Arabia was a very poor
area, mostly desert or scrub. Many Arabs made a living from tending sheep. Some
of these were Bedouins who were nomads, constantly moving their sheep, camels
and tents from place to place. Other used camels in groups, called caravans, to
carry goods from town to town to sell. The Arabs were split into many tribes.
There was no single king who ruled them. They had no single religion either.
Most Arabs worshipped several gods and spirits that they believed lived in
rocks and trees.
Muhammad was born in
570 in Mecca, a trading town on the caravan routes. It had the country’s most
sacred temple, a cube shaped building called the Ka’ba. The Ka’ba had over 360
altars, statues and other religious objects or idols which the Arabs
worshipped. People traveled many miles to worship there.
Muhammad belonged to an
important tribe, the Koraish (Quraysh). They charged fees to all the traders
and worshippers who came to Mecca. But Muhammad was an orphan by the age of six
and quite poor. He worked on the caravans. He disliked life in Mecca. There was
too much fighting and greed among the tribes; women, children and the poor were
badly treated; there was too much drunkenness and gambling; people worshipped
all kinds of idols. From, about 610 Muhammad spent more time alone, thinking
and praying on nearby Mount Hira. Then he started to get message from God.
Muhammad told his friends about the messages. He called them revelations;
truths revealed to him by God. Straight away some people wrote them down.
Eventually they were collected together in a book called the Koran (Qur’an).
In the revelations, an
angel said that Muhammad was the last of God’s prophets (messengers) and more
important than those before, like Jesus. Muhammad began to preach these
messages to the people. He said there was only one God (the Arabic for God is
Allah); that it was evil to worship idols; that greed was wrong; that Allah
would judge everyone when they died and send them to Heaven or Hell; that God’s
followers should obey Him before all others. Islam means submission (to God’s
will).
Muhammad gained many
followers, especially among the poor. But Islam was not popular with the rich
in Mecca. They feared losing their money, their religions and their power. In 622
many Muslims began to move away from Mecca to settle in Medina (Madinah), a
nearby town. In Medina, the Muslims were welcomed. Eventually, Muhammad also
left for Medina, chased by the Koraish. They offered a prize of 100 camels for
his capture. This move to Medina is called the Hijrah. The birth of Christ is
so important to Christians that they count their dates from then. The hijrah is
so important to Muslims that they start counting their history from then. So the
year AD 622 is the year 1 AH (After Hijrah) for Muslims.
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