Muhammad Totally Explained

Everything about Muhammad totally explained

Abu l-Qasim Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allāh al-Hashimi al-Qurashi (; pronunciation: /mʊ.ħæm.mæd̪/; Mohammed, Muhammed, Mahomet) (ca. 570 Mecca – June 8 632 Medina), is the central human figure of the world religion of Islam and is regarded by Muslims as the messenger and prophet of, the last and the greatest in a series of prophets of Islam. Muslims consider him the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Abraham and others. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, general, reformer and according to the Muslim belief as an agent of divine action.
He is the first founder of a major world religion who lived in the full light of history and about whom there are numerous records in historical texts comprising Qur'an, Hadith compilations and Muslim historical works, although like other premodern historical figures not every detail of his life is known. Born in 570 CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, he was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his uncle. He later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26. Discontented with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to Islamic beliefs it was here, at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and other prophets.
The revelations (or Ayats, lit. "Signs of God"), which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur'an, regarded by Muslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims.

Names and appellations in the Qur'an

The name Muhammad literally means "Praiseworthy" and occurs four times in the Qur'an. The Qur'an addresses Muhammad in second person not by his name but by the appellations prophet (al-nabī), messenger (rasūl), servant of God (ʿabd), announcer (bashīr), warner (nadhīr), reminder (mudhakkir), witness (shāhid), bearer of good tidings (mubashshir), one who calls [untoGod] (dāʿī) and the light-giving lamp (sirāj munīr). Sometimes Muhammad is addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he's referred to as the enwrapped (al-muzzammil) in Qur'an and the shrouded (al-muddaththir) in Qur'an . Although the Qur'an sometimes declines to make a distinction among prophets, in Surah it singles out Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets". The Qur'an also refers to Muhammad as "Ahmad" (Surah ) (Arabic :أحمد), Arabic for "more praiseworthy".

Sources for Muhammad's life

The most credible source providing information on events in Muhammad's life is the Qur'an. The Qur'an, however, responds "constantly and often candidly to Muhammad's changing historical circumstances and contains a wealth of hidden data."
   Next in importance are the historical works by writers of third and fourth century of the Muslim era. These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him (the sira and hadith literature), which provide further information on Muhammad's life. The earliest surviving written sira (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's Life of God's Messenger written some 120 to 130 years after Muhammad's death. Although the original work is lost, portions of it survive in the recensions of Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari.
   Lastly, the hadith collections, accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Muhammad, date from several generations after the death of Muhammad. Hadith compilations are records of the traditions or sayings of the Muhammad. It might be defined as the biography of Muhammad perpetuated by the long memory of his community for their exemplification and obedience. Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as accurate historical sources. Some scholars such as Madelung don't reject the narrations which have been complied in later periods but try to judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures.
   There are a few non-Muslim sources which, according to S. A. Nigosian, confirm the existence of Muhammad and are valuable for corroboration of the Qur'anic and Muslim tradition statements. Communal life was essential for survival in desert conditions, as people needed support against the harsh environment and lifestyle. The tribal grouping was thus encouraged by the need to act as a unit. This unity was based on the bond of kinship by blood. People of Arabia were either nomadic or sedentary, the former constantly traveling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks, while the latter settled and focused on trade and agriculture. The survival of nomads (or bedouins) was also partially dependent on raiding caravans or oases; thus they saw this as no crime. Medina was a large flourishing agricultural settlement, while Mecca was an important financial center for many of the surrounding tribes. According to the tradition, Muhammad himself was a descendant of Ishmael, son of Abraham.

