Muhammad was born around AD 570 in the city of Mecca, a place of pagan
pilgrimage focused on the temple
of Kaaba (“cube”) that sheltered a revered black stone. The
dominant pagan deity was the moon-god
whose title was al-ilah—“the chief among gods”—shortened by
frequency of usage to Allah. Mecca, close to the seaport of Jeddah and
halfway between Yemen and Syria, was a large trading center and
Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh,
included many affluent and politically influential merchants. His own
family was poor, however. Orphaned at an early age, he grew up on the
social margins and lacked formal education. Muhammad’s later bitterness
towards his native city and its social and spiritual structure reflected a
resentful and marginalized young man’s sense of powerlessness and
alienation.
At 25 Muhammad met a wealthy widow, Khadija, 15 years his senior, and
entered her service as a camel driver, soon rising to become her partner
and eventually husband. But his enduring detachment from Meccan society
and from the Quraysh tribe prompted the development of his contemplative
side. He would often wonder in the hills around Mecca, meditating in
solitude. One day in AD 610, coming out of one of his hallucinatory
trances, he confided to his wife that he was visited by a majestic
being—whom he identified as angel Gabriel—with a call to prophecy:
“You are the Messenger of God.” That “Night of Power” marked the
beginning of his career as messenger of God—rasul Allah—or Prophet,
nabi. Starting in 610, at increasingly frequent intervals until his death
12 years later, Muhammad received “revelations” or verbal messages
that he claimed came directly from Allah. Around 650 AD they were
collected and written in the Kuran, and eventually codified in the form
that has endured until today.
Three years after the first supposed revelation Muhammad decided to go
public. His initial teaching was simple, focused on the submission to one
transcendent Allah, on the end of the world and the Day of Judgment, on
the subsequent delights of paradise for the virtuous and torments of hell
for the sinners. In the early days the revelations were delivered in the
tone of warnings and appeals rather than threats. (Kuran, sura 46, verse
12; hereafter denoted only by numbers). But the Meccan leaders sneered at
the audacity of this common man, with no natural claim to authority or
prestige, whose attack on the divinity of old idols could deny the Quraysh
their profits derived from the guardianship of the temple of the Kaaba.
This was taken as a proof of the upstart’s disregard for the interests
of his community and his obligations to the tribe. The initial humorous
contempt for Muhammad’s claims eventually turned to indignation and
enmity.
Muhammad felt offended by the scorn of his native city, and his wrath
brought an early revelation that was harshly violent in tone. It was
directed against his uncle Abu Lahab and aunt Umm Jamil: “May the hands
of Abu Lahab perish! May he himself perish! Nothing shall his wealth and
gains avail him. He shall be burnt in a flaming fire, and his wife, laden
with faggots, shall have a rope of fiber around her neck!” (111:1-5) For
the first time Muhammad’s family problems were thus echoed by Allah, but
certainly not the last.
Muhammad’s fortunes changed in June 622, when a group of 75 people
from the fertile settlement of Yathrib, 200 miles north of Mecca, came to
him professing acceptance of his faith and inviting him to come to them.
In his subsequent escape from Mecca Muhammad was joined by a small group
of seventy muhajirun who were all intensely loyal to him personally. This
was the hijrah and Muhammad’s arrival in Yathrib on in September 24,
622, marked the beginning of the history of Islam. From that time Yathrib
became the city of the prophet, Medinnet el Nebi, which has been shortened
to Medina. Significantly, just prior to leaving for Medina, Muhammad
received first revelations allowing him to fight the Meccans. (22:39-41)
Once physically secure in his new abode but always short of funds,
Muhammad ordered armed raids against Meccan caravans passing near Medina
on their way to Syria. An early raid, at Nakhla, took place in the sacred
pagan month of Rajab, when no Arab was permitted to raise arms in battle.
Not only Muhammad’s foes, but his followers, too, were likely to be
scandalized by the wanton violation of sacred trust, so he promptly
received a revelation from Allah that the raid enjoyed divine sanction.
(2:214) From that moment on, the morality based on pre-Islamic concepts
and scriptures, in custom and in natural human sensibility, was to be
abrogated in favor of what was advantageous to Muhammad and his followers.
In 624, at Badr, his men killed over forty Meccans in a single razzia
that fortified Muhammad’s power in Medina. Yet again, however, divine
justification was required for ambushing and murdering one’s own
kinsmen, which was repugnant to an Arab. Yet again it was duly granted.
(3:123-125) Allah’s alleged messages grew more bellicose at this time:
“I will instill terror into the hearts of the unbelievers, Smite ye
above their necks and smite all their finger tips of them.” (8:12) The
“messenger” gloated in the spectacle of his slain enemies and ordered
execution of several prisoners who had crossed his path back in Mecca.
From the victory at Badr on, to quote Ayatollah Khomeini, “Islam grew
with blood.”
At that time Muhammad made the prospect of booty and ransom legal to
his followers. This powerful inducement to endemic warfare was so
important that it merited a separate sura in the Kuran (the eighth). In
the division of the spoils, every man was allowed to retain the plunder of
those whom he had slain, with the rest thrown into a common stock. From
the proceeds one fifth was Muhammad’s, as condoned by Allah. (8:41) Once
the loot was divided it was time to relax: “Now enjoy what ye have
won.” (8:69) The promise was reiterated in other verses: “Allah
promiseth you much booty that ye will capture.” (48:20-21) Muslim
warriors desire the lure of this world, so “enjoy what you have won as
lawful and good.” (69:30-37) As for the fallen, a very tangible, X-rated
paradise filled with virgins “unouched by man” (52:17-20, 55:56-77)
and “fresh” pre-pubescent boys (52:24, 56:17, 76:19) awaits them
immediately.
At Badr the simple preacher of yore finally morphed into a vengeful
warlord, who jubilantly exclaimed that the spectacle of severed enemy
heads pleased
him better than “the choicest camel in Arabia.” Killing prisoners
was divinely condoned by Allah (8:68) and urged
by Muhammad. Fresh revelations described the unbelievers as “the
worst animals” (8:55) and “the vilest of creatures” (98:6)
undeserving of mercy. The prophet was the “enemy of infidels” (2:90)
and his enemies’ heads were to be cut off. (47:4) Killing, enslaving and
robbing them was divinely sanctioned and mandated.