MUHAMMAD VIEWED AS A THREAT IN MECCA
Muhammad at Badr Muhammad's efforts to convert people to monotheism in Mecca disturbed the merchant elite there, who feared that his preaching would adversely affect the pilgrims who regularly visited Mecca, which in the early seventh century had shrines to several gods and goddesses. Mecca's principal destination for pilgrims was the Kaaba, a shrine housing a venerated black rock which over the years had been surrounded by various idols. [Source: Library of Congress, January 1995]
Muhammad's monotheistic teachings angered the pagan Meccans, particularly the priests and businessmen that had a stake in the wealth generated by the Kaaba. As Muhammad attracted the interest of important Meccans some of his idol-worshiping opponents offered him bribes, and promised to make him a king.
At this time, Mecca was a prosperous city whose wealth and influence were based on the caravan trade and on the Kacba, a shrine and a place of pilgrimage housing the pagan deities then being worshipped by the Arabs. Muhammad's message, heralding a new socio-religious order based on allegiance to one god—Allah—was unpopular among the leaders of Mecca, and they forced Muhammad and his followers to emigrate north to the oasis town Medina (Yathrib). This occurred in 622, the year of the hijra, or "emigration," which marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. In Medina, Muhammad continued to attract followers and, within a few years, Mecca had also largely embraced Islam. Upon his return to Mecca, one of the Prophet's first acts was to cleanse the Kacba of its idols and rededicate the shrine to Allah. [Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art]
Websites on Muhammad: Encyclopædia Britannica britannica.com ; Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet — PBS Site pbs.org/muhammad ; Prophet Muhammad prophetmuhammad.com; Islamic History: History of Islam: An encyclopedia of Islamic history historyofislam.com ; Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World oxfordislamicstudies.com ; Sacred Footsetps sacredfootsteps.com ; Internet Islamic History Sourcebook fordham.edu/halsall/islam/islamsbook ; Islam IslamOnline islamonline.net ; Institute for Social Policy and Understanding ispu.org; Islam.com islam.com ; BBC article bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam ; Islam at Project Gutenberg gutenberg.org
Threats Against Muhammad and His Followers in Mecca
By 618 Muhammad had gained enough followers to worry the city's leaders. The Quraysh hesitated to harm the Prophet because he was protected by his uncle, but they attacked those of his followers who did not have powerful family connections. To protect these supporters, Muhammad sent them to Ethiopia, where they were taken in by the Christian king who saw a connection between the Prophet's ideas and those of his own religion. Following his uncle's death in 619, however, Muhammad felt obliged to leave Mecca. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, U.S. Library of Congress, 1992 *]
In Mecca, when Muhammad turned down the offer to become king his opponents organized boycotts against Muslim businesses and egged on crowds to jeer Muhammad whenever he walked down the street. The boycott lasted for two years. Muslims may have had difficulty getting enough to eat. There was also intense persecution. Non-Muslims were forbidden to marry Muslims. Muslim slaves were tied up and allowed to burn to death in the hot desert sun. After an assassination plot was foiled at the last minute, Muhammad left for Medina
Muhammad Migrates to Medina
Muhammad's journey
The lack of acceptance by Meccans of Muhammad's preaching caused him and his followers in A.D. 622 to migrate to Medina in response to an invitation by that city's leaders. In 622 he secretly left Mecca and traveled about 320 kilometers north to Medina. In leaving Mecca, Muhammad chose to abandon the city where he had grown up to pursue his mission in another place; thus, the event often has been used to illustrate a genuine commitment to duty and sacrifice. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Saudi Arabia: A Country Study, U.S. Library of Congress, 1992 *]
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices: Faced with increasing hardships, Muhammad was invited in 622 by a delegation from Yathrib, a city in the north that was caught in a bitter feud between its Arab tribes, to be their binding arbitrator. That his decisions were to be accepted by all the tribes was testimony to Muhammad's wide reputation as a trustworthy and just man. Muhammad began sending his followers to Yathrib, and he followed a short time afterward, thus escaping those plotting to kill him. [Source: John L. Esposito “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
The migration of early Muslims from Mecca to Medina is known as the hijra (hegira). According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices” The migration to Medina and the creation of the first Islamic community (ummah) underscores the primary importance of community in Islam. It is so significant that when Muslims devised their own calendar they dated it, not from the year in which Muhammad was born or from the first revelation of the Koran, but from the creation of the Islamic community at Medina. Thus, 622 A.D. became 1 a.h. (year [anno] of the hijra). This act reinforced the meaning of Islam as the realization of God's will on earth and the centrality of the Islamic community. It became the basis for Muslim belief in Islam as a world religion, a global community of believers with a universal message and mission.
The 70 families that followed Muhammad to Medina became known as “ Mubajirun” (those who made the “hijira” ). During their journey they stayed off the main tracks and caravan routes to avoid trouble and were welcomed by the people of Medina, many of whom were Jews and Muslim converts that hoped Muhammad would bring an end to tribal feuding and violence that plagued the oasis. Within his Mecca-based tribe Muhammad was regarded as a traitor for abandoning the tribe and tribal leaders vowed to kill him. The oasis of Yatrib later became known as Madina-al-Nabi, the City of the Prophet, or Medina for short. In Muhammad’s time it was a collection of agricultural villages inhabited by Arabs and Jews.
