Muhammad\'s Movement for Social Change and Equity

Muhammad -- Social Change and Equity:

Islam is the second largest religion in the world following Christianity, which has the most adherents on the planet. While Islam is the fastest-growing religion in the world, there is limitless ignorance among non-Muslims regarding the story of Prophet Muhammad, the founder of Islam. This ignorance has been exacerbated by recent global events like the 9/11 attacks that have contributed to international panic on whether this religion fuels terrorism. While the prophet has received tremendous respect from Muslims, he has attracted criticism from non-Muslims and his detractors. Some of these people have called him a lunatic, a demon-possessed pedophile, and a terrorist. Despite these criticisms, Prophet Muhammad is a fascinating leader who founded a religion that has constantly influenced the course of global history. His influence originates from the fact that he fought for social change and equality against the status quo through using religion to unite the people of Mecca under one God.

Prophet Muhammad's Fight for Social Change and Equity:

Muhammad was born in 570 CE in a nouveau riche Mecca where many residents were not nomads but financiers and traders who earned a living from the caravans that stopped in the region for water from its underground spring (Armstrong, p.24). This region was considered holy to the Bedouin since it housed the Kabah, which was a cube-shaped granite building that was taken care of by the Quraysh, Muhammad's tribe. While he was orphaned as a child and taken in by relatives, Muhammad's life took a significant turn when he married Khadija at the age of 25 years. His wife was an older widow who he worked for by managing her caravans. Muhammad's influence in laying the foundation for Islam started when he was 40 years old after he declared he had been taken captive by a terrifying force and received command from God to recite scripture.

Prophet Muhammad's story is more relevant in today's society than ever before because of the need to understand the true origin of the ever-increasing radicalized Islam that has become the face of some Muslims in the modern world. Muhammad spent his lifetime laying the foundations of a religion that has significantly transformed the course of world history. Therefore, the life of Muhammad was critical to the unfolding and development of the Islamic ideal as it is in the present world (Armstrong, p.14). The significance of his story in the foundation of Islam is his career, which shows the inscrutable activity of God in the world. Since his lifetime, Muslims have had to make every effort to understand the meaning of the prophet's life and appropriate it to their own.

There are various ways with which Prophet Muhammad fought for social change and equity against the status quo through the use of religion to unite the people of Mecca under one God. First, he preached the ideal of submission by arguing that Islam means submission, which offended Meccans. Secondly, the prophet campaigned for Meccans to abandon the worship of their three stone goddesses since only one God exists. This campaign was not only geared in making Meccans realize that there is only one God but also focused on uniting people under one God. Third, the prophet was not a man of war and used the word jihad, which has mistakenly been interpreted to mean holy war, to promote struggle for survival of Muslims. The struggle was primarily a peaceful non-violent way to fight for the survival of Mecca.

Accomplishment of Goals for Unity:

Through his work, Prophet Muhammad achieved his goals of promoting social change and unity of people under one God. Generally, Prophet Muhammad's work yielded results in various ways most of which was realized several years after his death. One of the major ways with which unity was achieved is that the prophet's life has become an example to emulate among Muslims. As Islam continued to spread into new territories and obtain converts, Muhammad's sayings and customary practice were compiled by Muslim scholars and become the basis of Muslim law. Muslims across the globe are increasingly taught to imitate Muhammad's life, especially how he loved, worshipped, ate, and washed. His life has become an example for Muslims to imitate in the smallest details of their day-to-day existence (Armstrong, p.14). The imitation is geared towards reproducing Muhammad's life on earth in order to obtain internal disposition of complete surrender to God.

Secondly, the unity was achieved through Muhammad's struggle and fight for peace through the use of jihad. While this word is wrongly interpreted to mean holy war, it means struggle, especially in promoting peace. Muhammad achieved unity by struggling with all his effort to bring peace to war-torn Arabia despite criticism and opposition from his followers in Mecca. In essence, he did not encourage his people to retaliate to war with war but acted as a champion for peace among warring communities and nations. His creative effort to solve war with peace was exemplified in his tireless campaign against injustice, greed, and arrogance.