Muhammad's Life

Muhammad's Birth

570

Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim otherwise known as Muhammad was born in the mountain town of Mecca in western Arabia. At his birth his father had already passed away.

Muhammad's Mother Dies

575

On a trip back from town a few hundred miles north of Mecca to stay with relatives and visit his father's grave, his mother became ill and died. He was then orphaned to his grandfather.

Muhammad's Teens

580

Muhammad was a shepherd to help pay to sustain his living. He often traveled to trade markets with a merchant and was recognized by older merchants and nicknamed El-Amin, meaning "the one you can trust."

Muhammad Works For Widow

594

Muhammad starts providing service for a widowed merchant named Khadija. She was a distant cousin of him. He carried her goods to the north and recieved a profit.

Muhammad Marriage

595

Khadija impressed with Muhammad's character they eventually got married. They had six children. Two of which were boys died as babies, the other four children all girls.

Muhammad's First Revelation

610

Muhammad unhappy with the materialism going on in Mecca started making pilgrimages to a cave outside of Mecca. Here he would fast and meditate and one night he encountered a presence and instructed to recite words that could have only come from God. Muhammad was moved by the encounter.

Muhammad Creates the Qur'an

613

After Muhammad's cave experience started occurring multiple times he started to share his experiences and the words given to him. These words were gathered up and formed the Islam text, the Qur'an. The people of Mecca did not agree with these views and the Qur'an in general and stopped trade with he and his family. Later both Muhammad's uncle and wife died and the leaders of Mecca now attemped to assasinate Muhammad.

Muhammad and his followers Emigrate

622

Not being wanted in Mecca, Muhammad picked up his followers and they all moved to Yathrib (the town of his father's burial). The town had gone through hard times and were in need of a leader and with Muhammad as the new leader the town was known as Medina, the city of the Prophet. This was the start of the first Muslim community.

Conflicts

625

The Meccans were not happy with Muhammad's success leading to the Muslims and Meccans breaking out in 3 battles for 3 years. In 628 a treaty was finally signed between the two sides with the Meccans recognizing that the Muslims were a big new force in Arabia giving Muslims the freedom not to be attacked. A few years later it was obvious that Muslims had taken over as they marched over Mecca and more and more tribes joined them.

Muhammad's Death

Jun 8, 632

At this point, Muhammad had been living in Medina and had spread Islam dramatically over the Arabian Peninsula. As his life started to deteriorate he traveled back to Mecca one last time to perform a pilgrimage with many other Muslims joining him. He returned to Media after the pilgrimage and 3 months later he died on June 8th, 632 CE.