THE ORIGIN OF JIHAD

The Legacy of Mohammed

PART 2- Mohammed - The Years of Peace (A.D. 569-622)

 As the sixth century began, the Quraish were split into two factions: one led by Hashim, a rich merchant; the other by Hashims jealous nephew, Umayya. On the death of Hashim he was succeeded, as one of Meccas two leaders, by his son (or younger brother, we are not sure), Abd al-Muttalib.

Abdallah was the son of al-Muttalib. In the year 568, he married Amina (Emina), also a descendant of the leading family of the Quraish. Three days after the marriage ceremony ended, he set out on a mercantile trip. On the return journey, he died at Medina.

Two months later, Amina delivered a son, destined to become the most influential person in history, after the time of Christ.

Although his ancestry was distinguished, little Mohammed only inherited a flock of goats, five camels, a house, and a slave woman who cared for him in his infancy. His mother, Amina, died when he was six; and the boys grandfather, Abd al Motalleb, then seventy-six, and later his uncle, Abu Talib (Abu Taleb), raised him.

The name, Mohammed (Mohammad, Mahmud, Mehmed), means highly praised in Arabic. Although he was well-cared for, like most all other boys, young Mohammed was never taught to read or write. No one considered it important; indeed, only seventeen men of the Quraish tribe could read.

Mohammed was never known to write anything himself; he always dictated his ideas to someone who would write them down. But his apparent illiteracy did not prevent him from composing the most famous book in the Arabic language.

In spite of his meager surroundings, Mohammed belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Arabia. His Quraish parentage included the branch of Hussein, to which belonged the guardianship of the Kaaba. The chief magistrate of the city also belonged to the branch of Hussein.

We know almost nothing about Mohammed'syouth, but there are numerous legends. His later biographers compiled a vast number of miraculous stories about his childhood and youth.youth, but there are numerous legends. His later biographers compiled a vast number of miraculous stories about his childhood and youth.

Although his mother, Amina, was a Jewess who had been converted to Christianity, we do not know the kind of instruction she had given the boy before she died, when he was six. Yet it must have been a fair amount; for Mohammed'sdictations, as later compiled into thedictations, as later compiled into the Koran, contain many things which parallelinformation in the Old Testament (although less in the New). At any rate, it is likely that his Christian mother had been the strongest religious influence in his formative years.information in the Old Testament (although less in the New). At any rate, it is likely that his Christian mother had been the strongest religious influence in his formative years.

Apparently, he also tended sheep and goats on the hills, in the vicinity of Mecca. At Medina, after he became an accepted prophet, he referred to that earlier experience.

Pick me the blackest of those berries; they are such as I used to gather when I fed the flocks at Mecca. Verily, no prophet has been raised up who has not performed the work of shepherd.

Mohammed is thought to have gone on his first caravan journey at the age of thirteen. Apparently, he was actively engaged in trade from that time onward. At the age of twenty-five, Mohammed entered the service of a wealthy widow, named Khadija (Khadijah), for whose commercial interests he made another caravan trip to Syria. While there, he sold her merchandise at Damascus; and, upon his return home, Khadija, forty years old by this time, was so pleased with the capable, intelligent young man, that she married him.

Mohammed is said to have been a faithful husband to Khadija for twenty-five years, until her death; and, as long as she lived, he did not take another wife. This was highly unusual for an Arab of any means.

His marriage to Khadija brought prosperity into Mohammed's life, and he now had as much time as he wished for leisure.

Khadija bore him several daughters, of whom Fatima is the best known, and two sons who died in infancy. Eventually, Mohammed adopted Ali, the orphan son of Abu Talib, the uncle who had helped raise Mohammed. He also provided for Abu Talib, who had become impoverished. Ali later married Fatima.

Little is known of Mohammed's history for the next fifteen years. But we do know that, as he approached forty, he would go every year during the holy month of Ramadan to a cave in Mount Hira, three miles from Mecca, where he prayed, fasted, and meditated. He also went to the cave at other times in the year.

Mohammed began to have visions. He said he saw angels; and one was named Gabriel who would speak to him and, then, throw him down to the ground where he would lie, foaming at the mouth for a time.

The faithful believe that Gabriel, the highest of the angels, actually spoke with Mohammed and gave him the messages which were later compiled into the Koran. Skeptics say he just had epileptic seizures. Others say it was a form of hysteria accompanied with catalepsy. Still others say demons spoke with Mohammed and threw him to the ground.