Muhammad in Mecca

Childhood and early life

Muhammad was born in the month of Rabi' al-awwal in 570. He belonged to the Banu Hashim, one of the prominent families of Mecca, although it seems not to have been prosperous during Muhammad's early lifetime. Tradition places the year of Muhammad's birth as corresponding with the Year of the Elephant, which is named after the failed destruction of Mecca that year by the Aksumite king Abraha who had in his army a number of elephants. Recent scholarship has suggested alternative dates for this event, such as 568 or 569.
   Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died almost six months before he was born. According to the tradition, soon after Muhammad's birth he was sent to live with a Bedouin family in the desert, as the desert-life was considered healthier for infants. Muhammad stayed with his foster-mother, Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, and her husband until he was two years old. Some western scholars of Islam have rejected the historicity of this tradition. At the age of six Muhammad lost his mother Amina to illness and he became fully orphaned. He was subsequently brought up for two years under the guardianship of his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, of the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh tribe. When he was eight years of age his grandfather also died. Muhammad now came under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the new leader of Banu Hashim.
   While still in his teens, Muhammad began accompanying his uncle on trading journeys to Syria gaining some experience in commercial career; the only career open to Muhammad as an orphan.
   Little is known of Muhammad during his later youth, and from the fragmentary information that's available, it's hard to separate history from legend. It is known that he became a merchant and "was involved in trade between the Indian ocean and the Mediterranean Sea." Due to his upright character he acquired the nickname "Al-Amin" (Arabic: الامين), meaning "faithful, trustworthy" and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator. His reputation attracted a proposal from Khadijah, a forty-year-old widow in 595. Muhammad consented to the marriage, which by all accounts was a happy one. Islamic tradition holds that in one of his visits to the Mount Hira, the angel Gabriel began communicating with him here in the year 610 and commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses:

Proclaim! (or read!) in the name of thy Lord and Cherisher, Who created- Created man, out of a (mere) clot of congealed blood: Proclaim! And thy Lord is Most Bountiful,- He Who taught (the use of) the pen,- Taught man that which he knew not.(Qur'an )

According to some traditions, upon receiving his first revelations Muhammad was deeply distressed and contemplated throwing himself off the top of a mountain but the spirit moved closer and told him that he's been chosen as a messenger of God. Muhammad returned home and was consoled and reassured by his wife, Khadijah and her Christian cousin, Waraqah ibn Nawfal. The emotions of fright and surprise attributed to Muhammad are absent from Shia accounts. The initial revelation was followed by a pause of three years during which Muhammad gave himself up further to prayers and spiritual practices. When the revelations resumed he was reassured and commanded to begin preaching: Your lord hasn't forsaken you nor does he hate [you] (Qur'an ). According to Welch these revelations were accompanied by mysterious seizures, and the reports are unlikely to have been forged by later Muslims. According to the Qur'an, one of the main roles of Muhammad is to warn the unbelievers of their eschatological punishment (Qur'an, Qur'an ). Sometimes the Qur'an doesn't explicitly refer to the Judgment day but provides examples from the history of some extinct communities and warns Muhammad's contemporaries of similar calamities (Qur'an ). Muhammad isn't only a warner to those who reject God's revelation, but also a bearer of good news for those who abandon evil, listen to the divine word and serve God. Muhammad's mission also involves preaching monotheism: The Qur'an demands Muhammad to proclaim and praise the name of his Lord and instructs him not to worship idols apart from God or associate other deities with God. She was soon followed by Muhammad's ten-year-old cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib, close friend Abu Bakr, and adopted son Zaid. Most Meccans ignored him and a few mocked him, while some others became his followers. There were three main groups of early converts to Islam: younger brothers and sons of great merchants; people who had fallen out of the first rank in their tribe or failed to attain it; and the weak, mostly unprotected foreigners.
According to Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi, in this period, the Quraysh "did not criticize what he [Muhammad] said… When he passed by them as they sat in groups, they'd point out to him and say "There is the youth of the clan of Abd al-Muttalib who speaks (things) from heaven." The Qur'anic exegesis however maintained that the persecution of Muslims began as soon as Muhammad began preaching in public. According to Welch, the Qur'anic verses at this time were not "based on a dogmatic conception of monotheism but on a strong general moral and religious appeal". Its key themes include the moral responsibility of man towards his creator; the resurrection of dead, God's final judgment followed by vivid descriptions of the tortures in hell and pleasures in Paradise; use of the nature and wonders of everyday life, particularly the phenomenon of man, as signs of God to show the existence of a greater power who will take into account the greed of people and their suppression of the poor. Religious duties required of the believers at this time were few: belief in God, asking for forgiveness of sins, offering frequent prayers, assisting others particularly those in need, rejecting cheating and the love of wealth (considered to be significant in the commercial life of Mecca), being chaste and not to kill new-born girls. As the number of Muhammad's followers swelled, he became a threat to the local tribes and the rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the Kaaba, the focal point of Meccan religious life, which Muhammad threatened to overthrow. Muhammad’s denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka'aba. Apart from insults, Muhammad was protected from physical harm due to belonging to the clan of Banu Hashim. The leaders of Makhzum and Abd Shams, two important clans of Quraysh, declared a public boycott against Banu Hashim, their commercial rival, to pressurize it into withdrawing its protection of Muhammad. The boycott lasted for three years but eventually collapsed as it failed to achieve its objective.
In 615, some of Muhammad's followers emigrated to the Ethiopian Aksumite Empire and founded a small colony there under the protection of the Christian Ethiopian emperor Aṣḥama ibn Abjar. Islamic scholars vigorously objected to the historicity of the incident as early as the tenth century CE. In any event, the relations between the Muslims and their pagan fellow-tribesmen rapidly deteriorated.

