Seerah

Bahira, the Monk On a business journey to Syria, Prophet

Muhammad (pbuh) and his uncle met a monk called Bahira, who recognized the

Prophet by seeing the signs of Prophet hood and asked Abu Talib to take him back to

Makkah.

Al-Fudoul Confederacy

At the conclusion of the 'Sacrilegious’ Wars when peace was restored, people felt the

need for forming confederacy at Makkah for suppressing violence and injustice, so some

of the quraish tribes entered into peace treaty of which prophet was a witness.

Muhammad’s Early Job

• It is reported that he worked as a shepherd for Bani Sa‘d and Quraish.

• Quraish people were mostly traders. At the age of 25, Prophet (pbuh) also went to Syria as a merchant for Khadijah [R].

His Marriage to Khadijah

• Ibn Ishaq reported that Khadijah, daughter of Khwailid, was a business-woman of great honour and fortune.

• After the return of Muhammad (pbuh) from his trade journey for Khadija (RA), she was told about Muhammad’s good manners, honesty, deep thought, sincerity and faith.

His Marriage to Khadijah

• She realized that she had found her soulmate. • She disclosed her wish to her friend, who

immediately went to Muhammad and broke the good news to him.

• He agreed and requested his uncles to meet Khadijah’s uncle and talk about the proposal.

• Subsequently, they were married. The marriage contract was witnessed by Bani Hashim and the heads of Mudar.

His Marriage to Khadijah

• He gave her twenty camels as dowry. • At the time of marriage, he was twenty five

and she was forty years old and was considered as the best woman of her folk in lineage, fortune and wisdom.

• She was the first woman whom the Messenger of Allâh (pbuh) married.

• He did not get married to any other woman until she had died.

Khadijah and Muhammad had six children: Al-Qasim, Zainab, Ruqaiyah, Umm Kulthum, Fatimah and ‘Abdullah who was also called Taiyib and Tahir.

All his sons died in their childhood and all the daughters, except Fatimah, died during his lifetime. Fatimah died six months after his death.

All his daughters witnessed Islam, embraced it, and emigrated to Madinah.

Khadijah and Muhammad

Rebuilding Al-Ka‘bah

• When the Messenger of Allâh was thirty five, Quraish started rebuilding Al-Ka‘bah.

• The chiefs of Quraish decided to use only licit money in rebuilding Al-Ka‘bah, so all money that derived from prostitution, singing and dancing, usury or unjust practices or immoral means was excluded.

Rebuilding Al-Ka‘bah and the Arbitration Issue

• They divided the work among the tribes. Each tribe was responsible for rebuilding a part of it.

• The work went on in harmony till the time came to put the sacred Black Stone in its proper place.

• Then a strife broke out among the chiefs.

• Eventually they agreed upon a suggestion that whoever will enter kaabah the next day first will decide the matter.

• It was Allâh’s Will that the Messenger of Allâh was the first one to enter the Mosque.

• On seeing him, all the people on the scene cried with one voice: "Al-Ameen(the trustworthy) has come. We are content to abide by his decision.”

Prophet made the decision

• He asked the representatives of the different clans to lift the stone all together.

• When it had reached the proper place, Muhammad (pbuh) laid it in the proper position with his own hands.

• The wisdom of the Prophet (pbuh) eased this very tense situation and averted the grave danger.

Muhammad in his youth

• Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was a combination of the best social attributes.

• An exemplary man of weighty mind and faultless insight.

• Favoured with intelligence, originality of thought and accurate choice of the means leading to accurate goals.

Muhammad in his youth (cont.)

• His quiet nature helped favourably in his habit of meditation and deep investigation into the truth.

• He shunned superstitious practices, but took an active part in constructive and useful dealings.

• He kept himself aloof from drinking wine, eating meat slaughtered on stone altars, or attending idolatrous festivals.

Muhammad in his youth (cont.)• His youth was the the best example of

modesty, virtuous behaviour and graceful manners.

• He proved himself to be the ideal of manhood, and to possess a spotless character.