(In separate studies, I found that Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits; Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormons; Charles Darwin, inventor of evolution; and Adolph Hitler (who was told to kill the Jews, thus blotting out Sabbath keepers) also made regular contact with an evil spirit.

Returning from these experiences, he would not only tell others what had happened, but would pay a man to write them down. Everything written down was supposed to have been given to Mohammed by Gabriel, who in turn was said to have memorized the exact words and later dictated them.

The messages were written on palm leaves, pieces of animal hide, and even on bones.

Mohammed's first important message was supposed to have been given to him one night in the year A.D. 610, as he was alone in the cave. This is said to have been the pivotal experience of all Islamic history. According to a report, later written by his chief biographer, Muhammad ibn Ishaq, Mohammed said this was what happened:

Whilst I was asleep, with a coverlet of silk brocade whereon was some writing, the angel Gabriel appeared to me and said, Read! I said, I do not read. He pressed me with the coverlets so tightly that me thought twas death. Then he let me go, and said, Read! . . So I read aloud, and he departed from me at last. And I awoke from my sleep, and it was as though these words were written on my heart. I went forth until, when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, O Mohammed! thou are the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel! I raised my head toward heaven to see, and lo, Gabriel in the form of a man, with feet set evenly on the rim of the sky, saying, O Mohammed! thou art the messenger of Allah, and I am Gabriel! (Koran, xcvi).

It is said that Khadija immediately accepted his vision as true, and thereafter he had many more. Often when they came, Mohammed went into convulsions and lay there heavy with sweat. When others were present, they neither saw nor heard an angel. At other times, Mohammed would hear a bell ringing; and he would be thrown to the ground, writhing, given a vision, or hear something. Afterward, he would dictate what was said to him.

Scholars say the Koran, containing those dictated messages, is an unintelligible bookif unconnected with its authors biography. Many incidents of his life assumed shape in some revelation. In his later years, for example, a convenient revelation came whenever he decided he needed to add another wife to his collection. When he thereupon told the latest vision to his wives, they would accept the fact that Gabriel wanted him to take the one he had in mind.

A systematic arrangement of the Suras (chapters) of the Koran would make it the best biography of Mohammed's life. But, instead, everything is arranged in a jumble, with the longest Suras first and the shortest last.

It was in A.D. 609, when Mohammed was forty years old, that he publicly announced his mission for the first time.

At the time that these visions began, Mohammed had lived for years in Mecca as a quiet, peaceful citizen; so when he began telling his visions to others, few paid any attention to them. With the passing of time, the Quraish, the ruling tribe, became disgusted with his tales.

During the first three years after announcing his mission, Mohammed had gained only fourteen disciples. By this time he was forty-three years old.

He opened his house to anyone who would come and listen to him, but few were interested. Commerce and trading were all that brought money into Mecca, and it seemed to be a waste of time listening to Mohammed's stories. This continued on for twelve years.

Mohammed was careful not to say that he had a new religion for the people. Instead, he said he was just trying to bring the people back to the old-time religion of earlier years. This tactful approach enabled him to continue speaking publicly in Mecca far longer than he otherwise could have.

Keep in mind that, in addition to Kaaba worshipers, there were also Jews and Christians in Mecca and the surrounding towns. When speaking to Jews, Mohammed would maintain the authority of the Pentateuch and the inspiration of the Hebrew prophets. When conversing with Christians, he said that Christ's mission was from God, the Gospel was true, and both the Old and New Testaments were divinely inspired. (In later years, when he had attained greater power, Mohammed had a different message about Jews and Christians.)

As for the Arabs, Mohammed took especial care to conciliate them, for he recognized that they could be very dangerous.

As mentioned earlier, Mohammed's first convert was his aging wife, Khadija. His second was his cousin Ali. Mohammed had arranged a feast and invited forty guests, at which time he announced himself to be Allah's prophet, and asked, Who among you will be my vizier, to share with me the burden and the toils of this important mission, to become my brother, my vicar, and my ambassador? (In Muslim countries, vizier means a high government official.)

Silence filled the room and, then, shouting, Ali rushed forward and declared, I will be your vizier, O Apostle! and obey your commands. Whoever dares to oppose you, I will tear out his eyes, dash out his teeth, break his legs, and rip open his body!

Mohammed expressed delight to have such a helpful friend. No one else at the feast accepted him.