Last years in Mecca

In 619, both Muhammad's wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib died, and was thus known as the "year of sorrows." With the death of Abu Talib, the leadership of the clan of Banu Hashim was passed to Abu Lahab who was an inveterate enemy of Muhammad. Soon afterwards Abu Lahab withdrew the clan's protection from Muhammad. This placed Muhammad in danger of death since the withdrawal of clan protection implied that the blood revenge for his killing wouldn't be exacted. Muhammad then tried to find a protector for himself in another important city in Arabia, Ta'if, but his effort failed and further brought him into physical danger. Some western scholars of Islam hold that the oldest Muslim tradition identified the journey as one traveled through the heavens from the sacred enclosure at Mecca to the celestial Kaʿba (heavenly prototype of the Kaʿba); but later tradition identified Muhammad's journey from Mecca to the abode of sanctuary (bayt al-maqdis) in Jerusalem.

Muhammad in Medina

Hijra

A delegation from Medina, consisting of the representatives of the twelve important clans of Medina, invited Muhammad as a neutral outsider to Medina to serve as the chief arbitrator for the entire community. There was fighting in Yathrib mainly involving its Arab and Jewish inhabitants for around a hundred years before 620. The delegation from Medina pledged themselves and their fellow-citizens to accept Muhammad into their community and physically protect him as one of themselves. By 622, Muhammad had emigrated to Medina, then known as Yathrib, a large agricultural oasis.

Beginnings of armed conflict

Following the emigration, the Meccans seized the properties of the Muslim emigrants in Mecca. Economically uprooted and with no available profession, the Muslim migrants turned to raiding Meccan caravans for their livelihood, thus initiating armed conflict between the Muslims and Mecca. Muhammad delivered Qur'anic verses permitting the Muslims to fight the Meccans (see Qur'an 22:39–40

). These attacks pressured Mecca by interfering with trade, and allowed the Muslims to acquire wealth, power and prestige while working toward their ultimate goal of inducing Mecca's submission to the new faith. In March of 624, Muhammad led some three hundred warriors in a raid on a Meccan merchant caravan. The Muslims set an ambush for the Meccans at Badr. Aware of the plan, the Meccan caravan eluded Muslims. Meanwhile, a force from Mecca was sent to protect the caravan, continuing forward to confront the Muslims upon hearing that the caravan was safe. The battle of Badr began in March of 624. Though outnumbered more than three to one, the Muslims won the battle, killing at least forty-five Meccans with only fourteen Muslims dead. They had also succeeded in killing many of the Meccan leaders, including Abu Jahl. Seventy prisoners had been acquired, many of whom were soon ransomed in return for wealth or freed. Muhammad and his followers saw in the victory a confirmation of their faith.
   With the early general conversion of Medinian pagans to Islam, the pagan opposition in Medina was never of prime importance in the affairs of Medina. Those remaining pagans in Medina were very bitter about the advance of Islam. In particular Asma bint Marwan and Abu 'Afak had composed verses taunting and insulting some of the Muslims. These two were assassinated and Muhammad didn't disapprove of it. No one dared to take vengeance on them, and some of the members of the clan of Asma bint Marwan who had previously converted to Islam in secret, now professed Islam openly. This marked an end to the overt opposition to Muhammad among the pagans in Medina.
   Muhammad expelled from Medina the Banu Qaynuqa, one of the three main Jewish tribes. In the ensuing months, Muhammad led expeditions on tribes allied with Mecca and sent out a raid on a Meccan caravan. Abu Sufyan subsequently gathered an army of three thousand men and set out for an attack on Medina.
   A scout alerted Muhammad of the Meccan army's presence and numbers a day later. The next morning, at the Muslim conference of war, there was dispute over how best to repel the Meccans. Muhammad and many of the senior figures suggested that it would be safer to fight within Medina and take advantage of its heavily fortified strongholds. Younger Muslims argued that the Meccans were destroying their crops, and that huddling in the strongholds would destroy Muslim prestige. Muhammad eventually conceded to the wishes of the latter, and readied the Muslim force for battle. Thus, Muhammad led his force outside to the mountain of Uhud (where the Meccans had camped) and fought the Battle of Uhud on March 23. Although the Muslim army had the best of the early encounters, indiscipline on the part of strategically placed archers led to a Muslim defeat, with 75 Muslims killed including Hamza, Muhammad's uncle and one of the best known martyrs in the Muslim tradition. The Meccans didn't pursue the Muslims further, but marched back to Mecca declaring victory. They were not entirely successful, however, as they'd failed to achieve their aim of destroying the Muslims completely. The Muslims buried the dead, and returned to Medina that evening. Questions accumulated as to the reasons for the loss, and Muhammad subsequently delivered Qur'anic verses which indicated that their defeat was partly a punishment for disobedience and partly a test for steadfastness. Abu Sufyan now directed his efforts towards another attack on Medina. He attracted the support of nomadic tribes to the north and east of Medina, using propaganda about Muhammad's weakness, promises of booty, memories of the prestige of Quraysh and use of bribes. Muhammad's policy was now to prevent alliances against him as much as he could. Whenever alliances of tribesmen against Medina were formed, he sent out an expedition to break them up. One example is the assassination of Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf, a member of the Jewish tribe of Banu Nadir who had gone to Mecca and written poems that had helped rouse the Meccans' grief, anger and desire for revenge after the battle of Badr. Around a year later, Muhammad expelled the Jewish Banu Nadir from Medina. Muhammad's attempts to prevent formation of a confederation against him were unsuccessful, though he was able to increase his own forces and stop many potential tribes from joining his enemies.

