The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

He is Muhammad, son of ʿAbdullāh, son of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, of the clan of Hāshim in Quraysh — descended from Ishmael, son of Abraham, peace be upon them. Quraysh were the custodians of the Kaʿbah in Makkah, known for trade, generosity, and eloquence.

Arabia before his calling lived a spiritual and moral darkness: idols set around the Kaʿbah, infant girls buried alive, endless tribal vengeance — with only traces of Abraham's pure monotheism left among a few.

He was born in Makkah in the Year of the Elephant, after his father ʿAbdullāh had already died. He was nursed by Ḥalīmah of Banū Saʿd, then returned to his mother Āminah, who died when he was six.

His grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib cared for him for two years, then his uncle Abū Ṭālib. He shepherded flocks as a boy and travelled with his uncle on trade journeys to Syria, growing up honest, trustworthy, and untouched by his people's idolatry.

Trading faithfully with the wealth of Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, his honesty won her respect; he married her at twenty-five, and she became his closest support and the first to believe in him.

Before revelation he was called Al-Amīn, the Trustworthy. When Quraysh rebuilt the Kaʿbah and quarrelled over placing the Black Stone, he had it carried in a cloth held by every tribe — preventing bloodshed.

He would withdraw to the cave of Hirāʾ to worship and reflect. At forty, the angel Gabriel came to him with the command 'Read!' — the opening verses of Sūrah al-ʿAlaq: 'Read, in the name of your Lord who created.'

He returned trembling; Khadījah reassured him and Waraqah ibn Nawfal confirmed his prophethood. Revelation then continued for twenty-three years, bringing the Qur'an, law, and reassurance.

He began with those closest to him: Khadījah, Abū Bakr, ʿAlī, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, ʿUthmān, Saʿd, and other early believers. The house of Al-Arqam became their first school.

The heart of his message was the oneness of God, resurrection and accountability, purification of the soul, and dignity for the poor and the weak — truths Makkah's elite could not bear.

When commanded to 'proclaim what you are ordered', he announced the message publicly at Ṣafā. Quraysh answered with mockery, then torture: Bilāl, Yāsir, and Sumayyah among those who suffered. He and his kin were boycotted in the valley of Abū Ṭālib for three years.

He permitted a group to migrate to the just king of Abyssinia. In the 'Year of Grief' both Khadījah and Abū Ṭālib died. Then came the Night Journey and Ascension, in which the five daily prayers were ordained, and finally the pledges of the people of Madīnah at ʿAqabah.

He left with Abū Bakr, sheltering three nights in the cave of Thawr, and reached Madīnah, where he built the mosque of Qubāʾ and then the Prophet's Mosque — giving the believers a home and safety.

He bonded the migrants and the people of Madīnah as brothers, sharing wealth and homes, and wrote a charter regulating life with the Jewish tribes and all residents on justice, freedom of religion, and shared defence.

At Badr (2 AH) a small force was granted victory; at Uḥud (3 AH) came hard lessons in obedience and steadfastness; at the Trench (5 AH) the believers endured a siege until the alliance withdrew.

The treaty of Ḥudaybiyah (6 AH) was a victory through peace that opened the way for Islam to spread. He sent letters to kings inviting them to God, and Khaybar and Muʾtah marked this period.

When the treaty was broken he entered Makkah with ten thousand, almost without fighting, head lowered in humility before God, telling those who had harmed him: 'Go, you are free.'

The idols around the Kaʿbah were removed and the people of Makkah embraced Islam. Ḥunayn, Ṭāʾif, and Tabūk followed, and delegations came from every direction.

He performed the Farewell Pilgrimage with over a hundred thousand people and delivered a sermon establishing the sanctity of life, property, and honour, the rights of women, and the end of superiority by lineage or colour: 'I leave with you what, if you hold to it, you will never go astray: the Book of God.'

He then fell ill and passed away in Madīnah in Rabīʿ al-Awwal of the eleventh year after the migration, aged sixty-three, buried in the chamber of ʿĀʾishah — leaving the Qur'an and his Sunnah as light for humanity.