Takuya Kobayashi

Dr. Kathryn Johnson

RELS 2131
November 24, 2015
Question 1

Muhammad approached spreading Islam differently by reaching poor people and

slaves while other religious leaders tried to use their religion to gain money from those
going on pilgrimage. He spread his message to those who were not fully accepted by the
polytheistic religion of the time such as women, slaves, and the poor. He did not take
advantage of those people like the other scholars did. Muhammad was really compassion
and helped others. He always put others before himself so that he could be a great
example.
Muhammads father died shortly before he was born and his mother died when he
was six years old. His uncle Abu Talib adopted him. Because of Abu Talib, Muhammad
became very successful. Muhammad started making money as a businessman and trader.
He was given the nickname al-Ameen and was popularly known for his honesty and
trustworthiness. Muhammad was proposed to by Khadijah and accepted that proposal
when he was 25; together they had six children. At that time in Mecca, there were
hundreds of idols being worshipped but Muhammad kept to a pure version of religion.
One day while a quite retreat in the hills, the angel Gabriel came to him and told him to
read. At first, Muhammad protested that he could not read, but the angel Gabriel taught

him. Muhammad took his new experience home to his wife Khadijah. They consulted
with her cousin Waraqa who confirmed that it was the angel Gabriel who came to
Muhammad and Muhammad was in fact a prophet. Khadijah was the first one to convert
to Islam. From there, over the course of 23 years, the angel Gabriel came to Muhammad
as commanded by Allah. The angel Gabriel revealed many revolutions to Muhammad and
those revolutions were compiled into what became the Quran. His first few followers
were his wife, his daughters, friend Abu Bakr, servant and his cousin Ali. As
Muhammads message started to spread, local religious leaders tried to bribe him into
abandoning his teaching. Muhammads uncle tried to convince the prophet to stop
preaching but they never stopped. In addition, Quraish, which Muhammad as a member
of started to oppress weak people such as poor and slaves. Those people were tortured
and Umm Ammar who was a Muslim woman was the first woman to die. God told
Muhammad to be patient and to teach the Quran. Shortly after the ban was lifted,
Muhammads wife Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib died. Soon after his wife Khadijah
dies, Muhammad married a Muslim woman Sawdah who was 50 years old. After the
acceptance of Sawdah, he married to Aishah who is a daughter of Abu Bakr. Her and
Sawdah were the only wives he had until he turned fifty-six years old. In order to assure
his place and equanimity, he made a treaty, which defined terms of conduct for all of the
residents of Medinah. This was approved by Muslims, non-Muslims, Jews and Arabs. He
migrated to Medinah and the opponent of Islams attack was increased. Even in such
circumstances, Muhammad married some women until sixty years of his age. All of
wives he married were either divorced or widowed. The caliphate broke down rapidly
after the long dynasty of Hisham (724-743) A serious insurgency broke out against the

Umayyads in 747, and in 750, Marwan ll who was the last Umayyads caliph, was
conquered in the Battle of Great Zab by the Abbasaid family. (Encclopaedia Britnnica,
2914) The Abbasids, scion of an uncle of Muhammad, successfully rebellion in large
part to their claim to various extremist or pietistic groups and also to the aid of the
Shiites, a major dissenting party that held that the Caliphate resided by right to the scion
of Ali. The Abbasids disappointed the assumption of the Shiites by taking the Caliphate
for themselves left the Shiites to expand into a sect, forever hateful to the orthodox Sunni
majority that would scare the established government by rebellion. Furthermore, Prophet
Muhammad lived quite, simple life. He and his family did not really eat cooked meal;
rather, they ate simple food such as dried bread and water. He worked hard as chief
justice, head of state, arbitrator, instructor and family man during the day and played
many roles. He dedicated his time for player and meditation at night. The period 786-861,
especially the caliphates of Harun (786-809) and al-Mamum(813-833) is accounted the
extent of Abbasids rule. Additionally, Muhammad was a messenger of god and was the
last of the prophet sent by god to bring man to the right direction. At the end of his duty,
he had roughly several hundred thousand followers of Islam. Thousand of them prayed
with him in the mosque and attend his sermon while the other hundred of them followed
him as many as possible. Those followers followed everything he said and also followed
the message of the Quran and messenger of god.

References
"BiographyofProphetMuhammad(s)withLinkstoComparativeReligion."BiographyofProphet
Muhammad(s)withLinkstoComparativeReligion.Web.24Nov.2015.

"Caliphate|IslamicHistory."EncyclopediaBritannicaOnline.EncyclopediaBritannica.Web.17Dec.
2015.