life of mohamad the messenger of islam

‘Abd Allāh al-Hashimi al-Qurashi






:Muḥammad; (Mohammed, Muhammed, Mahomet) (c. 570 Mecca – June 8, 632Medina) was the founder of the world religion of Islam and is regardedby Muslims as the last messenger and prophet of God Muslims considerhim the restorer of the original, uncorrupted monotheistic faith(islām) of Adam, Abraham and others. They see him as the last and thegreatest in a series of prophets of Islam.[8][9][10] Muhammad is alsoregarded as a prophet by the Druze and as a manifestation of God by theBahá'í Faith. He was also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher,orator, legislator, general and reformer.]
The principal and mostcredible source of information for the life of Muhammad is the Qur'anNext in importance are the historical works by writers of third andfourth century of the Muslim era Sources on Muhammad’s life concur thathe was born ca. 570 CE in the city of Mecca in Arabia He was orphanedat a young age and was brought up by his uncle, later worked mostly asa merchant, and was married by age 26. At some point, dis*******ed withlife in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in the surrounding mountains formeditation and reflection. According to Islamic tradition, it was hereat age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his firstrevelation from God. Three years after this event, Muhammad startedpreaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One",that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām)[16] is the only way (dīn)acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, inthe same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and otherprophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was largelymet with hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly andso were his followers. To escape persecution, Muhammad and hisfollowers migrated to Medina. in the year 622. This historic event, theHijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammadmanaged to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years offighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grownto ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returningto Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died.By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.
Therevelations (or Ayats, lit. Signs of God), which Muhammad reportedreceiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur'an. regarded byMuslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based.Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) arealso upheld by Muslims.
Figurative depictions of Muhammad were asignificant part of late medieval Islamic art; however, such depictionswere generally limited to secular contexts and to the elite classes whocould afford fine art. The taboo on depictions of Muhammad was lessstringent during the Ottoman Empire,
although his face was often left blank

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Mainarticles: Historiography of early Islam and Historicity of MuhammadFrom a scholarly point of view, the most credible source providinginformation on events in Muhammad's life is the Qur'an. The Qur'an hassome, though very few, casual allusions to Muhammad's life. The Qur'an,however, responds "constantly and often candidly to Muhammad's changinghistorical circumstances and contains a wealth of hidden data that arerelevant to the task of the quest for the historical Muhammad. All ormost of the Qur'an was apparently written down by Muhammad's followerswhile he was alive, but it was, then as now, primarily an orallyrelated document, and the written compilation of the whole Qur'an inits definite form was completed early after the death of Muhammad. TheQur'an in its actual form is generally considered by academic scholarsto record the words spoken by Muhammad because the search for variantsin Western academia has not yielded any differences of greatsignificance.]
Next in importance are the historical works bywriters of third and fourth century of the Muslim era. These includethe traditional Muslim biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed tohim (the sira and hadith literature), which provide further informationon Muhammad's life. The earliest surviving written sira (biographies ofMuhammad and quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah(Life of God's Messenger). Although the original work is lost, portionsof it survive in the recensions of Ibn Hisham (Sirah al-Nabawiyyah,Life of the prophet) and Al-Tabari. According to Ibn Hisham, Ibn Ishaqwrote his biography some 120 to 130 years after Muhammad's death.[29]Another early source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns byal-Waqidi (death 207 of Muslim era), Maghazi al-Waqidi, and the work ofhis secretary Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era) TabaqatIbn Sa'd The biographical dictionaries of Ali ibn al-Athir and IbnHajar provide much detail about the contemporaries of Muhammad but addlittle to our information about Muhammad himself. Lastly, the hadithcollections, accounts of the verbal and physical traditions ofMuhammad, date from several generations after the death of Muhammad.Western academics view the hadith collections with caution as accuratehistorical sources
Many, but not all, scholars accept the accuracyof these biographies, though their accuracy is unascertainable. Studiesby J. Schacht and Goldziher has led scholars to distinguish between thetraditions touching legal matters and the purely historical ones.According to William Montgomery Watt, in the legal sphere it would seemthat sheer invention could have very well happened. In the historicalsphere however, aside from exceptional cases, the material may havebeen subject to "tendential shaping" rather than being made out ofwhole cloth.
There are a few non-Muslim sources which, according toS. A. Nigosian, confirm the existence of Muhammad. The earliest ofthese sources date to shortly after 634, and the most interesting ofthem date to some decades later. These sources are valuable forcorroboration of the Qur'anic and Muslim tradition statements]