages of the past prophets had been distorted and ignored,
civilisation was on the decline and humanity had slumped into an age of
darkness, with disbelief, oppression and corruption rife everywhere. The
whole world presented the gloomiest picture ever of human history.
Hence, the Qur''an''s terming of this chaotic state of affairs as
''Ignorance'', or to put it exactly in the words the Holy Book has used
''Jahiliyah''.
Consequently it is incorrect to view ''Jahiliyah'' as
something of the remote past, for it is quite clear from the Qur''an''s
terminology that any people rejecting Divine Messengers, turning a deaf
ear to the Almighty''s revelations and overcome with carnal desires, can
aptly be termed an ignorant lot. Therefore broadly speaking, the term
''Jahiliyah'' is not limited to any particular era cut can also be applied
to all similar societies irrespective of whether they existed in the
past or are still found in our contemporary era, the so-called, Space
Age.
Accordingly, it is easy to recognise the symptoms of
''Jahiliyah'', there is oppression and corruption, because the salient
features of such a society are disbelief, deviation, breach of divine
commandments, spread of injustice and vices such as usury, drinking
alcohol, adultery, gambling, bloodshed, moral decadence, etc. Thus any
society in which such perversions prevail is without doubt ''Jahiliyah''.
Such was the sad state of affairs in which mankind
lived, before Allah sent them a Prophet, describing him as a ''Mercy for
the creation''. The Arabs among whom Muhammad [s] was born were
fragmented into a number of heterogeneous tribes constantly engaged in
internecine bloodshed. They had replaced Abraham''s monotheism with the
worship of idols, stars, angels and demons, turning the Ka''aba built for
the One and Only Creator, into a pantheon of idols. Tribal rivalries and
blood feuds, fuelled among them like the burning desert sands of Arabia.
Ignorance was not confined to the Arabs alone, for on
the fringes of Arabia where the desert gives way to hospitable lands,
met the ever changing borders of ''World Arrogance'', the two superpowers
of the age; the Persian and the Byzantine Empires. Both bidding for
hegemony over the known world had bled white with wars, and despite
their massive territories, it was obvious they were in their death
throes.
The fire-worshipping Persians with their strange
concept of dualism were further plagued by the still weirder Mazdakite
doctrine which advocated communal ownership and went to such an extent
as to rule women to be the common property of all men. Like Mani a few
centuries earlier, who had claimed a new religion by combining the
teachings of Jesus and Zoroaster, Mazdak''s movement was also a reaction
to the corruption of the traditional priestly class. Both creeds had
flattered to deceive and died away after the execution of their
proponents, who more or less depended on royal patronage. On the other
hand the Sassanian aristocracy aligned with the Zoroastrian clergy was
steeped in pleasures burdening the downtrodden masses with heavy taxes
and oppression.
At the other end was the Byzantine World, which
though claiming to profess a divinely revealed religion had in fact
polluted the monotheist message of Prophet Jesus [a] with the sediments
of ancient Greek and Roman pagan thoughts, resulting in the birth of a
strange creed called Christianity. Way back in 381 A.D., the Greco-Roman
Church council had declared as heresy, the doctrine of Arius of
Alexandria, to which most of the eastern provinces of the empire
adhered, and in its place the council had coined the absurd belief that
God and Jesus are of one substance and therefore co-existent. Arius and
his followers had held the belief in the uniqueness and majesty of God,
Who alone, they said has existed since eternity, while Jesus was created
in time.
Throughout the 5th and 6th centuries the church
continued to be racked by a myriad of controversies over its illogical
attempts to define the alleged dual (divine and human) nature of Jesus
in the light of Greek mythology and Persian Mithraism, the influence of
both of which was quite visible on the Christian church. In addition,
weirder beliefs like Holy Ghost, Mother of God (Mary) and Trinity
cropped up which caused trouble in Syria, Egypt and North Africa, where
the Monophysite Christians held ''god the father'' to be infinitely
superior to ''god the son''. In short, terror, oppression and sectarian
persecution were the order of the day in Christendom.