Siege of Medina

Abu Sufyan, the military leader of Quraysh, with the help of Banu Nadir, the exiled Jewish tribe from Medina, had mustered a force of size 10,000 men. Muhammad was able to prepare a force of about 3000 men. He had however adopted a new form of defense, unknown in Arabia at that time: Muslims had dug a trench wherever Medina lay open to cavalry attack. The idea is credited to a Persian convert to Islam, Salman al-Farsi. The siege of Medina began on 31 March 627 and lasted for two weeks. Abu Sufyan's troops were unprepared for the fortifications they were confronted with, and after an ineffectual siege lasting several weeks, the coalition decided to go home. The Qur'an discusses this battle in verses Qur'an 33:9-33:27

. After the retreat of the coalition, the Muslims accused the Banu Qurayza of treachery and besieged them in their forts for 25 days. The Banu Qurayza eventually surrendered and all the men, apart from a few who converted to Islam, were beheaded, while the women and children were enslaved. In the siege of Medina, the Meccans had exerted their utmost strength towards the destruction of the Muslim community. Their failure resulted in a significant loss of prestige; their trade with Syria was gone. Following the battle of trench, Muhammad made two expeditions to the north which ended without any fighting. the Muslims hadn't performed it due to the enmity of the Quraysh. In the month of Shawwal 628, Muhammad ordered his followers to obtain sacrificial animals and to make preparations for a pilgrimage (umrah) to Mecca, saying that God had promised him the fulfillment of this goal in a vision where he was shaving his head after the completion of the Hajj. Upon hearing of the approaching 1,400 Muslims, the Quraysh sent out a force of 200 cavalry to halt them. Muhammad evaded them by taking a more difficult route, thereby reaching al-Hudaybiyya, just outside of Mecca.
Negotiations commenced with emissaries going to and from Mecca. While these continued, rumors spread that one of the Muslim negotiators, Uthman bin al-Affan, had been killed by the Quraysh. Muhammad responded by calling upon the pilgrims to make a pledge not to flee (or to stick with Muhammad, whatever decision he made) if the situation descended into war with Mecca. This pledge became known as the "Pledge of Good Pleasure" (Arabic: بيعة الرضوان, bay'at al-ridhwān) or the "Pledge under the Tree." News of Uthman's safety, however, allowed for negotiations to continue, and a treaty scheduled to last ten years was eventually signed between the Muslims and Quraysh. The main points of treaty included the cessation of hostilities; the deferral of Muhammad's pilgrimage to the following year; and an agreement to send back any Meccan who had gone to Medina without the permission of his or her protector. It was only later that Muhammad's followers would realise the benefit behind this treaty. These benefits, according to Welch, included the inducing of the Meccans to recognise Muhammad as an equal; a cessation of military activity posing well for the future; and gaining the admiration of Meccans who were impressed by the incorporation of the pilgrimage rituals. According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad also sent letters to many rulers of the world, asking them to convert to Islam (the exact date are given variously in the sources).

