Prophet Muhammad Founder of Islam

When examining the Prophet Muhammad in a religious-historical context, it is helpful to compare him to another central religious figure in the history of the West in order to highlight how he is unique. For example, while Christ plays the role of God-Man in the Christian religion, Muhammad simply plays the role of man—though a very special one, of course.[footnoteRef:1] As the Qur’an notes: “Muhammad is no more than an apostle: many were the apostle that passed away before him.”[footnoteRef:2] However, Muhammad’s nature is unlike that of other men, for he is recognized in Islam as having the “most perfect nature” and as being “like a jewel among stones.”[footnoteRef:3] Similarly to the way in which Christ is beloved of the Father in Christianity, Muhammad is “the beloved of God (habib Allah), whom the Quran calls an excellent model (uswah hasanah) to emulate.”[footnoteRef:4] Another distinction that can be made is that the religion that was revealed through the Prophet is Islam—not Muhammadanism.[footnoteRef:5] Though Western writers have employed the moniker to describe Islam, for the followers of Islam the religion was not known by any other name and certainly not by the name of Muhammadanism. Christians were always known as Christians and identified as such. Muhammad served as the founder of Islam but not as its architect or designer: the designer of the religion was Allah and both Muhammad and his followers recognized that. As Seyyed Hossein Nasr notes, “Islam is based on the Absolute, Allah, and not on the messenger.”[footnoteRef:6] This paper will therefore describe Muhammad’s role in the founding of Islam and show how he enabled the religion to spread. [1: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 46.] [2: Qur’an: Surrah 3:144.] [3: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 46.] [4: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 46.] [5: Maulana Muhammad Ali, The Religion of Islam (Ahmadiyya Anjuman Ishaat Islam Lahore USA, 2011), 8.] [6: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47.]

Muhammad was born in Mecca in 570 AD. At the time, Arabia was a war-torn region with many tribes fighting one another. Muhammad belonged to a tribe that had grown increasingly powerful near Mecca. This tribe was named Fihr, also known as Quarish, and it was responsible for protecting the sacred Kaaba or Kabah—known in Islam as the House of God. It is towards this mosque that all Muslims turn when the pray—and when Muhammad was alive, his tribe guarded it. In Muhammad’s time, the Kabah “was venerated as the shrine of Allah, the High God.”[footnoteRef:7] As Mecca was an important commercial and religious center in Arabia, the tribe of Fihr played a very special role in the region. [7: Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (NY: Random House, 2002), 11.]

Muhammad’s parents died when he was just a small child and he was raised by his uncle. His early years were spent as a shepherd but in his 20s, he married a wealthy widow named Khadeejah. Together they had six children, but only one of the children survived and that was Muhammad’s daughter Fatimah. Fatimah was loved very much by Muhammad and when he founded Islam, she along with her mother were among the first converts to Islam. She is today known as the “mother of all the descendents” of Muhammad—also known as sayyids or sharifs.[footnoteRef:8] [8: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47.]

Muhammad traveled frequently to Syria from Mecca, meeting people of Jewish and Christian faith. He learned some of the particulars of their religions. Meanwhile, he prayed and fasted in order to maintain a discipline in his own faith. When, in 612 AD, at the age of 40, he received a message from the archangel Gabriel, he entered into the service of Allah, acting as his prophet and apostle in Arabia. Muhammad would receive these revelations for the rest of his life—i.e., “for the next twenty-three years.”[footnoteRef:9] The message that Muhammad preached to those who would listen was that they must reject worshipping false idols and amend their lives to be in accordance with the will of Allah. His preaching was not initially well received by many, however, and he was driven from Mecca ten years later, in 622. This is known as the Hejira or Flight. [9: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 50.]

From Mecca, Muhammad went to Medina, where he and his Muslims won the respect of the Bedouin tribes by defeating the Meccan army sent to protect a caravan traveling to Medina. The Muslims were vastly outnumbered but were ordered by Muhammad, who had trained them to fight with precision. The Meccan army was routed and the Bedouin who watched their enemy fall to the Muslim newcomers began from that point on to recognize Muhammad as the Prophet of Allah.[footnoteRef:10] The Muslims grew in number but they continued to be challenged by enemies and Muhammad led the Muslims in a number of contests among Arabian tribes, Jewish tribes and Christian tribes. Throughout it all, Muhammad impressed among those who followed Islam the importance of maintaining a disciplined spirit, and for that reason Seyyed Hossein Nasr states that “the love of the Prophet lies at the heart of Islamic piety.”[footnoteRef:11] The importance and centrality of the Prophet to Islam can be seen in the understanding among Muslims that “human beings can love God only if God loves them, and God loves only the person who loves His Prophet.”[footnoteRef:12] This understanding is supported by the Qur’an, which states: “Lo! Allah and His angels shower blessings upon the Prophet. O ye who believe! Ask blessing upon him and salute him with a worthy salutation.”[footnoteRef:13] Thanks to his preaching and his victories in battle, Muhammad was able to spread the religion of Islam and win the love and affection of the converts. [10: Karen Armstrong, Islam: A Short History (NY: Random House, 2002), 19.] [11: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47.] [12: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47.] [13: Qur’an: Surrah 33:56.]