Scattered here and there across West Asia and North
Africa were colonies of Jews, to whom several outstanding Messengers had
been sent by the Almighty. But these divine favours had failed to reform
the crime hardened Jews, whose very name had become synonymous for
treachery. They had long deviated from the commandments of Allah,
distorting the laws brought by Prophet Moses [a], tampering with divine
scriptures, slaying prophets and in the end coining the chauvinist creed
called Judaism. It was more a racial sedition rather than a set of
beliefs and the Israelites'' vehement opposition to the last great
reformer, Prophet Jesus Christ [a], was still fresh in the minds of the
people.
Further to the east lay the once flourishing cultures
of China and India which were now groping in the dark. Confucianism had
confused the Chinese, robbing their minds of any positive thinking.
The Sui dynasty (581-618) espousing the cause of
Buddhism had plunged China into a blood bath. If Buddhism was never
intelligible to the masses, Taoism the religion of the former court was
even more remote and expensive to practice looking like a huge complex
of rites, cults and strange rituals. The victims of these feuds were of
course the poor masses, bewildered as ever and seething under
oppression.
In the subcontinent, the fabric of the Indian society
was in even more shambles. Hinduism and the absurd philosophy of the
caste system it preached, had created water-tight compartments between
the human race reducing the so-called lower classes to the ranks of mere
beasts of burden.
Hinduism had no universal pretensions whatsoever, and
had evolved and was peculiar to the geographical confines of India, or
more properly Northern India and its Aryan invaders. Conversion of
foreigners was difficult because one had to be born in a particular
caste and it was the mystery of ''Karma'' that determined one''s fate.
In addition, India presented a confusion of castes
and creeds and a pantheon of idols more weird and in erotic postures
than found anywhere else. Tantric rites including demon-worship,
sacrifice of humans and possibly cannibalism were the order of the day.
No intermarriage, no inter-living, burning of the widows on the dead
husband''s pyre, exploitation of the so-called lower class women
dedicated to temples as devdasis but whose actual work was to satisfy
the carnal desires of the priests, were some of the sordid affairs in
practice.
Outside the periphery of the civilised world, beyond
the River Jexartes in the endless steppes of Central Asia, dwelt the
marauding Turks and other related tribes. They adhered to the magical
rites of Shamanism and ancestor worship.
Africa, beyond the Sahara was steeped in animism
while in Europe bands of barbarians such as Avars, Bulgars, Germans,
Franks etc. wandered around pillaging what remained of the Roman
civilisation.
In short, wars, bloodshed, slavery, oppression of
women and the deprived held sway everywhere. Might ruled right. The
world was in dire distress but no one seemed around to deliver it from
darkness. No religion, ideology, creed or cult could offer any hope to
the agonies and frustrations of humankind.
None of the religions in currency had any universal
outlook or even pretensions and were limited to insurmountable
geographical and psychological barriers, preaching discrimination and
the narrow-minded superiority of a particular race.
Thus it was in such a chaotic state of depression
that Almighty Allah sent His last great Prophet, with the universal
Message of Islam to save mankind from disbelief, oppression, corruption,
ignorance and moral decadence that was dragging humanity towards
self-annihilation.
The Makkan Society
The society at obscure Makkah where Prophet Muhammad
[s] opened his eyes, was rife with vices and oppression. It was as
barren as the harsh Arabian landscape, with declining morals, rising
perversion, ignorance and poverty. Like the rest of Arabia it was
polytheist in nature, deeply engrossed in the worship of a multitude of
idols.
The Makkan society roughly speaking was divided into
three classes as follows:
1.The Arrogant Wealthy:
In their hands was vested the wealth, authority and
leadership of Makkah, and it was this class which vehemently opposed the
Messenger of Allah and his call to Islam. They terrorised and forbade
people from believing him, for fear of losing their unjust hegemony over
Makkah. To this class belonged Abu Jahal, Abu Sufyan, Abu Lahab, Walid
bin Mughira, Uqba bin Abi Moayyit, Aas bin Wael Sahm and others, who had
built up large fortunes by oppression and foul means.