Final years

Conquest of Mecca

The truce of Hudaybiyya had been enforced for two years. The tribe of Khuz'aah had a friendly relationship with Muhammad, while on the other hand their enemies, the Banu Bakr, had an alliance with the Meccans.
The Meccans replied that they'd accept only the last condition. In 630, Muhammad marched on Mecca with an enormous force, said to number more than ten thousand men. With minimal casualties, Muhammad took control of Mecca. He declared an amnesty for past offences, except for ten men and women who had mocked and made fun of him in songs and verses. Some of these were later pardoned. Most Meccans converted to Islam, and Muhammad subsequently destroyed all of the statues of Arabian gods in and around the Kaaba, without any exception. The Qur'an discusses the conquest of Mecca in verses Qur'an 110:1-110:3

. Muhammad defeated the Hawazin and Thaqif tribes in the battle of Hunayn. A year after the battle of Tabuk, the tribe of Thaqif inhabiting in the city of Ta’if sent emissaries to Medina to surrender to Muhammad and adopt Islam. Many bedouins submitted to Muhammad in order to be safe against his attacks and to benefit from the booties of the wars.

The Farewell Pilgrimage

hajj).
The following Qur'anic verse was delivered in this incident: “Today I've perfected your religion, and completed my favours for you and chosen Islam as a religion for you.”(Qur'an 5:3). Next to Muhammad's tomb, there's another empty tomb that Muslims believe awaits Jesus. Umar ibn al-Khattab, a prominent companion of Muhammad, nominated Abu Bakr, who was Muhammad's friend and collaborator. Others added their support and Abu Bakr was made the first caliph. This choice was disputed by some of Muhammad's companions, who held that Ali ibn Abi Talib, his cousin and son-in-law, had been designated his successor. Abu Bakr's immediate task was to make an expedition against the Byzantine (or Eastern Roman Empire) forces because of the previous defeat, although he first had to put down a rebellion by Arab tribes in an episode called by later Muslim historians as the Ridda wars, or "Wars of Apostasy". The pre-Islamic Middle East was dominated by the Byzantine and Sassanian empires. The Roman-Persian Wars between the two had devastated the inhabitants, making the empires unpopular amongst the local tribes. Furthermore, most of the Christian Churches in the lands to be conquered by Muslims such as Nestorians, Monophysites, Jacobites and Copts were under pressure from the Christian Orthodoxy who deemed them as heretics. Within only a decade, Muslims conquered Mesopotamia and Persia, Roman Syria and Roman Egypt.

Marriages and children

Muhammad's life is traditionally defined into two epochs: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca, a city in northern Arabia, from the year 570 to 622, and post-hijra in Medina, from 622 until his death in 632. Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives or concubines (there are differing accounts on the status of some of them as wife or concubine) All but two of his marriages were contracted after the migration to Medina.
   At the age of 25, Muhammad married Khadijah bint Khuwaylid. The marriage lasted for 25 years and was a happy one. Muhammad relied upon Khadija in many ways and didn't enter into marriage with another woman during this marriage. After the death of Khadija, it was suggested to Muhammad by Khawla bint Hakim, that he should marry Sawda bint Zama, a Muslim widow, or Aisha, the young daughter of Abu Bakr whose previous betrothal hadn't been honored. Muhammad is said to have asked her to arrange for him to marry both. Later, Muhammad married additional wives nine of whom survived him.
   Khadijah is said to have borne Muhammad four daughters (Ruqayyah bint Muhammad, Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad, Zainab bint Muhammad, Fatimah Zahra) and two sons (Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad and Qasim ibn Muhammad), though all except two of his daughters, Fatimah and Zainab died before him. Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him a son named Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, but the child died when he was two years old.
   Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as sharifs, syeds or sayyids. These are honorific titles in Arabic, sharif meaning 'noble' and sayed or sayyid meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As Muhammad's only descendants, they're respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'as place much more emphasis and value on their distinction.

