John Dryden, Religio Laici, 39-40.
CHAPTER 1
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
MUHAMMAD, THE PROPHET OF ISLAM, was an ordinary human being. Muslims throughout the world acknowledge this fact. No Islamic school of thought assigns any different status to him. None attributes any Divine nature to him. The Qur’ān emphasises this fact also: stating it repeatedly, while making it clear that he was entrusted with God’s final message to mankind. His role was to deliver this message in full. The message is contained in the Qur’ān, which is God’s own word. God has guaranteed that the Qur’ān will be preserved in its original form for all time. Thus the Qur’ān that we have today is exactly the same as that which Muhammad read out to his community over 1400 years ago, as not a word of it has ever changed. As God’s Messenger, Muhammad also explained the Qur’ān. He elaborated on aspects that were stated in general terms, provided details where these were needed and corrected misconceptions where such arose. He also, in his own life, provided a practical example of how believers should conduct their lives. That which Muhammad has given us, in addition to the Qur’ān, is called the Sunnah. The Sunnah is an essential part of the Islamic faith, as it serves as an explanatory memorandum for the Qur’ān. Muslims approach the Sunnah as a complement of the Qur’ān, but it does not have the same status. It is, in fact, part of the revelation that the Prophet received, but it is expressed in his own words. Since it is a man’s word, it cannot be read in prayer.
Muhammad became a Prophet at the age of forty. Prior to that, he was not known to speak about religion, God, the status of man or even moral values and conduct. If he thought of such matters, his thoughts remained private, as he did not speak about them to anyone, not even to his wife or closest friends. No friend or foe ever said to him anything like, “I remember the time you used to tell us about religion or moral values.” No one has suggested that Islam was a development of earlier ideas expressed by Muhammad in any form.
Prophets are a special breed of people, as they assume the task of preaching to people while also setting a practical example. However, there is a subset of Prophets who attain a higher status: God’s Messengers, who are given messages to deliver to people. Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus were the highest and noblest of God’s Messengers. There have been other Messengers also: some are named in the Qur’ān, while others are not mentioned. All of these Prophets and Messengers preached the same Divine faith, which was based on God’s Oneness. They taught that all submission is to Him alone, and all worship must be addressed purely to Him. Ultimately, the Divine message was brought to its final and complete form, and addressed to all mankind, in all generations. This is the message of Muhammad, as embodied in the Qur’ān and the Sunnah.
In this book, we are embarking on studying Muhammad, the man. I will only touch on his message and his teachings through a study of his personality. I do not aim to present the Islamic faith or to illustrate its main principles. Instead, I will begin by looking at his background, the social environment in which he was born and grew up, and the cultural aspects of the society in which he lived as a youth and adult. I will then look at how his personality developed as he went about fulfilling the task that was assigned to him as God’s Messenger.
Muhammad was born in 570 CE in Makkah, the most important city in Arabia at the time. The Arabs lived in the land that today forms the entire Arabian Peninsula, as well as Palestine, Jordan, southern Syria and southern Iraq. Theirs was a tribal society, which considered allegiance to tribe as the paramount bond between people. Individuals identified themselves as members of a tribe, and the tribe protected and defended its individual members. A tribe could easily go to war against other tribes over a dispute that involved only one or two of its members. In such cases, right and wrong were of secondary importance, as tribal loyalty was supreme.
These tribes could be large or small. A large tribe could branch out into several clans. The separate clans considered themselves cousins, but they would still compete for honour and prestige. Clans had autonomy, and allegiance was always to one’s closest bond. Thus, an individual owed allegiance first to family, then to clan, then to tribe. Tribes enjoyed prestige based on their history, ancestry and strength. Even major tribes took pride in belonging to still larger ones. Indeed, all Arabs belonged to one of two main divisions: ʿAdnān and Qaḥṭān.
At the time when Muhammad was born, Makkah was inhabited by the Quraysh tribe, which was recognized by all Arabs as the master tribe. Before the Quraysh, Makkah belonged to the tribe of Khuzāʿah, which in turn had taken over from Jurhum. Muhammad belonged to the Hāshim clan, which had held authority in Makkah for several generations. In fact, his grandfather, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, was the chief of Makkah, with an authority that was recognized by all the Quraysh clans. The status of the Quraysh as the master tribe was enhanced by the position of the Kaʿbah in Makkah. The Kaʿbah was built by the Prophet Abraham and his son Ishmael, who was also a Prophet. It continued to be visited and venerated by people ever since it was built.
In this social environment, Muhammad was born. At the time, children who belonged to distinguished families in that society were usually looked after by Bedouin wet nurses, who came to Makkah seeking to take babies home with them. The Makkan families believed that it would be in the best interests of their children to spend their first couple of years in the desert, where the clean air and environment would ensure that they had a healthy start. The Bedouin families received financial help in return for caring for the town children. So, within a few days of his birth, Muhammad was given to the Bedouin woman Ḥalīmah, who was to breastfeed and look after him. Ḥalīmah was from the tribe of Saʿd ibn Bakr, which branches out of Hawāzin.
Two factors must have had profound effects on Muhammad during his early years. The first was the loss of his immediate relatives. His parents’ marriage lasted only a few weeks, after which his father, ʿAbdullāh, travelled to Syria with the traditional trade caravan that travelled there every year. On his way back he was taken ill. The caravan people left him in Madinah to be nursed by his maternal relatives, but he did not recover, and he died soon afterwards. Muhammad’s mother, Āminah, died a few years later, when he was only six years of age. A mother’s death is keenly felt by a child, but perhaps even more so in young Muhammad’s case, as he was with her on a journey that took them to Madinah where they visited his father’s grave. The distance from Makkah to Madinah is over 450 kilometres. When they reached al-Abwā’, a village that is a little closer to Makkah than to Madinah, Āminah was taken ill and died. The child was left to the care of his nursemaid, Umm Ayman, who took him back home. Muhammad’s grandfather, ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, then looked after him, but he, in turn, died when Muhammad was only eight.
Such a sequence of loss of immediate and loved relatives is bound to have a profound effect on a young person. Muhammad remembered his mother to his last days. More than fifty years later, he visited her grave in al-Abwā’, and as he stood at her grave, he wept in grief. He told his Companions that he had sought God’s permission to visit her grave, and his request was granted.1
In reply to a question from some of his Companions, the Prophet stated that he vividly remembered his grandfather’s death. Similarly, his nursemaid, Umm Ayman, stated that he wept much at the time.2 From this, we can see that young Muhammad’s grief over his losses was keen indeed.
The death of these close relatives must have given Muhammad the recognition that life brings whatever it might, with no guarantees to anyone: no one has a rightful claim to anything other than what is given. Later, he would associate this with God’s will, to emphasize that no one could expect anything other than what God grants.
The second factor that must have influenced Muhammad in his early formative years was the love he received from those around him. He was dearly loved by Ḥalīmah, his
