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CHAPTER 1
Muhammad
From Rags to Riches to Radicalization
You can deny Allah, but you cannot deny the Prophet!
— Muhammad Iqbal, "Spiritual Father" of Pakistan
Love of the Prophet runs like blood in the veins of [the Muslim] community," intoned the iconic Muslim philosopher-poet Muhammad Iqbal. "You can deny Allah, but you cannot deny the Prophet!" He is venerated as the Truth, the Exalted, the Forgiver, the Raiser of the Dead, the Chosen of God, the Seal of the Prophets, the Mediator, the Shining Star, the Justifier, and the Perfect One. Hundreds more titles are afforded him, including Peace of the World and Glory of the Ages. Of one thing we can be certain. All Muslims are deeply devoted to the life and practice of Muhammad — there is no exception.
Muhammad Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), widely considered the most influential Muslim other than Muhammad himself, pronounced that the key to happiness was "to imitate the Messenger of God in all his coming and going, his movements and rest, in his way of eating, his attitude, his sleep and his talk." Annemarie Schimmel, the venerable Harvard scholar, agreed. In her classic book And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety, she notes that the imitatio Muhammadi ("the imitation of Muhammad"), with its attention to the minute details of daily life, has given the Muslim community remarkable uniformity of behavior. "Wherever one may be, one knows how to behave when entering a house, which formulas of greeting to employ, what to avoid in good company, how to eat, and how to travel. For centuries Muslim children have been brought up in these ways."
All this underscores a salient truth: one cannot comprehend Islam apart from comprehending Muhammad. He is said to be of noble birth, graceful form, perfect intellect, the model of humility, and the exemplar of all humanity. And he is revered as the greatest of the prophets — greater than Moses or Abraham; greater than Joseph or John; greater than Jesus of Nazareth. All this from a man whose first forty years are spectacularly unremarkable.
Muhammad was born in Mecca six centuries after the birth of Christ and died in Medina in his sixty-second year (AD 570-632). His father Abd'Allah died before he was born; his mother Amina shortly thereafter. At age six he was passed on to a grandfather who died three years later. At nine he was dispatched to his uncle Abu Talib and then to the wealthy widow Khadija, whom Muhammad married at age twenty-five. Thereafter, he went on to a life of mystic meditations.
Not until age forty was there so much as a hint that Muhammad would become progenitor of what is now the fastest-growing religion on earth. Three nights paved the pathway toward its birth. Ten years forged the pattern for its next fourteen centuries.
Night of Destiny
Muhammad's night of destiny began in epic fashion. In a cave at Mount Hira a presence materialized clutching a cloth covered with characters. With force so great that he feared for his life, the mysterious presence pressed him to "Read!" Twice he experienced an acute fear of death. Upon the third, he submitted.
Read in the name of thy Lord who created, Who created man of blood coagulated. Read! Thy Lord is the most beneficent, Who taught by the pen, Taught that which they knew not unto men.
The rhyme so distressed Muhammad that he thought in his heart,
Woe is me poet or possessed — Never shall Quraysh [the pagan ruling tribe of Mecca] say this of me! I will go to the top of the mountain and throw myself down that I may kill myself and gain rest. So I went forth to do so and then when I was midway on the mountain, I heard a voice from heaven saying, "O Muhammad! Thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel." As he lifted his sights to the heavens he saw a being standing astride the horizon and heard the words, "O Muhammad! Thou art the apostle of God and I am Gabriel."
Upon hearing these words a second time, he aborted thoughts of suicide, returned to Khadija, "sat by her thigh," and poured out his dread. Two possibilities pressed him: "poet or possessed." Khadija was convinced of a third. He was neither poet nor possessed, he was "the prophet." Despite her conviction, Muhammad remained unconvinced. For years he battled doubt. Was he truly a prophet and a poet or was he truly possessed?
At times his uncertainty was so acute that he once again began contemplating suicide. In time, confidence that he was a prophet prevailed over the conviction that he was possessed. As such, Muhammad chose life — and during the next two decades changed the trajectory of human history. During the first ten years, he exercised the role of prophet; during the final ten, that of political tyrant. One ten he spent in Mecca; the other ten, Medina.
The decade in Mecca proved difficult. Khadija's conversion came easy — as did the conversions of Muhammad's adopted son Zayd, his ten-year-old cousin Ali, and future father-in-law Abu Bakr. Gaining converts among Quraysh, keepers of the Ka'bah, proved much more difficult. They had every reason to reject Muhammad's monotheistic message and little reason to receive it. Mecca was the place of pilgrimage for polytheistic tribes throughout the Arabian Peninsula. And pilgrimages brought profits.
As did the sale of gods and goods. Predictably, persecution ensued. As did doubt. Mercifully, Gabriel materialized to revivify the beleaguered prophet.
