Muhammad and the Qur'an: The Messenger and His Message
Muhammad is called rasul Allah, i.e., the "messenger of God." In Sura 33:40 of the Qur'an he is called "the seal of the prophets," a title previously claimed by the 3rd century Persian Gnostic Mani, the founder of Manichaeism. Like Mani, Muhammad understands himself as the "comfort" (parakletos)promised to come after Jesus (John 14:16.26). Like Mani, too, Muhammad realizes the importance of fixating the texts of his "recitations" (suras) immediately, to exclude any possible corruption of the sacred words.
For the Muslim, the Qur'an is not just a sacred book but the quintessence of linguistic and aesthetic perfection. It is considered to have been literally revealed to Muhammad who merely recited what he received from an angel.
In terms of form, the Qur'an is organized according to the relative length of the suras, from the longest to the shortest, a principle of organization also found elsewhere (e.g., in the biblical twelve minor prophets, following the major, i.e., longer, prophetic books, and in the Mishnah, where the tracts within each order are organized by their length perhaps to indicate the purposive absence of a hierarchy of importance). The shorter suras at the end of the Qur'an reflect the inspired first (Meccan) period, the longer suras are mostly from the period after the Hijra. The former are often of an apocalyptic content and in a prophetic style, whereas the latter ones often contain laws or polemic diatribes and are less poetic.
From the Qur'an and other biographic sources (Hadith, Sira, Ibn Hisham) we know that Muhammad was born around 570 CE. His (putative) birthday is popularly celebrated on the 12th of the month Rabi al-awwal.
His name means "Highly Praised". Muhammad was born to a respected but not wealthy branch of the Quraish family who dominated the city of Mecca (tribe: Banu Hashim).
Orphaned at an early age (he never met his father and lost his mother when he was six years old), Muhammad lived with his paternal grandfather Abd Al-muttalib and later with his uncle, Abu Talib.
Abu Talib is the father of Ali, who became one of Muhammad's closest companions and son-in-law by his daughter Fatima (from his marriage with the widow Khadija). Ali was to be the fourth successor to Muhammad as head of all Muslims (khalifa) and, according to Shi'i Islam, the first legitimate successor (imam).
As a manager of caravans for Khadija (who was M's elder by 15 years), M. comes into contact with the Jews of the desert and the cities (former Roman slaves, refuges, merchants, and colonists), with Christians (mainly Nestorian doketists who insisted that Christ never was a mere human being), Persian Zoroastrians and Gnostics (dualists), and indigenous hanifa (monotheists).
Around 610, M. begins to recite the verses that were to be collected in the Qur'an. His wife and cousin are among his earliest and strongest followers.
Muhammad and the Qur'an: Meccan Suras
In a beautiful archaic Arabic, Muhammad preaches "submission" (islam) to Allah, who is none other than the God of whom all previous prophets from Adam to Jesus had spoken.
Sura 96:1-8
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful.
1. Read: In the name of thy Lord who createth,
2. Createth man from a clot.
3. Read: And the Lord is the Most Bounteous,
4. Who teaches by the pen,
5. Who teacheth man that which he knew not.
6. Nay, but verily man is rebellious
7. That he thinketh himself independent [=self-sufficient]!
8. Lo! unto thy Lord is the return [everything returns to thy Lord].
In Sura 17, called "The Children of Israel" or "In Egypt, the Mighty Voyage," Muhammad summarizes twelve basic commandments, modelled on Moses' Ten commandments from Sinai (Moses is mentioned, and praised, in Sura 7:145):
(22) 1. Set not up with Allah any other God lest thou sit down reproved, forsaken.
(23) 2. Thy Lord hath decreed that ye worship none save him.
(24) 3. And ye show kindness to parents. (...)
(26) 4. Give the kinsman his due and the needy and the wayfarer, but squander not in wantonness. (...)
(31) 5. Slay not your children, fearing a fall to poverty; we shall provide for them and for you. Lo! the slaying of them is a great sin.
(32) 6. And come not near adultery. Lo! it is an abomination and an evil way.
(33) 7. And slay not the life which Allah hath forbidden save with right. Whoso is slain wrongfully, we have given power to his heir, but let him not commit excess in slaying. Lo! he will be helped. [Note that it is permitted to accept ransom instead of revenge, and revenge is limited to the talio, except in case of war.]