Legacy

Reforms

According to William Montgomery Watt, for Muhammad, religion wasn't a private and individual matter but rather “the total response of his personality to the total situation in which he found himself. He was responding [not only]… to the religious and intellectual aspects of the situation but also to the economic, social, and political pressures to which contemporary Mecca was subject." Bernard Lewis says that there are two important political traditions in Islam – one that views Muhammad as a statesman in Medina, and another that views him as a rebel in Mecca. He sees Islam itself as a type of revolution that greatly changed the societies into which the new religion was brought.
Historians generally agree that Islamic social reforms in areas such as social security, family structure, slavery and the rights of women and children improved on what was present in existing Arab society. For example, according to Lewis, Islam "from the first denounced aristocratic privilege, rejected hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents" Economic reforms addressed the plight of the poor, which was becoming an issue in pre-Islamic Mecca. The Qur'an requires payment of an alms tax (zakat) for the benefit of the poor, and as Muhammad's position grew in power he demanded that those tribes who wanted to ally with him implement the zakat in particular.

Sunnah

The Sunnah represents the actions and sayings of Muhammad (preserved in reports known as Hadith), and covers a broad array of activities and beliefs ranging from religious rituals, personal hygiene, burial of the dead to the mystical questions involving the love between humans and God. The Sunnah is considered as a model of emulation for pious Muslims and has to a great degree influenced the Muslim culture. The greeting that Muhammad taught Muslims to offer each other, “may peace be upon you” (Arabic: as-salamu `alaykum) is used by Muslims throughout the world. Much of the details of the major Islamic religious rituals such as daily prayers, the fasting, the annual pilgrimage are only found in the Sunnah and not the Qur'an.
The Sunnah also played a major role in the development of the Islamic sciences. It contributed much to the development of the Islamic law particularly from the end of the first Islamic century onwards. Muslim mystics, known as sufis, who were seeking for the inner meaning of the Qur'an and the inner nature of Muhammad, viewed the prophet of Islam not only as a prophet but also as a perfect saint. Sufi orders trace their chain of spiritual descent back to Muhammad.

Traditional views

Muslim veneration

Muslims have traditionally expressed love and veneration for Muhammad. Stories of Muhammad's life, his intercession and of his miracles (particularly "Splitting of the moon") have permeated popular Muslim thought and poetry. The Qur'an refers to Muhammad as "a mercy (rahmat) to the worlds" (Qur'an ). Muslims experience Muhammad as a living reality, believing in his ongoing significance to human beings as well as animals and plants. However, Muslim tradition credits Muhammad with several supernatural events. For example, many Muslim commentators and some Western scholars have interpreted the Surah as referring to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh when they'd begun to persecute his followers.
When Muslims say or write the name of Muhammad or any other prophet in Islam, they usually follow it with Peace be upon him (Arabic: sallAllahu `alayhi wa sallam).

European and Western views

The biographical knowledge about Muhammad in the learned, Latin circles of the Middle Ages in Europe, was remarkably precise to some extent and a good amount of concrete data about his life was known. Muhammad was viewed as a charlatan who being driven by ambition and eagerness for power, seduced the Saracens into his submission under a religious guise. others changed his name from Muhammad to Mahound, the "devil incarnate". Bernard Lewis writes "The development of the concept of Mahound started with considering Muhammad as a kind of demon or false god worshipped with Apollyon and Termagant in an unholy trinity." A later medieval works, Livre dou Tresor represents Muhammad as a former monk and cardinal. Watt says that sincerity doesn't directly imply correctness: In contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken for divine revelation his own unconscious. Although Muhammad's image in the west is much less unfavorable than in the past, prejudicial folk beliefs remain. Watt and Lewis argue that viewing Muhammad as a self-seeking imposter makes it impossible to understand the development of Islam. Welch holds that Muhammad was able to be so influential and successful because of his firm belief in his vocation.

Other religious traditions

Bahá'ís venerate Muhammad as one of a number of prophets or "Manifestations of God", but consider his teachings to have been superseded by those of Bahá'u'lláh.

Muhammad is regarded as one of the Saints of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints considers Muhammad, along with Confucius, the Reformers, as well as philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, to have received a portion of God´s light and that moral truths were given to them to enlighten nations and bring a higher level of understanding to individuals.

Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, viewed Muhammad as an agent of the Hindu supreme being Brahman.Further Information

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