His third convert was his servant, Zaid, whom he had earlier bought as a slave and immediately freed. The fourth was his relative, Abu Bekr, an influential businessman among the Quraish. Abu Bekr brought five other Meccan leaders who also accepted Mohammed's messages. These six, known as his six companions, would later produce memoirs of Mohammed's life. Abu Bekr would figure more prominently than the others; for, on Mohammed's death, he would become his successor.

Mohammed often went to the Kaaba and talked to anyone who would hear him. Quraish leaders ridiculed him, saying he was crazy and offering to send him to a physician, to cure his insanity.

But when Mohammed began telling people that (with the exception of Allah) the deities in the Kaaba were only idols, Quraish leaders wanted to kill him. Such talk could hurt their temple income. If his uncle, Abu Talib, had not shielded him from their wrath, Mohammed would have been slain. Although Abu Talib did not believe Mohammed's ideas, he defended the right of a close relative to utter them.

Fearing that a major split and blood feud might result from an assassination, the Quraish decided not to harm Mohammed. Instead, they tortured the slaves which had accepted his ideas, until they recanted. But Mohammed encouraged them with a new revelation, that it was all right for his followers to lie and say they were not his followers, in order to save themselves from being martyred.

So many poorer converts were persecuted, that Mohammed told them to flee to Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia), where they would be warmly received by the believers in Christ. Mohammed knew the Christians would not hurt his followers, and so it proved to be. The year was A.D. 615. By this time, he only had a total of fifty followers.

One crisis followed another. Then in 616, Mohammed gained the support of Oma ibn al-Khattab, a prominent businessman of great physical strength. His support encouraged Mohammed and his followers to more boldly proclaim the new faith in the streets. But more persecution forced them to withdraw to a secluded quarter of Mecca, where Abu Talib could protect them.

Eventually, the Quraish relented and let them return to their homes. In 619, two misfortunes occurred. Khadija, Mohammed's first wife and loyal supporter, as well as Abu Talib, his best protector both died. Fearful of what might happen next, in 620 Mohammed journeyed sixty miles east to the agricultural town of Taif. But not wanting to offend the merchant aristocracy of Mecca, the men of Taif pelted Mohammed and his followers with stones and told them to get out of town fast, or else.

Returning to Mecca, he married the widow, Sauda, and betrothed himself, aged fifty, to Aisha, the pretty, but petulant, seven-year-old daughter of Abu Bekr. She was to become his favorite wife, and he eventually had a lot of them.

On one occasion, during a conversation with leaders of the Quraish, Mohammed began reciting one of his Suras (revelations from Gabriel), in which, naming three of the goddesses worshiped by the Quraish, he said that their intercession would help with Allah. This so delighted the leaders that when he called on them to worship Allah, they all prostrated themselves on the ground, in worship of that deity. Then they arose, expressed their satisfaction, and agreed to be his followers and accept Islam, on condition that their goddesses and favorite idols were to be respected.

As soon as Mohammed had gone home, he now had too many gods. The compromise lasted long enough for his followers, in Abbysinia, to hear of the conversion of the Quraish and return to their homes in Arabia. But later the prophet changed on this point; and that verse of the Sura was canceled and another written in its place, declaring that the three goddesses were simply names invented by the idolaters; only Allah was to be worshiped. Soon the Quraish were angry at Mohammed again.

In the year 620, at one of the great annual fairs at Mecca, Mohammed preached his mission to the merchants assembled from all portions of Arabia. Some citizens of Medina were among his hearers.

Now it so happened that, at Medina, there had, for a long time, been many powerful tribes who had converted to Judaism. In their conflicts with the idolaters, they had frequently predicted that a great prophet and lawgiver like Moses would one day return.

At this time, Mohammed taught a modified Judaism, not the warlike message of his later years. He constantly quoted the Jewish sacred books, both the Old Testament and the Talmud. (The Talmud was a collection of traditional sayings by learned Jews.) Although he professed to be an inspired prophet, he was not yet claiming to have any new doctrine.

He said that Islam only consisted of submission to the divine will. Its worship consisted of prayer and almsgiving. At this juncture, the prophet did not require belief in himself as a main point of his religion (as he later did). His followers, the Mohammedans, or followers of Mohammed, were also called Muslimin, Mussulmans, or Muslims (Moslems), which in the Arabic meant true believers.

The semi-Judaized pilgrims, from Medina, were quite prepared to accept Mohammed's teachings. During this pilgrimage the prophet met many of them, and they promised to become his disciples.

They took the following pledge: We will not worship any but the One God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor kill our children; we will not slander at all, nor disobey the Prophet in anything that is right.