(34) 8. Come not near the wealth of the orphan save with that which is better till he come to strength.
9. And keep the covenant [i.e., any legal agreement]. Lo! of the covenant it will be asked.
(35) 10. Fill the measure when ye measure, and weigh with a right balance; that is meet and better in the end.
(36) 11. Follow not that whereof thou hast no knowledge [i.e., do not act upon hearsay] Lo! the hearing, the sight, and the hear [intellect] -- of each of these it will be asked [one will have to give account for each of these].
(37) 12. And walk not in the earth exultant. Lo! Thou canst not rend the earth, nor canst thou stretch to the height of the hills.
(38) The evil of all that is hateful in the sight of the Lord.
The Hijra (622, Year 1 "after the Hijra")
Shunning martyrdom, M. relocates some of his followers to the Christian country of Ethiopia and eventually moves to Yathrib (Medina) where he reorganizes the entire city (one third of which consists of Jewish tribes). Here he marries the daughter of his companion and later successor Abu Bakr, Aisha.
At the age of ca. fifty, Muhammad adds to his religion of submission the rigorous discipline of prayer that he applies also to the military formation of his army.
First battle in the long history of Islamic wars: the battle of Badr (624). M. attacks a Meccan caravan that is poorly protected. Here the first martyrs for the cause fall and the first laws concerning the spoils of war are issued.
Each time a military campaign goes wrong, M. takes revenge on one of the Jewish tribes of Medina suspected of conspiring with the Meccans. Following the siege of Medina (627), M. eliminates the last Jewish tribe which had continued to maintain friendly relations with the Meccans and thus defied M. demand of submission. The clan was eventually sentenced to death, 6-900 men were decapitated, women and children sold as slaves, and land distributed among the faithful.
M. had changed from homo religiousus preaching the greatness and majesty of Allah and envisioning the saints earning their entrance to paradise through submission and patience while the proud were condemned to hell to political strategist, lawgiver, and military leader.
Suras from the Medina period
Al baqqara ("The Cow") 190ff
(190) Fight in the way of Allah against those who fight against you but begin no hostilities. Lo! Allah loveth no aggressors.
(191) And slay them whereever ye find them, and drive them out of the places whence they drove you out, for persecution is worse than slaughter ...
(216) Warfare is ordaied for you, though it is hateful unto you ...
(218) Lo! those who believe, and those who emigrated (the Muhadjirun) and strive in the name of Allah (wage war in the name of Allah), these have hope of Allah's mercy. Allah is forgiving, merciful.
The expression, "they strove" (jahadu), refers to the idea of jihad ("striving for Allah").
Triumphal return to Mecca
By 629, resistance to M. among the Meccans has eroded. One of their most competent military leaders, Chalid Ibn-Walid, switches sides. In 630, M. cancels an earlier negotiated truce and marches toward Mecca where his last opponent, the leader of the Meccan merchant republic, was ready to capitulate.
Victorious but largely merciful toward the vanquished, M. rides his camel to the Ka'ba, has it opened and cleansed of the pre-Islamic symbols and declares the new era of Allah. He dies in 632. But he leaves behind the conditions for the development and spread of the new community, namely, its spiritual foundation and its political form.
The Qur'an and the Religion of Islam
The Qur'an was published (in a script without vowels and with variant readings that are all accepted as authentic) under Caliph Othman (644-656) as a complete "Bible" covering topics reaching from the creation of the world to the appearance of Muhammad.
Other keywords: a simple faith (God is one, the prophecy of M. is true), the five pillars, dietary laws, family laws and laws of inheritance, other civil/criminal laws (later: sharia), emphasis on reiteration (recitation) for the sake of remembrance (dhikr) as the antidote to "forgetfulness" of human dependence on Allah (the cardinal sin of self-sufficiency, pride). Emphasis on action rather than affirmation of difficult metaphysical doctrines. Study of law as the primary religious science in contrast to theology as a merely apologetic discipline (defense against the truth claims of philosophy or of other religions). Sharia develops as a tool for the integration of the many and manifold Muslim communites joined by the worldwide spread of Islam (from Africa to Indonesia and throughout Central Asia and, of course, in the entire Middle East).