Night Journey
According to Islamic tradition, Muhammad's night of destiny was not the first time he'd experienced the angel. Before the death of his mother, when he was not yet five years of age, he lay prostrate in the desert sand, his chest slashed open from throat to stomach. Gabriel removed his heart, scrubbed out the black clot with the water of Zamzam, and restored him to life. Now at age fifty, Muhammad experienced Gabriel a third time as he lay prostrate near the sacred mosque in Mecca, his heart removed and lying in a golden bowl. Cleansed with Zamzam water, he mounted a mulish beast with a human head and the tail of a peacock. So it was that in the company of Gabriel, Muhammad embarked upon a night journey that will forever live in infamy.
Buraq was no ordinary beast. His stride reached toward the horizon and with sudden swiftness brought Muhammad "from the Sacred Mosque to the Farthest Mosque" (Q 17:1). Upon Muhammad's arrival at Masjid Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, Gabriel presented him with a life-altering choice — milk or wine. The prophet wisely selected milk, thereby choosing right over wrong, good over evil — a straight path ascending to the heavens over the crooked path leading to hell. With his beast securely tethered to a ring embedded in the mosque, Muhammad embarked upon a magical mystery tour.
Ascending from a sacred stone, he traveled upward toward seven heavens. The gates to the first level opened, and he found himself standing face-to-face with the father of all humanity. Adam proceeded to venerate Muhammad as the greatest of all his descendants. Muhammad next ascended to a second level where he exchanged greetings with John and Jesus — two of many prophets who had made straight the path before him. The ascent continued to a third heaven, where he encountered Joseph, son of Jacob — a man whose beauty was remarkable. After meeting Idris (Enoch), the personification of truth, on level four, Muhammad ascended to level five where he met Aaron, who, in concert with those in the levels below, professed faith in Muhammad's prophetic calling. The sixth level of heaven brought with it a flood of tears — mighty Moses weeping upon the realization that his rival would cause more to enter paradise than those who had followed Moses. Yet all of this was but prelude to that which was yet to come.
At the final level of heaven, the apostle of Allah met Abraham, who, through Ishmael, had fathered the Arabs, built the Ka'bah, and placed within it a black stone that had fallen from the sky. Moreover, in the seventh heaven Muhammad beheld a facsimile of the earthly Ka'bah replete with seventy thousand angels circumambulating it as they had been doing for millions of years. As Muhammad made his way past Bayt al-Ma'mur ("the Much-Frequented House"), he came upon Sidrat al-Muntaha, a lote tree at the uppermost boundary of the highest heaven. Its fruits were like crocks, its leaves like elephant ears, and out of its roots followed the four rivers of earth.
It was then that he began moving into previously uncharted territory — into a space that neither man nor angel had ever attained. Slipping from heaven into the hereafter, he found himself standing in the very presence of Allah. Whether Muhammad actually saw Allah is hotly debated among the Muslim faithful. What is not in dispute is that Allah onerously prescribed fifty daily prayers for the prophet and his progeny.
With the mission deemed complete, Muhammad began a descent through the sixth heaven, where Moses unexpectedly instructed him to ascend back into the hereafter in order to bargain for prayer reduction. Allah relented. The number was reduced to forty. As Muhammad descended through the sixth heaven once more, he was enjoined to negotiate a further reduction. The process continued until the prayer package had been reduced to five. Though Moses importuned further reduction, Muhammad resolutely refused. Rather than return to the throne room of Allah once more, he descended through the heavens and miraculously emerged back in the sands of the Great Mosque of Mecca.
There he began to tell devotees of his encounters with Adam, Abraham, and Allah. Though the majority found it all too fantastical, Abu Bakr exuded, "If the messenger of God said it is so, then so it is!" Thus it was that from that day to this, Abu Bakr became known as Al-Siddiq — "the foremost believer."
While tales of the night of destiny and night journey convinced some to turn Muslim, the majority simply turned off. "During the season of pilgrimage, the Quraysh posted guards along the roads into Mecca, to inform every visitor that Muhammad was a dangerous sorcerer who did not speak for his neighbors and tribespeople, and should be shunned." Many flesh-and-blood family members also became fervent opponents, including Abu Lahab, his paternal uncle. To make matters worse, Khadija (his first disciple) and uncle Abu Talib (his faithful defender) both died during the year of the night journey (619).
As things began to unravel precipitously in Mecca, something magical was happening two hundred miles to the north. In 620, six men from Yathrib pledged allegiance to Muhammad in a narrow valley called Aqaba on the outskirts of Mecca. The following year (621), on the occasion of the pagan pilgrimage, a group of twelve disciples acknowledged Muhammad as their prophet in what became known as Al-Aqaba's first pledge. The year thereafter (622) things took on an even brighter hue.
In the second pledge of Aqaba, seventy-three men and two women from Yathrib vowed to protect Muhammad as they would their own families in return for the promise of paradise. "Testify that I am Allah's Messenger and protect me as you would yourselves, your children, and your wives," the prophet murmured. "What is in it for us?" they replied. "Paradise," whispered Muhammad. "Upon this, our Holy Prophet declared, 'Choose twelve individuals from among yourselves who will stand by me in every matter as the representatives of their tribes.'"
