The Origins of Islam The Message and the Messenger Created By: Beatrix, Lorien, and Selah
The Origin of Muhammad
The Story of Islam The city of Mecca came about by a well. Hagar and Ishmael were stuck in the desert because Abraham had to hide them from his jealous wife. There was no water in the desert where Ishmael and Hagar were, so Hagar fell to her knees and called out to God to save her and her son. God heard her call, and brought forth a spring of water.
When Abraham came back, and saw what God had done for his family he built a cube shaped structure called a Kaaba around the well spring of water. Over the centuries thousands of people came far and wide from all around to drink and visit the holy site. place came to be known as Mecca; the center city of the Islamic faith.
The Rise of Mecca Cause: The city of Mecca is said to have been the place where God created a stream to provide water to Abraham in the desert. Jews, Christians, and those who followed the Bedouin polytheistic religion went on pilgrimages to the Kaaba in Mecca, a temple built with idols to many gods and deities including Allah. The city of Mecca also profited from its position on a major trade route. The Quraysh, a wealthy and powerful Bedouin tribe, eventually took full political control of Mecca, and taxed those traveling there for religious pilgrimages an any trading that happened in the city..
The Rise of Mecca Effect: Mecca became very diverse in culture and religion. People of many cultures came to visit the Kaaba and ended up trading goods from their homelands. It was a religious pilgrimage destination for Jews, Christians, and other Arabs. Muhammad s observations of the diverse cultures, and monotheistic religions later influenced his theology. The Quraysh tribe gained economic profit from its singular control over Mecca, trade, and it s pilgrimage industry. This led to political and social corruption. The Quraysh did not provide much help for those in need. The poor were often taken advantage of or abused and there was no organization or law to protect those in the low social class.
The Revelation Cause: In 610, Muhammad received the first of a series of revelations that would become the basis for the Islamic faith and the later creation of the sacred book, the Qur an. During his life, Muhammad was deeply troubled by the religious, political, and economic corruption in Mecca, and spent a lot of time in a cave outside of the city meditating. In the cave, he received many revelations over the course of 10 years. Messages from Allah delivered through the Angel Gabriel (who also appears in Christian and Jewish faith.)
The Revelation Effect: Three years passed before Muhammad began to share his revelations, when he did he was widely believed. The symbol of the supreme god and the Angel Gabriel were already familiar to Jews and Christians, and the poetic beauty of Muhammad s retelling of the words of God, helped to convince a significant number of Mecca s population. These words from God were eventually recorded in the Islamic book, the Qur an, which is considered the most sacred text in Islam. Not only did these revelations allow Muhammad to gain recognition within Mecca, but they are the singular basis for the Islamic faith.
The Cause of His Rise
Migration Cause: Muhammad s ideas were met with extreme opposition in Mecca. The Islamic religion threatened Bedouin tribes by dismissing their polytheistic beliefs as fake and trivial. It also suggested that communities should be built on faith and not on family ties, and the Bedouins were an extremely family based society. The Quraysh tribe disapproved of Islam because they feared that the introduction of this drastically monotheistic religion into their society would lead to the decrease of the Meccan pilgrimage industry, which consisted of many diverse religions. The tensions in the city almost caused civil war, forcing Muhammad and his followers to escape and migrate to Medina. This journey is known as the hijrah.
Migration Effect: While in Medina, Muhammad gained a reputation for mediating quarrels between Bedouin tribes within the city. He gained followers and created a strong muslim community, or umma, united by common faith instead of family ties. Muhammad also won respect for his military skills in defending the attacks against him from Meccan leaders.
Overthrowing Mecca Cause: Muhammad taught his followers to pray in the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca, and the city gained great significance to the Islamic faith. Eventually, Muhammad gathered his followers to create an army and conquer the city. At first they were greatly outnumbered, but Muhammad was able to gather an army of 10,000, and conquered Mecca.
Overthrowing Mecca Effect: This, Muhammad s first great military success, and caused many people to convert to Islam. Their triumph was interpreted as proof of Allah s power, and the growing force of the religion. Muhammad gained followers through his gracious treatment of the conquered people of Mecca. In Bedouin culture, conquered people could expect to be killed, or forced into slavery, however Muhammad took no revenge against the people of Mecca for the hardships they caused him and his people. He allowed those who practiced other monotheistic religions, such as Christianity and Judaism, to practice freely, though they were required to pay a tax. Though forced conversion was rare, the tax naturally compelled many to give up their previous faith and convert to Islam.
Destroying the Kaaba Cause: Though Muhammad did not take much violent action against the people of Mecca, he did destroy all idols housed within the Kaaba except for images of Allah. This was done as a clear statement that discredited the many gods of the Bedouin tribes and established Allah as the one and only god.