2. The Deprived (slaves and the oppressed):
This class was composed of the downtrodden like Ammar
and his parents Yaser and Sumaiyya, Bilal the Abyssinian, Suhaib the
Roman, Khabbab bin Arat etc., who all eagerly hastened towards the call
of Islam, because they found it to be the truth and a way of deliverance
from oppression, slavery and disbelief.
3. The General Public:
These were neither part of the landed oligarchy nor
were subjected to slavery. They could well be termed the middle class.
Affiliated to their respective tribal chiefs or clan heads they blindly
followed the path chosen by their leaders.
Thus since the Islamic Da''wah (call) strives for
justice and equality among the human race, removing the artificial
barriers of class set up by ''Jahiliyyah'', the tyrants and oppressors did
all they could to stop its eventual spread. Sensing that its Monotheist
message, preaching submission to the One and Only Creator and forsaking
the worship of idols and man-made images, would bring an end to their
domination over Makkah, the pagan Quraish, decided to gang up against
Prophet Muhammad [s].
Birth and Ancestry
Muhammad [s] was born at Makkah in the year 570 AC.
known in the annals of Arabian history as the ''Year of the Elephant''
because of a miraculous event. That year Abraha the Christian governor
of the Abyssinian King, who had already subdued Yemen, marched upon
Makkah with a huge army of elephants. His intention was to destroy the
Ka''aba and shift the centre of pilgrimage to San''aa, where he had built
an imposing church. But the very moment Abraha''s awesome army was poised
for the attack, the Almighty sent a swarm of flying creatures, who
blackened the sky pelting the mighty force with pebbles, and within
minutes destroyed elephants and warriors alike. Thus Almighty Allah
humbled the arrogantly ignorant by means of an obscure creature.
Muhammad [s] was born on the eve of 17th of the lunar
month of Rabi-ul-awwal and according to some versions on the 12th of the
same month. His father was Abdullah the son of Abdul Muttalib the son of
Hashim and his mother, Amina, was the daughter of Wahab. His grandfather
Abdul Muttalib had many wives and children, out of whom Abdullah and Abu
Talib were from the same mother. Thus Prophet Muhammad [s] was a scion
of the noble Bani Hashim clan a sub-division of the large Quraish tribe,
descended from Prophet Ishmael [a] the elder son of Prophet Abraham [a].
He was a posthumous child, as his father Abdullah had
died three months before his birth, while on a visit to Yathrib
(Madina). The birth of the orphan turned the grief of the bereaved
family into unbounded joy, and none were more happy than his mother,
Amina and grandfather Abdul Muttalib, who were in a state of shock at
Abdullah''s untimely death. The family burst into happiness, slaughtering
sheep and throwing a grand banquet for the Quraish, to celebrate the
auspicious occasion. Makkah overflowed with joy as throngs of people
flocked to Abdul Muttalib''s house to congratulate him on the birth of
his grandchild.
The Upbringing of the Prophet
As was the custom in those days, babies of noble
families were normally entrusted to the care of strong and healthy wet
nurses, who not only gave suck but taught their wards manners and
etiquette. The young Muhammad [s] was accordingly put under the care of
a noble wet-nurse called Halima bint Hareth As-Saadiyah, who brought him
up along with her own children; Abdullah, Eisa and daughter Shaima.[1]
After four years Halima brought back the child to his
mother and grandfather. Everyone was happy as the toddler started to
grow up into a pretty, sober and intelligent boy, marked out from the
rest of the children by his suave manners and loved and admired by all.
Mother and Grandfather Die
At the age of six, his mother took him to Yathrib to
visit her family. Umm Ayman their maid accompanied them on the journey.
At Yathrib, the young boy saw the grave of his father, whom he had never
seen in life. What a moving scene it may have been when mother and son,
set eyes on Abdullah''s grave!
After a short stay in Yathrib they started back, but
on the way Amina became seriously ill. The party stopped to nurse her
but her condition became worse and finally she breathed her last and was
buried at a place called Abwa, situated between Makkah and Madina. The
child was naturally sad at loosing his only surviving parent, at the
tender age of 6. Now he was an orphan on both sides and alone in this
wide world. But Almighty Allah is Great and Omnipresent and He alone
decrees destinies. Umm Ayman escorted Muhammad [s] to Abdul Muttalib,