Scarcely three months after the second pledge, Muhammad embarked upon a night flight (called the Hijra) that would mark his final decade on the planet and fourteen centuries of planetary history.
Night Flight
In concert with the pledges of Aqaba, Muhammad encouraged Meccan devotees to migrate to the land of his twelve disciples. Thus it was that in the dead of a September night, Muhammad and his muhajirun (emigrants) stole out of Mecca and began the Hijra (flight) that marked the birth of Islam. From 622 forward, their destination would no longer be known as Yathrib but as Medinnet el Nebi — the city of the prophet. In Mecca, Muhammad had been a marginalized prophet; in Medina he became a political monarch who, in a mere ten years, transformed the Arabian Peninsula.
Muhammad proved a cunning diplomat. He highlighted Islamic commonalities with those described in the Qur'an as People of the Book. First, he emphasized concord between his monotheism and that of Jews and Christians. Furthermore, he highlighted Moses as the quintessential Jewish prophet. And, finally, in concert with Jewish and Christian sensibilities, he mandated that devotees pray in the direction of Jerusalem.
As Muhammad progressively gained political power and prestige, all of that changed. In time he received messages from Allah claiming that People of the Book holding Jesus to be the Son of God were guilty of the unforgiveable sin of shirk (Q 4:116). In addition, he began emphasizing the primacy of Abraham, who allegedly dwells in the seventh level of heaven, over Moses on level six and Jesus whose abode is on the second to the lowest level. Moreover, Muhammad feigned a message from Allah, forever changing the direction of prayer from Jerusalem to Mecca (Q 2:142-49).
More ominous still, Muhammad began receiving revelations that would submerge the Arabian Peninsula in blood.
Nexus of Evil
As noted by the acclaimed Sufi writer Stephen Schwartz, "Angelic communications continued for two years before the Prophet began sharing them widely." During the following decade (612-622), Muhammad became increasingly vocal. Said Ibn Ishaq, the Meccans "had never known anything like the trouble they had endured from this fellow; he had declared their mode of life foolish, insulted their forefathers, reviled their religion, divided the community, and cursed their gods."
The next ten years (622-632) brought far more than curses. During those years, Muhammad graduated from a war of words to a war of weapons. In 623, he drew first blood.
AD 623: First Murder in Muslim History
When ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks.
— 47:4
In Mecca, Muhammad's first wife, Khadija, had showered him with wealth. In Medina, Muhammad was not afforded the same luxury. Thus, he faced the daunting challenge of finding alternate sources to fund his new religion. The solution came in the form of a Qur'anic revelation sanctioning terrorist attacks. "When ye meet the Unbelievers (in fight), smite at their necks" (47:4).
With new revelation in hand, Muhammad mandated the practice of raiding Meccan caravans. His first raid was a standoff. The second was only slightly more successful. It marked the first shot fired in the "cause of Allah" but brought with it neither blood nor booty. The next four raids were similarly unspectacular. On the seventh try the Muslims finally cashed in. They recorded the first murder in Muslim history ("Waqid shot 'Amr b. al-Hadrami with an arrow and killed him") and took the spoils of war back to their base in Medina.
The first Muslim murder raised serious concerns throughout the Arabian Peninsula. The Quraysh were shocked that anyone, much less a fellow tribesman, would so coldheartedly kill and plunder during the sacred month of Rajab. The Jews were equally outraged and "turned this raid into an omen against the apostle." Even "their Muslim brethren reproached them for what they had done," fearing that Allah would turn such gratuitous evil against them.
Again, however, "God relieved the Muslims of their anxiety in the matter" via divine revelation. "They ask you about war in the Sacred Month. Tell them: 'Fighting in this month is a heinous offence; but to prevent from the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access and expel His worshippers from the Sacred Mosque is a more severe crime, since mischief is worse than killing in His sight'" (Q 2:217 Malik).
With conscience thus salved, Muhammad and the Muslim raiders moved into a year that brought with it the infamous Battle of Badr.
AD 624: From Trembling Prophet to Political Tyrant
O Prophet! Urge the believers to war; if there are twenty patient ones of you they shall overcome two hundred, and if there are a hundred of you they shall overcome a thousand of those who disbelieve, because they are a people who do not understand.
— Q 8:65 Shakir
As the articulate apologist for the apostle of Allah, Stephen Schwartz has aptly noted, "Muslims view the Battle of Badr as a major event in human history and believe Muhammad's forces were favored by divine assistance, including the help of angels" that outnumbered Muhammad's army by a score of three to one. Five hundred angels fought for Muhammad under the command of Gabriel and five hundred more under the command of the archangel Michael.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Muslim"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Hank Hanegraaff.
Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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