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0 Introduction Today more than ever, the Catholic Church is advocating for inter-religious dialogue so that there is no prejudice about other religions, but appreciate their belief and convictions. Muslims worship God who is one, living and subsistence, merciful and almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men (Declaration on the Relation of the Church to NonChristian Religions, Vatican II, Nostra Aetate # 3). In this is paper, we will look at who is Muhammad in the faith of Muslims. We have divided our paper into two parts. The first part basically looks at the background of who Muhammad is and his life. The second part focuses on the revelations, the foundation of Islam and finally his final years. 1.1 The Birth of Muhammad, His Infancy, Youth and Adult Life (570-594 AD) Muhammad was born in the year 570 AD in the Town of Mecca a mountain town in the high desert plateaus of Western Arabia. His name derives from the Arabic verb Hamada, meaning to praise or to glorify. He was the first and only son of Abd Allar bin Al-muttalib and Amina bint Wahb.1 Abd Allar died before Muhammads birth and Muhammad was raised by his mother Amina, daughter of Wahb who in keeping with Meccan tradition entrusted her son at an early age to a wet nurse named Halima from the nomadic tribe of the Sadbn Bakr. He grew up in the hill country, learning their pure Arabic.2 When Muhammad was five or six years in the year 575 AD, his mother went with him to Yathrib, an oasis town, a few hundred miles north of Mecca to stay with her relatives and visit

R. Ronzani and P. Onyango-Ajus, What Christians Should Know About Islam, Nairobi-Kenya, Paulines Publications, 2003, p. 9. 2 Sheikh Muhammad, Lives of Prophets trans., Muhammad Badawi, Beirut, Lebanon, 2007, p. 168.

his fathers grave there. On the return journey, Amina took ill and died. She was buried in the village of Abwa on the Mecca-Medina Road. Halima his nurse, returned to Mecca with the orphaned boy and placed him in the protection of his paternal grandfather Abdul Al-Mattalib.3 In this mans care, Muhammad learned the rudiments of statecraft. Upon his grandfathers death in 578 AD, Muhammad aged about eight passed into the care of a paternal uncle, Abu Tallib. Muhammad grew up in the older mans home and remained under Abu Tallibs protection for many years. Chroniclers have underscored Muhammads disputed childhood so does the Quran: Did God not find you an orphan and give you shelter and care? And he found you wandering, and gave you guidance. And he found you in need, and made you independent. (93:6-8).4 When young boy between 580-594 AD, Muhammad worked as a shepherd to help pay his keep (uncle was of modest means). In his teens he sometimes travelled with Abu Talib, who was a merchant, accompanying caravans to trade centers.5 On at least one occasion, he is said to have travelled as far as Syria. Older merchants recognised his character and nicknamed him ElAmin, the one you can trust. 1.2 Muhammads Marriage and Family Life (590-609 AD) In his early twenties, Muhammad entered the service of a wealthy Meccan merchant, a widow named Khadija bint Khawalayd. The two were distant cousins. Muhammad carried her goods to the north and returned with a profit. Impressed by Muhammads honesty and character, Khadija eventually proposed marriage.

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Ibid. Hafiz Ibn-I-Qayyim, Handbook of Islamic Prayers, South Africa, Natal, 2008, p. 2. 5 Ibid., R. Ronzani and P. Onyango-Ajus, p. 9.

