Hazrat Muhammad (S.A.W)
HAZRAT MUHAMMAD (S.A.W)
Muhammad[n 1] (Arabic: محمد; pronounced [muħammad]; c. 570 CE – 8 June 632 CE)[2] is the prophet of Islam and widely identified as its founder by non-Muslims.[3][4] According to Islamic doctrine, he was God's Messenger (rasūl Allāh) sent to confirm the essential teachings of monotheism preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets.[4][5][6][7] He is viewed as the final prophet of God in all branches of Islam, except some modern denominations.[n 2] Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, and the Quran, formed the basis of Islamic religious belief.
Born approximately 570 CE (Year of the Elephant) in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age; he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. Periodically, he would seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer; later, at age 40, he reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave,[8][9] where he stated he received his first revelation from God. Three years later, in 610,[10] Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly,[11] proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" (lit. islām) to him is the right course of action (dīn),[12] and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to the other prophets in Islam.[13][14][15]
Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.[16][17]
The revelations (each known as Ayah, lit. "Sign [of God]"), which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings and practices (sunnah), found in the Hadith and sira literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as sources of Islamic law (see Sharia)
Names and appellations in the Quran
Main article: Names and titles of Muhammad
The name Muhammad (/mʊˈhæməd, -ˈhɑːməd/)[18] means "praiseworthy" and appears four times in the Quran.[19] The Quran addresses Muhammad in the second person by various appellations; prophet, messenger, servant of God ('abd), announcer (bashir)[Quran 2:119], witness (shahid),[Quran 33:45] bearer of good tidings (mubashshir), warner (nathir),[Quran 11:2] reminder (mudhakkir),[Quran 88:21] one who calls [unto God] (dā‘ī),[Quran 12:108] light personified (noor)[Quran 05:15], and the lightgiving lamp (siraj munir)[Quran 33:46]. Muhammad is sometimes addressed by designations deriving from his state at the time of the address: thus he is referred to as the enwrapped (al-muzzammil) in Quran 73:1 and the shrouded (al-muddaththir) in Quran 74:1.[20] In Sura Al-Ahzab 33:40 God singles out Muhammad as the "Seal of the Prophets", or the last of the prophets.[21] The Quran also refers to Muhammad as Aḥmad "more praiseworthy" (Arabic: أحمد, Sura As-Saff 61:6).[22]
The name Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim,[23] begins with the kunya [24] Abū, which corresponds to the English, father of. [25]
Sources
Main articles: Historiography of early Islam and Historicity of Muhammad
Quran
The Quran is the central religious text of Islam. Muslims believe it represents the words of God revealed by the archangel Gabriel to Muhammad.[26][27][28] The Quran, however, provides minimal assistance for Muhammad's chronological biography; most Quranic verses do not provide significant historical context.[29][30]
Early biographies
Main article: Sirah Rasul Allah
An important source may be found in the historic works by writers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries of the Muslim era (AH – 8th and 9th century CE).[31] These include the traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad (the sira literature), which provide additional information about Muhammad's life.[32]
The earliest surviving written sira (biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's Life of God's Messenger written c. 767 CE (150 AH). Although the work was lost, this sira was used verbatim at great length by Ibn Hisham and Al-Tabari.[33][34] Another early history source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by al-Waqidi (death 207 of Muslim era), and the work of his secretary Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era).[31]
Many scholars accept the earliest biographies as accurate, though their accuracy is unascertainable.[33] Recent studies have led scholars to distinguish between the traditions touching legal matters and purely historical events. In the former sphere, traditions could have been subject to invention while in the latter sphere, aside from exceptional cases, the material may have been only subject to "tendential shaping".[35]
Hadith
Main article: Hadith
Another important source may be found in hadith collections, accounts of the verbal and physical teachings and traditions of Muhammad. Hadiths were compiled several generations after his death by followers including Muhammad al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Muhammad ibn Isa at-Tirmidhi, Abd ar-Rahman al-Nasai, Abu Dawood, Ibn Majah, Malik bin Anas, al-Daraqutni.[36][37]
Some Western academics cautiously view the hadith collections as accurate historical sources.[36] Scholars such as Madelung do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in later periods, but judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures.[38] Muslim scholars on the other hand typically place a greater emphasis on the hadith literature instead of the biographical literature, since hadiths maintain a verifiable chain of transmission (isnad), whereas the lack of such a chain for the biographical literature makes it less verifiable in their eyes.[39]
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