Quran Background 3: Muhammad in Mecca

For the first three years of Muhammad’s prophethood, he spoke out only to family and close friends. Many of the messages Muhammad received from Jibreel at this point were personal and dealt with his own submission to Allah.  During this time, Muhammad was taught a prayer ritual which became the standard prayer for every Muslim, the only difference being that Muhammad faced toward Jerusalem originally.  The method of his prophethood was primarily the recitation (which is the literal meaning of Qu’ran) of the messages Muhammad received from Allah.

Soon the numbers of the new religion began to grow to such a degree that the Quraysh tribe could no longer ignore it.  At first they called Muhammad a madman, or their local crazed poet.  But when Muhammad began declaring his message openly on the streets of Mecca, they knew that something had to be done about him.  For they knew that Muhammad boldly proclaimed his message of the one God, Allah, and they were afraid that Muhammad’s message might threaten their economic livelihood by hindering the pilgrimage, a pagan practice.  So to take a common stand against Muhammad, the leaders of the Quraysh agreed that they would name Muhammad a sorcerer, in an attempt to discredit him.

 The Quraysh would often dispute Muhammad openly.  At one point, one of the members of the tribe opposing Muhammad said, “I will never believe in you—not until you take a ladder and I see you climb it up to heaven, and until you bring four angels to testify that you are what you claim to be.  And even then I think I would not believe you.”  The majority of Quraysh agreed with this sentiment.  However, the revelation of Allah replied to them, “Waxed proud they have within them, and become greatly disdainful.  Upoon the day that they see the angels, no good tidings that day for the sinners….”  (Sura 25:21,22).

Despite the efforts of the Quraysh, Muhammad gained more followers.  Yet as the number of Muslims (which means in Arabic, “submitted ones”) grew, so did the hostility.  The Quraysh leaders desired to test Muhammad, so they asked some Jews of Yathrib for questions in order to do this.  Three questions were asked Muhammad, and a recitation was given in response giving the correct answers (see Sura 18).  Later the hostility turned to physical persecution against the Muslims.  Some Muslims were beaten for praying in open places.  Other Muslims who were slaves were beaten and threatened with their lives unless they renounced their submission to Allah.  But Muhammad was never threatened personally because one of his relatives, a leader in the Quyrash, was his protector although he was not himself a Muslim.

Muhammad’s early preaching consisted of sermons against polytheism and concerning the future events of resurrection and judgement.

                                “And of His signs

                are the night and the day, the sun and the moon.

                Bow not yourselves to the sun and the moon,

                But bow yourselves to God who creaed them

                                If Him you serve.”  (Sura 41:37)

                A year after Muhammad’s wife Khadijah, died (619 AD), Muhammad received a vision.  He dreamed that he travelled to Jerusalem in one night and from there he ascended into heaven where he saw Allah and many prophets.  Tradition states that when before Allah, he received the word that Muslims were supposed to pray fifty times a day.  On leaving Allah’s chamber, Moses asked Muhammad how many times he was to pray daily.  On learning this, Moses sent Muhammad back to Allah again and again to reduce the amount.  Moses continued to send Muhammad back until it was reduced to five times daily and even then he would have sent Muhammad back.  But Muhammad said, “I have returned unto my Lord and asked him until I am ashamed.  I will not go again.”  The announcement of the vision only increased the hostility of the Quraysh against the Muslims.

                Soon after this, Muhammad’s protector died.  At this point Muhammad began receiving serious threats against his life.  Knowing that these threats would soon turn into attempts, Muhammad decided that he would have to soon leave his beloved city.  Yet he had no place where he could go.

Quran Background 2: Muhammad's Call

Muhammad was born around 570AD.  His father had died before he was born and his mother died in infancy.  Muhammad was raised by his uncle, Abu Talib, who was a poorer relative.  Tradition states that even though he had received little or no education, Muhammad was an excellent trader, even in his youth.  This quality was a factor which made him attractive to a wealthy widow named Khadijah.  They married when Muhammad was 25 and Khadijah was 40.

                Having suddenly married into sucyh a wealthy house, Muhammad spent more time in reflection.  He became one of a small group of local agnostics named Hunafa.  Each individual within this group attempted to seek truth by “the light of his own inner consciousness.”  To do this, they would often seek refuge from the cities and find a secluded place in the desert to meditate and fast.  Muhammad himself would travel to a small mountain, Mt. Hira, and find privacy in a cave.  It was here that Muhammad received his call into prophethood.

At the age of 40, Muhammad received an answer from Allah to his prayers.  It came in the form of a vision, in which a voice called to him, “Recite!”  There was some ambiguity in this command, because the command could also be understood to say, “Read!”  He replied to the voice, “How can I read?” for Muhammad had never been taught to read or write.  This dialogue was repeated two more times before the voice answered him:

                “Recite: In the name of thy Lord who created,

                                created Man of a blood-clot.

                Recite: and they Lord is the Most Generous

                                Who taught by the pen,

                       Taught Man that he knew not.”

                                (Sura 96:1-5)

                During this vision, it was revealed to Muhammad that Allah was the one true God and that He has called Muhammad to be his prophet.

Muhammad was unsure of what to make of his vision, whether it was from Satan (Shaitan in Arabic) or Allah.  He took Kadijah into his confidence, who advised him to test the spirit to see from whom it came.  Muhammad did so, and discovered that he was being visited by the angel Gabriel (Jibreel in Arabic).  After more self-doubt and later reassurances by both his wife and his closest friends, Muhammad accepted the role of the prophet to the Arabic peoples.

Quran Background 1: Arabia in Muhammad's Time

Arabia in the sixth century AD had no central government.  The opinion of the great civilizations of the time, namely the Byzantine Empire and the western states of crumbling Rome, was that the Arabian desert was the unknown wilderness.  The population there was divided up among various nomadic tribes, whose economic focus was trading.  They mostly traded spices and other exotic items, and a few tribes became quite wealthy.

                The religious center of Arabia was the city Mecca (alternative spelling, Mekka) where there was an intersection of trade routes.  In Mecca was the Ka’ba, the large black box which contained every and god that the Arabians worshipped.  It was said among a few that the foundation of the Ka’ba was built by Abraham and his son, Ishmael (in Arabic Ibrahim and Ismail) who were the ancestors of the Arabian peoples.  As opposed to Ibrahim, however, most Arabians at the time of Muhammad were polytheistic, worshipping local deities.  The greatest of these deities was the god, Allah, yet even he was only one of many gods who were worshipped, which included the Virgin Mary.  To show respect to all of these deities, many Arabians would make an annual pilgrimage to Mecca.  One tribe, the Quaysh was the group of caretakers for the Ka’ba, the center of the pilgrimage.  It is within this tribe that Muhammad was born.

                But not every Arabian was polytheistic.  There were also quite a few other religious groups that had come to Arabia.  Jews, fleeing persecution, came to rest in Arabia.  In fact, it is estimated that up to one half of the Arabian city of Yathrib was Jewish.  

There were also Christians trading with the Quaysh, mostly on the other side of the Red Sea, in Africa.  Most of these Christians believed in a different kind of Trinitarianism than most orthodox Christians do today..  They held that the divinity and humanity of Christ was completly separated, and so discussion of Jesus' divinity was different than how we understand it.  However the Christians had monasteries and many good works such as fasting and giving to the poor, although there is no evidence that they existed in Mecca itself.  

There were quite possibly also some small splinter groups of Gnostics who separated morality into spirit, which was good, and flesh, which was evil.  These groups were somewhat Christian in outlook, but they denied the crucifixion and the incarnation to a certain degree.