Muhammad in Medina
In 622, Muhammad and a group of followers accepted an invitation to settle in the town of Yathrib, later known as Medina (the city), because it was the center of Muhammad's activities. In Medina Muhammad continued to preach and eventually defeated his detractors in battle. He consolidated the temporal and the spiritual leadership in his person before his death in A.D.632. [Source: Helen Chapin Metz, Library of Congress, 1988 *]
Muhammad's migration to Medina enabled him to organize the politico-religious community--the umma --that marked the beginning of Islam as a political movement as well as a religious faith. Thus, the date of the migration, or hicret (from the Arabic hijra ), was adopted by the Muslim community as the beginning of the Islamic era. The Islamic calendar is based on a lunar year, which averages eleven days less than a solar year. The Islamic calendar is used in Turkey for religious purposes. [Source: Library of Congress, January 1995]
Muhammad in Medina
Muhammad was 52 when he arrived in Medina, which a relatively small settlement was occupied mainly by Arab traders, Bedouins and farmers. He stayed there for eight years before returning to Mecca and died and was buried there. After Muhammad arrived in Medina, he said Allah would use his camel to chose the best spot to set to set up his camp and a place to pray. The camel knelt before a small barn. This barn became the world's first mosque. It was likely made of palm logs and mud brick and had fiber roofing. A stone marked the direction of prayer. The pulpit used by Muhammad to preach was fashioned from a tree trunk. Muslims gathered in the courtyard to discuss community matters. All mosque built afterwards were based on this humble structure.
Muhammad lived with his wives in huts around the first mosque. His revelations continued but they were of a more practical and pragmatic nature than those before. This became the parts of the Qur’an that defined how Muslims conduct their prayers, business, marriage, wars and other aspects of life.
During his stay in Medina, Muhammad attracted a large number of Jewish and Bedouin followers. He became Medina's ruler and military leader. It was considered quite revolutionary that he could build an alliance of tribes outside his own. Over time he built a strong army. His supporters in Medina are known as “ Ansar” . The descendants of Ansar and Muhajirun are greatly honored by Muslims today.
Muhammad Rejected by Jews and Christians in Medina
Muhammad made a number of overtures to Jews and Christians to win their support. To win points with the Jews he told his followers to observe a 24-hour fast called Yom Kippur and said god in his “prescience,” chose “the children of Israel...above all people.” As for Christians, Muhammad told them that although he didn’t embrace Jesus as a savior like they did he did believe Jesus was “the Messiah...the Messenger of God, and His Word...a Spirit from Him.”
But Muhammad seems to have ultimately been rejected by Jews and Christians. In one passage from the Qur’an he laments: “O Believers! Take not the Jews or Christians as friends, The are but one another’s friends.” Some have argued that one of the biggest disappointments of Muhammad’s life was the fact that the Jewish tribes of Medina did not accept him as a Prophet.
Muhammad initially asked the faithful to their prayers towards Jerusalem but after the Jews of Medina rejected his teachings he told his followers to pray towards Mecca. This decision and the one to have Mecca as a major pilgrimage center also may have been influenced by his desire to keep the pilgrimage trade in his hometown of Mecca and thus help merchants and trades people there.
Legacy of the Medina Muslim Community
Prophet Muhammad houses in Medina
John L. Esposito wrote in the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, The experience and example of Muhammad's new community would provide the model for later generations. In times of danger the twin ideals of hijra (to emigrate from a hostile anti-Islamic environment) and jihad (to resist and fight against oppression and injustice) were established. These concepts became guiding principles for responding to persecution and rejection, to threats to the faith, and to the security and survival of the community. Today both mainstream and extremist movements and self-proclaimed "holy warriors," such as Osama bin Laden, who emigrated from Saudi Arabia to establish his movement and training bases in Afghanistan, have selectively used the pattern of migration and struggle, armed resistance, and warfare for their own purposes. [Source: John L. Esposito “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, 2000s, Encyclopedia.com]
In Medina the Muslim community thrived, resulting in the establishment of the first Islamic communitystate. Muhammad was not only a prophet but also a head of state, political ruler, military commander, chief judge, and lawgiver of a multireligious community consisting of Muslims, Arab polytheists, Jews, and Christians. The Constitution, or Charter, of Medina, as established by Muhammad, set out the rights and duties of the citizens and the relationship of the Muslim community to other communities, thus reflecting the diversity of this society. The charter recognized the People of the Book (Jews and Christians who had received God's revelation through the prophets Moses and Jesus) as an allied community. These People of the Book were entitled to live in coexistence with Muslims and to retain and practice their religion in return for loyalty and the payment of a poll tax, or jizya.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: Internet Islamic History Sourcebook: sourcebooks.fordham.edu ; Arab News, Jeddah; “Islam, a Short History” by Karen Armstrong; “A History of the Arab Peoples” by Albert Hourani (Faber and Faber, 1991); “World Religions” edited by Geoffrey Parrinder (Facts on File Publications, New York); “Encyclopedia of the World’s Religions” edited by R.C. Zaehner (Barnes & Noble Books, 1959); Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Geographic, BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Times of London, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Library of Congress and various books and other publications.
Last updated April 2024