Destroying the Kaaba Effect: This devastated Bedouin tribes to see the Gods of their ancestors destroyed in the name of Allah. It caused their power, significance, and even existence to be questioned in Mecca. This act also claimed the Kaaba as an Islamic temple, and it remains an extremely significant religious site today.
Five Pillars of Islam The sacred book of the Quran provided Muslims with spiritual guidance and inspiration. Muslims could experience religious revelations just by reading the Quran in its original Arabic text. What was written in the Quran were direct revelations of God, and although there has been translations of the Quran, it is not a true representation of the glory of the original arabic script. Out of all this, came the Five Pillars of Islam, which was a concise summary of requirements that all Muslims needed to follow in order to be one with Allah, and achieve paradise in the afterlife. Muhammad was able to achieve all five requirements by the time of his death, and was able to live in eternal paradise.
Pillar One: Profession of Faith There is no god but God (Allah) and Muhammad is the messenger of God. Profession of faith denies the existence of the many gods and goddesses that many former Arabs had worshipped. This statement made clear that Muhammad was human, and was a prophet rather than a deity
Pillar Two: Performance of 5 daily Prayers Worshippers always faced Mecca to pray no matter where they lived. The faithful pray by bowing several times while standing and then kneeling and touching the ground or prayer mat with their foreheads, as a symbol of their reverence and submission to Allah. On Friday, many Muslims attend a mosque near midday to pray and to listen to a sermon, khutbah.
Pillar Three: Giving charity to the sick and poor Muslims who financially able are required to give a percentage of their wealth in charity to the sick and poor. Zakat is viewed as "compulsory charity"; it is an obligation for those who have received their wealth from God to respond to those members of the community in need. Acquisition of wealth for its own sake, or so that it may increase a man s worth, is condemned. Mere acquisition of wealth counts for nothing in the sight of God. It does not give man any merit in this life or in the hereafter
Pillar Four: Requirement to Fast The men and women of the Muslim faith are required from dawn until dusk during the month of Ramadan to fast. It is a way of showing that God is more important than one's own body. During this time Muslims must refrain from food, drink, and sexual activity. Muslims began to report the message of Muhammad during the month of Ramadan
Pillar Five: Pilgrimage Muslims who are physically and financially able are required to go on a pilgrimage to Mecca Called the hajj, as a part of the hajj pilgrims gather by the thousands to pray in the city s immense mosque. Many performances such as walking seven times around the Kaaba and walking to Mount Arafat (which is where Muhammad is believed to have delivered his last sermon) are performed
The Effects of Muhammad s Ideas
Muhammad s Death Muhammad s death in 632 AD devastated the Islamic community. Muhammad s teachings separated him and other recognised prophets from Allah, stating that they were not deities but simply human messengers of the on god. This separation of Muhammad as a person from his teachings and the religion that he created allowed Islam to survive his death and continue to hold meaning. Though Islam stayed religiously intact, Muhammad s death left the community without a political leader. The debate about who should succeed him, and how Islamic political power should be passed down still holds relevance today.
The Sunni/Shia Divide Muhammad had two possible successors: Abu Bakr Muhammad s father-in-law, and Ali, Muhammad s cousin-in-law. Those who supported Abu Bakr became known as Sunni and believed that leaders should be chosen for competence, not lineage. Shia supported Ali, and believed that every leader of the Islamic empire should be a direct descendant of Muhammad. Abu Bakr was chosen as the first caliph, or successor, and Ali later became the fourth.
The Quran Cause: The vast Islamic empire needed some way to share a uniform version of the teachings of Islam throughout the empire. After Muhammad s death, Abu Bakr compiled his teachings into a book called the Quran in 650 AD.
The Quran Effect: The Quran became the holy scripture that all Muslims refer to as the core of their faith. It s message called for many social reforms in the Islamic community, such as forbidding the hoarding of wealth, mistreatment of the poor, and abusing women. The Quran stated that men and women were spiritually equal. It outlined the Five Pillars of Islam, making the rules of a basic Muslim lifestyle more widely available. The poetic beauty of the writing of the Quran also contributed to conversion. Muslims described hearing the Quran read in Arabic as feeling the presence of the divine.
Creation of Sharia Law Cause: Unlike in Christianity, the Islamic empire did not separate their religion from their politics. This caused Muslim scholars to develop a set of laws that outlined behavioral requirements in daily life, combining law with religious practice. These rules are known as the Sharia Law, and they were derived from the ideas and beliefs of the Quran.
Creation of Sharia Law Effect: Sharia law set guidelines for all Muslims to follow, incorporating many aspects of Islamic tradition and practice. These laws forbade gambling, eating pork, drinking alcohol, and muslim/non-muslim marriages. They enforced values of honesty and morality. The Sharia laws caused a decrease in polygamy by placing a limit of four wives, and requiring that men be able to provide for all of their wives financially. The Sharia Law evolved from the birth of the Islamic faith, to be expressed in schools of legal practice.