They wedded in about 595 AD. Muhammad was twenty-five and Khadija was forty years. Muhammad continued to manage Khadijas business affairs and their next years were pleasant and prosperous.6 Six children were born to them, two sons who both died in infancy, and four daughters. Mecca prospered too, becoming a well-off trading center in the hands of an elite group of clan leaders who were mostly successful traders. 2.0 Muhammads First Revelation (610 AD) Meccas new materialism and its traditional idolatry disturbed Muhammad. He began making long retreats to a mountain cave outside town in the year 610 AD. There he fasted and meditated. On one occasion, after a number of indistinct visionary experience, Muhammad was visited by an overpowering presence and instructed to recite words of such beauty and force that he and others gradually attributed them to God.7 This experience shook Muhammad to the core. It was several years before he dared to talk about it outside his family. 2.1 Muhammad Takes the Revelations Public (613 AD) After several similar experiences, Muhammad finally began to reveal the messages he was receiving in 613 AD to his tribe. These were gathered verse by verse and later would become the Quran, Islams Sacred Scripture. In the next decade, Muhammad and his followers were first belittled and ridiculed, then persecuted and physically attacked for departing from traditional Meccas tribal ways, Muhammads message was resolutely monotheistic. For several years, the Quraysh, Meccas dominant tribe, levied a ban on trade with Muhammads people, subjecting them to hear famine conditions. Towards the end of the decade,
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Cf. Ron Geaves, Aspects of Islam, London, Darton Longman, p. 146. I. A. Ibrahim, ed., William Peachy, A Brief Illustrated Guide to Understanding Islam, USA, Texas, Darussalam Houston, 1997, p. 5.

Muhammads wife and uncle both died. Finally, the leaders of Mecca attempted to assassinate Muhammad. 2.2 Muhammad and the Muslim Emigrate to Medina (622 AD) In 622 AD, Muhammad and his few hundred followers left Mecca and travelled to Yathrib, the oasis town where his father was buried. The leaders there were suffering through vicious civil war, and they had invited this man well known for his wisdom to act as their mediator. Yathrib soon became known as Medina, the City of the Prophet. Muhammad remained here for the next six years building their first Muslim Community and gradually gathering more and more people to his side.8 2.3 The Military Conquest and Period The Meccans did not take Muhammads new success lightly. Early Skimishes led to three major battles in the next three years. Of these, the Muslims won the first (the Battle of Badr, March, 624 AD), lost the second (the Battle of Uhud, March, 625 AD) and out lashed the third, (the Battle of the Trench and the siege off Medina, April, 627 AD).9 In March, 628 AD, a treaty was signed between the two sides, which recognised the Muslims as a new force in Arabia and gave them freedom to move unmolested throughout Arabia. Meccan allies breached the treaty a year later. By now, the balance of power had shifted radically away from once-powerful Mecca, toward Muhammad and the Muslims. In January 630 AD, they marched on to Mecca and were

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Cf. John Renard, Responses to 101 Questions on Islam, India, Paulist Press, 1999, p. 16. Ibid., Ron Geaves, p. 148.

joined by tribe after tribe along the way. They entered Mecca without bloodshed and the Meccans, seeing the tide had turned, joined them.10 2.4 Muhammads Final Years (630-632 AD) Muhammad returned to live in Medina. In the next three years, consolidated most of the Arabian Peninsula under Islam. In March 632 AD, he returned to Mecca one last time to perform pilgrimage, and tens of thousands of Muslim joined him. After the pilgrimage, he returned to Medina. Three months later on June 8, 632 AD he died there, after a brief illness. He is buried in the Mosque in Medina. Within hundred years Muhammads teaching and way of life had spread from the remote corner of Arabia as far east as Indo-China and as far west as Morocco, France and Spain.11 2.5 Conclusion We have looked at Muhammad and his life which has helped us to know something of Islam and appreciate their religion and how it spread with time. With Muhammads death in 632 AD, it spread through Muslim forces who moved out of Arabia Peninsula. Muslim state was born along with religion in the last period of Muhammads life because he was at once prophet and ruler so Islam cannot be divided into Church and State.12 Without this understanding of Islam, we run the risk of prejudice of the religion and not appreciate it. Hence, the need to study it so that we dialogue with it in certain matters of common good and charity. Moreover, this growing religion has our brothers and sisters whom we stay with and share life in our communities.

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Ibid. Cf., ibid., I. A. Ibrahim, ed., William Peachy, p. 191. 12 A.S. Tritton, Islam, London-Melbourne, Hutchinsan and CO. LTD, 1951, p. 13.