• He was the most obliging to his compatriots, the most honest in his talk and the mildest in temper.

Muhammad in his youth (cont.)

• He was the most gentle-hearted, chaste, hospitable man, who always impressed people by his piety-inspiring countenance.

• He was the most truthful and the best to keep covenant. His fellow-citizens, by common consent, gave him the title of Al-‘Ameen(trustworthy).

IN THE SHADE OF THE MESSAGE AND PROPHET HOOD

In the cave of Hira

• When Prophet Muhammad was nearly forty, he started to pass long hours in retirement in hills around Makkah, meditating and speculating over all aspects of creation around him.

• One of these in particular was his favourite resort — a cave named Hira’, in the Mount An-Nour.

• His heart was restless about the moral evils and idolatry that were rampant among his people.

• He was as yet helpless because no definite course, or specific approach had been available for him to follow and rectify the ill practices around him

• Privacy and detachment from the impurities of life were two indispensable prerequisites for the Prophet’s soul to come into close communion with the Unseen Power that lies behind all aspects of existence in this infinite universe.

• This rich period of privacy lasted for three years and then ushered in a new era of indissoluble contact with that Power.

Gabriel brings down the Revelation

• When Prophet (pbuh) was forty, the age of complete perfection at which Prophets were always ordered to disclose their Message, signs of his Prophet hood started to appear in the form of true visions.

It was the night of 21st Ramadan, August 10th, 610 A.D., when angel Gabriel brought the first three ayahs of Surah Alaq, as the first

revelation:

بك� م� ر� س�ر� ب� ٱ �� س س� ٱل�ق� ٱل�ذ�ى خ�

• Prophet (pbuh) repeated these verses after Gabriel.

• He was trembling with fear when he came back to his wife Khadijah, and said, "Cover me, cover me." She covered him until he restored security.

• He told Khadijah of the incident of the cave and added that he was afraid.

• His wife tried to soothe and reassure him by saying, "Allâh will never disgrace you. You unite uterine relations; you bear the burden of the weak; you help the poor and the needy, you entertain the guests and endure hardships in the path of truthfulness."

• She took him to her cousin Waraqa bin Nawfal, who had embraced Christianity in the pre-Islamic period, and used to write the Bible in Hebrew. He was a blind, old wise man.

• When Prophet (pbuh) told him everything that he hadwitnessed, Waraqa replied: "This is ‘Namus’ i.e. (the angel who is entrusted with Divine Secrets) that Allâh sent to Moses.”

• Waraqa said “I wish I were younger. I wish I could live up to the time when your people would turn you out." Muhammad (pbuh) asked: "Will they drive me out?" Waraqa confirmed and said: "Anyone who came with something similar to what you have brought was treated with hostility; and if I should be alive till that day, then I would support you strongly." A few days later Waraqa died and the revelation also subsided.

Interruption of Revelation

• Ibn Sa‘d reported on the authority of Ibn ‘Abbas that the Revelation paused for a few days, after the first revelation, though prophet saw Gabriel once or twice even after that.

• The Prophet was caught in a sort of depression, coupled with astonishment and perplexity.

Second revelation

• Prophet himself told in one of the ahadith "While I was walking, I heard a voice from the sky. I looked up, and surely enough, it was the same angel who had visited me in the cave of Hira’. He was sitting on a chair between the earth and the sky. I was very afraid of him and knelt on the ground. I went home saying: ‘Cover me …, Cover me …”.

Allâh revealed to me the verses:

د�ثر� م� ا �ي� س�ي�ـ��أ ٱ ہ� أ�نذ� سق� ف� س�

ك�ب ب�ك� ف� ر� سو� ث�ي�اب�ك� ف�ط�ه سو� ج� ز� ف� لر� سو� س� ٱ س ٱ

• You (Muhammad) enveloped (in garments)! Arise and warn! And your Lord (Allâh) do magnify! And your garments do purify! And keep away from Ar-Rujz (the idols)!’" [Al-Qur'an 74:1-5]