Later, this become known as the Pledge of Women, when the prophet added warfare and killing to the code of beliefs, since women were not required to fight for Islam.

When the pilgrims returned home, the new faith made rapid progress back in Medina among the Arabs. But the Jews and Christians were not so sure. In order to accept it, they would have to call Allah their God and accept Mohammed as a true prophet and none could know what other things he might teach.

Meanwhile, in Mecca, Mohammed had another dream, one which would later become quite famous and, in our time, be the source of endless woes to the Israelis in Jerusalem.

Mohammed dreamed that he was carried by the angel Gabriel on a winged horse to Jerusalem, where he met all the prophets of God and was welcomed by them, after which he was carried on the same steed and in company with Gabriel, to the seventh heaven into the presence of God.

Ever afterward, Mohammed maintained that he had been to Jerusalem and to heaven.

Because of that dream, Muslims believe that Jerusalem and its Temple Mount is the third holiest location in the Islamic world, after Mecca and Medina. They are willing to fight to the death to make sure that they do not lose control of Jerusalem (actually Old Jerusalem, now called East Jerusalem) and its Temple Mount, on which two of their revered temples are located. The smaller one on the south is the al-Aqsa Mosque, from which Mohammed is supposed to have flown to heaven on a winged horse. The larger and more prominent one is the Mosque of Omar, also known as the Dome of the Rock. It is built above the former location of Solomon's Temple.

In 622, seventy-three citizens of Medina came privately to Mohammed and invited him to make Medina his home. They pledged themselves to protect him and his followers. He asked them whether they would protect him as faithfully as their own families. They asked what reward they would receive if they did; and he answered, Paradise.

A compact having been agreed upon, the prophet ordered his followers at Mecca to leave in small groups and go to Medina. Mohammed and Abu Bekr, and their families, remained quietly at Mecca until all the rest had fled.

At about the same time, Abu Sufyan, grandson of Umayya, came into power in Mecca. Filled with hatred for Mohammed and his followers, he planned to eliminate them. But, upon learning that the followers had left, the Quraish assigned a small group of assassins the task of liquidating the prophet. It was feared that, if he went to Medina, he might raise an army and attack Mecca.

Learning of the plot, on July 16, 622, Mohammed fled with Abu Bekr to the cave of Thatur, about five or six miles south of Mecca.

Meanwhile, the Quraish sent out parties of armed men, mounted on swift horses, northward to search nearly the entire route to Medina and to bring the refugees back to Mecca. The pursuers returned in three days, not having found anyone.

Then, in the night, Abu Bekr's children brought camels to them; and the two men rode northward, night and day, for 200 miles until they reached Medina. They arrived on September 24.

This event, the Hegira (hijra, flight), became famous in Muslim history. Seventeen years later, the Caliph Omar designated July 16, 622, the first day of the Hegira, the official beginning of the Mohammedan era.

The reason the flight to Medina was important, was because it marked the turning point in Mohammed's fortunes. Before that time, he was a persecuted prophet; after that time, he was a revered leader of one or more cities.

But the flight to Medina also marked another, even more important, turning point, one that would affect entire populations and produce rivers of blood for centuries to come.

All through those previous years, Mohammed had been a quiet man who taught peace and kindness, in addition to many strange things. For this, he was misunderstood, ridiculed, and persecuted.

But when the prophet went to Medina in 622, something changed within him. He became warlike, a border chieftain, intent on plunder and theft, and ultimately a prophet of death to those who refused to accept him.

What was the cause of this remarkable change? Historians trace it to the fact that Mohammed had finally acquired great power and authority, and it went to his head.

But, after carefully studying the sources, the present writer believes there was another, important causal factor.

For twenty-five years, Mohammed remained faithful to his first wife, Khadija, until her death in 619. It would appear that she had a strong, steadying influence on him, which kept Mohammed moderate and even-dispositioned in the midst of many turbulent neighbors.

But Khadija died in late 619. Within about eight months, the Hegira occurred. Between the two events, Mohammed married Sauda and became engaged to marry a seven-year-old flighty child, Aisha. Throughout the remainder of his life, amid all his later marriages, Mohammed especially loved Aisha, which had been the youngest and prettiest of them all. No longer did the man have Khadija as a wise counselor.

If Mohammed had died in 619, he would probably be found today in the most obscure Arab works as a self-proclaimed prophet of the seventh century.

But the situation was to dramatically change.

Continue part 3