Biography of Muhammad (SWA) – Paragraph Area

Hazrat Muhammad (SWA)   is       the  prophet and founding father of Islam.

Who Was Hazrat Muhammad (SWA)?:

Hazrat     Muhammad    (SWA)  is    the     prophet and founding father of Islam.   Born in Mecca in 570, I spent most        of     his        early     life    as       a merchant.      At       age        40,  he began to   have revelations from Allah that became the premise for the  Quran  and  the  foundation   of Islam. By 630  he   had unified most of Arabia  under one religion. As   of 2015,      there are over 1.8 billion Muslims within the world who profess, “There is             no   God       but  Allah,    and  Hazrat Muhammad (SWA) is his prophet.”

The lifetime of Hazrat Muhammad (SWA):

Hazrat  Muhammad (SWA) was born around 570, AD in Mecca (now in Saudi Arabia).  His father died before he was born and he was raised      first by his grandfather and then his uncle.      He             belonged               to             a    poor   but respectable family of  the Quraysh  tribe. The family was active in Meccan  politics    and trade. Many of the tribes living within the Arabian Peninsula at the time were nomadic, trading goods as they crisscrossed the desert. Most tribes     were    polytheistic,     worshipping their own set of gods. The town of Mecca was a crucial trading and nonsecular center, home to several temples and   worship  sites   where the   devoted        prayed        to   the idols of those gods. the foremost famous site was the Kaaba (meaning cube in Arabic).    I believe it to own been    built          by        Abraham  (Ibrahim to Muslims)   and     his  son Ismail. Gradually the people of Mecca turned  to polytheism and idolatry.     Of all   the gods worshipped,     it   is believed     that  Allah  was     considered the best and therefore the only 1  without an idol. In his     early   teens, Hazrat    Muhammad  (SWA) worked in  a   camel  caravan, following in  the footsteps     of  many   people his    age,  born of meager    wealth.  Working  for    his  uncle,       he gained    experience      in      commercial          trade traveling  to    Syria      and    eventually  from   the Mediterranean  Sea to  the     Indian  Ocean.   In time,        Hazrat    Muhammad  (SWA)   earned a reputation   as  honest and  sincere, acquiring the   nickname “al-Amin” meaning  faithful    or trustworthy.                  In       his             early   20s,  Hazrat Muhammad  (SWA)  began       working    for         a wealthy merchant woman  named Khadijah, 15    years    his        senior.            She soon    became interested in   this  young,   accomplished  man and proposed      marriage.   He   accepted   and over  the        years   the  happy        union     brought several  children.  Not     all   lived to adulthood, but         one,           Fatima,  would           marry     Hazrat Muhammad (SWA)’s cousin, Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom                    Shi’ite          Muslims               regard          as Muhammed’s successor.

The Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (SWA):

Hazrat    Muhammad     (SWA)        was also  very religious,      occasionally      taking     journeys   of devotion to sacred sites near Mecca. On one in all his pilgrimages in 610,  he was meditating in an exceeding cave on Mount Jabal aI-Nour. The Angel Gabriel      appeared and  relayed      the word  of God: “Recite   in  the  name of  your  Lord   Who creates,  creates man from   a clot!  Recite for your lord  is   most  generous….”   These words became   the                opening verses          of        sūrah (chapter)   96  of  the     Quran.        Most      Islamic historians believe Hazrat Muhammad (SWA) was initially disturbed by the revelations which he didn’t reveal publicly for several years.   However,    Shi’a         tradition  states      he welcomed the            message from the           Angel Gabriel and was deeply inspired  to share his experience   with     other        potential  believers. Islamic  tradition  holds that the primary persons to believe    were       his    wife,  Khadija   , and     his close     friend Abu    Bakr     (regarded  as             the successor to    Hazrat Muhammad   (SWA)  by Sunni  Muslims).   Soon,      Hazrat Muhammad (SWA)    began to collect     a      small  following, initially        encountering   no     opposition. the majority      in  Mecca    either        ignored         him    or mocked            him  as          just  another          prophet. However,   when          his message    condemned idol      worship         and  polytheism,           many      of Mecca’s tribal  leaders began  to      see Hazrat Muhammad   (SWA)  and      his  message  as  a threat. Besides  going  against  long-standing beliefs, the    condemnation        of idol   worship had economic consequences for merchants who catered   to  the   thousands        of  pilgrims who   came    to Mecca per annum.       This was especially  true          for            members      of  Hazrat Muhammad (SWA)’s   tribe,  the Quraysh, who    were           the   guardians       of     the  Kaaba. Sensing a      threat, Mecca’s     merchants     and leaders offered      Hazrat Muhammad    (SWA) incentives to  abandon his   preaching,  but he refused.  Increasingly,   the              resistance         to Muhammed and his followers grew, and that they were       eventually    forced     to emigrate      from Mecca     to   Medina, a  city     260     miles to  the north in 622. This event marks the start of              the        Muslim     calendar.       There Hazrat Muhammad          (SWA)  was   instrumental         in bringing an end to warfare raging amongst several     of              the                      city’s     tribes.     Hazrat Muhammad     (SWA)      settled                 in    Medina, building       his    Muslim    community                         and gradually  gathering acceptance        and    more followers.      Between    624              and       628,       the Muslims were involved in   a series of  battles for  their         survival.    In            the           final          major confrontation, The  Battle  of the  Trench   and Siege  of  Medina, Hazrat Muhammad (SWA) and his  followers prevailed and a treaty was signed.    The    treaty       was     broken    by              the Meccan allies  a   year    later.    By  now,   Hazrat Muhammad (SWA) had lots of forces and also the balance of power had shifted aloof from the  Meccan  leaders       to       him.           In  630, the Muslim   army   marched    into  Mecca,     taking the   city       with  minimum       casualties. Hazrat Muhammad   (SWA)   gave amnesty   to   many of the   Meccan    leaders  who     had     opposed him  and pardoned many others. Most of the Meccan     population converted         to          Islam. Hazrat Muhammad  (SWA) and his followers then proceeded to destroy   all  of the statues of pagan gods in and around the Kaaba.

The Death of Hazrat Muhammad (SWA):

After       the conflict  with         Mecca    was finally settled, Hazrat  Muhammad  (SWA)    took  his first true   Islamic  pilgrimage to its    city, and in March,    632, he   delivered  his last  sermon at  Mount Arafat.   Upon his return to    Medina to his wife’s home, he fell ill for several days. He died on June 8, 632, at the age of 62, and was    buried      at  al-Masjid           an-Nabawi    (the Mosque  of  the         Prophet)       one    of the    first mosques built by  Hazrat Muhammad (SWA) in Medina.