Muhammad gave both the Qur’an and his own family to the Muslim community, asserting that these were two “precious heritages” that would signify how he would continue to be present in Islam even after his death.[footnoteRef:14] However, over time, the Islamic community has divided into factions. Sunni and Shia Muslims have opposing views as to the succession of caliphs and the legitimacy of Islamic rulers. Yet, Sufis can be found in both sects, and they represent the inner heart of Islam, or Islamic mysticism. Seyyed Hossein Nasr states that “Sufis assert that the inner reality of the Prophet was the first link in the prophetic chain and that his outward and historical reality came at the end of the prophetic cycle to bring it to a close.”[footnoteRef:15] In other words, there is a permanence among all Muslims regarding the place of Muhammad in their history and indeed in the history of the world: “the love of the Prophet permeates all dimensions of Islam, affecting both those who follow the Shari’ah and those who walk upon the spiritual path, the Tariqah, of which he is the founder and guide.”[footnoteRef:16] It is out of this love and respect for the Prophet that Muslims base their own deportment, habits and demeanor. They seek to emulate him in his example of mercy, discipline, piety and austerity. They recognize in his story the traits and qualities that are needed in order to maintain a holy life. Of course, the Qur’an, which is “foundation of Islamic Law,” left by Muhammad for the Muslims, serves as a guide in terms of laying down the principles and teachings that Muslims should follow so as to please Allah.[footnoteRef:17] [14: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47.] [15: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 47-48.] [16: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 48.] [17: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 48.]

The verses of the Qur’an were given to Muhammad by Allah and were revealed to him over the 20+ years in which he received revelations from God. When Muhammad returned to Mecca, Islam was finally embraced in his native region. Having “marched into Mecca triumphantly in the year 8/630, forgiving all his enemies with great nobility and magnanimity,” Muhammad solidified his position in Islam[footnoteRef:18]—and this event is recorded in the Qur’an: “In the Name of Allah, the Infinitely Good, the All-Merciful When Allah’s succor, and triumph cometh and thou seest mankind entering the religion of Allah in troops, Then hymn the praise of thy Lord, and seek forgiveness of Him. Lo! He is ever ready to show mercy.”[footnoteRef:19] Through this demonstration of mercy and discipline, Muhammad was able to spread Islam across Arabia. From there, Islam took on a global movement, but always Muhammad remained at the center of it, serving as the “ideal model of human behavior and action.”[footnoteRef:20] His simple lifestyle, his courage in the face of aggression, his compassion and his mercy reflect the values dear to Allah. Muhammad helped usher in a nursing community to help treat the wounded Muslims who lay on the battlefields after wars. He honored the first Muslim nurse, Rufaida al-Asalmiya, who established the very first nursing school in Arabia. She had a nursing corps who treated the wounded Muslim soldiers in 624 AD, helping to dress their wounds and prevent the spread of disease. Muhammad greatly admired and respected her devotion to the Muslims and saw to it that she have a special “tent in the Prophet’s mosque where health education to the community was delivered.”[footnoteRef:21] Likewise, Al-Osimy notes that the “status of the women participating as nurses in the wars was so highly honored by the Holy Prophet that he considered their effort as a form of Jihad in the cause of Allah. He used to give them their share of the war loot just as he gave men theirs.”[footnoteRef:22] In this manner Muhammad demonstrated the tenets of Islam and showed how the religious Muslims should honor those who in their turn show devotion to the community. Muhammad himself advocated for education and for learning so that the people of Islam could grow in knowledge. [18: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 51.] [19: Qur’an: Surrah 60:110.] [20: Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islam: Religion, History and Civilization (NY: HarperCollins, 2003), 52.] [21: Rassool, G. Cultural Competence in Caring for Muslim Patients (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 21.] [22: Al-Osimy, M. Nursing in Saudi Arabia (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: King Fahd National Library, 1994), 18.]