What you need to know about Islam #3

Today let’s look at at Muhammad. He is what they call the “Messenger” or “Prophet” in Islam. Basically the founder of Islam as he claims in AD 610 the angel Gabriel spoke to him while he was in a cave near Mecca meditating. Muhammad claims these were the words of Allah. So for 22 years Muhammad had 12 companions that wrote down these words to form the Quran. (12 companions huh? Sounds like copying something from bible.)

There is also another book called the Hadith which are considered holy writings of Islam. These are reports of what Muhammad said and did during his life. They are teachings of Muhammad and examples he set. The Hadith is held as having much of the same authority as the Quran. His friends and wives mostly recored the information for this book.

The first messages of Muhammad were peaceful and kind. This attracted many people. When Muhammad started to have opposition in Mecca from those who disagreed with him, he left in AD 622. He went to Medina. Here he built up military power and a great number of followers. His so called revelations now changed from peace to and cooperation to military power and invasion in the name of Islam (jihad). 

So think about this...in Mecca peace and cooperation. But in Medina military and war. A major shift in Muhammad’s so called revelations from Allah. It is interesting to note he later returned to Mecca with his military power and conquered Mecca and the surrounding areas which changed Islam from just a spiritual religion to a political revolution. 60% of the Quran speak about jihad. So Muhammad received the majority of the Quran after he left Mecca. Jihad is the driving force of Islam. 

Something to note, the Quran is not organized in chronological order, so to know the order of revelations one must go to a different source to get the exact order of revelations!

Tomorrow we will look more at Muhammad. 

Tom