Life of Muhammad and beginnings of Islam part 1 | World History | Khan Academy

Now going to give an overview on the beginnings of Islam. Regardless of whether you are part of an Islamic culture, you are a practicing Muslim, or you believe in the Islamic Traditions, it's valuable to learn about the beginnings of Islam because today nearly 1/4th of the world's population either is a practicing Muslim or has grown up in an Islamic Tradition.

Now, the beginnings of Islam really are centered on the life and the revelations of the Muslim Prophet Muhammad. The term Islam means surrender, and as we'll see, a lot of the revelations of Muhammad are about surrendering to God, about the Oneness of God, about not worshiping idols. To put Muhammad in perspective on a timeline, I have other significant biblical figures here. These are important not just to get a reference towards Christianity and Judaism, but because, according to Islamic tradition, Islam is built on top of the teachings of Abraham or the teachings of Moses and the Torah, and the teachings of Jesus. Muslims believe that the Quran is the final Testament, so to speak.

Now, to get some context: Muhammad was born in 6th Century Arabia. The 6th Century Arabia was an interesting place. In many other videos, we've talked about various empires around the Mediterranean, around Mesopotamia, in Persia, and even on this map in the time of Muhammad. You see significant Empires: the Byzantine Empire, the Eastern Roman Empire, and you have Sassanian Persia. But Arabia was never really consolidated or ruled by a formal government or a formal Empire. The rule of law in most of Arabia and the world in which Muhammad was born into was a tribal world where you were protected by your tribe. It was really the laws of vendetta and revenge that kept certain things in check, but also would lead to a lot of wars and a lot of violence.

Within Arabia, there were many folks who were Bedouin, nomadic people who traveled through the desert, allowing their livestock to graze on whatever suitable land they found. But you also had people in places like Mecca, people who settled and started agriculture around oases. Remember, most of the Arabian Peninsula is really desert. Muhammad was born into a fairly, or a very prominent family in Mecca. He was born to the K tribe, and the K tribe was essentially in control of Mecca. Mecca was a very powerful city to control because it was a religious center for the region. This is the Kaaba, which exists today and is a center of Islamic worship, and at the time, it had hundreds of idols which were important to the various tribes and people of Arabia at the time.

You can imagine, as they did the pilgrimage towards Mecca to worship their idols, it also benefited the economy of Mecca in a significant way. Not only was Muhammad born into this powerful tribe, he was born into one of the most powerful clans within that tribe and within one of the most powerful houses within that clan. But even though he was born into this very powerful family, clan, and tribe, his early life was quite difficult. His father died right before he was born; his mother dies at the age of six years old. Then, his grandfather, who takes custody of him, by most accounts, he doesn't get a lot of privileges.

When you're a member of a tribe but you're socially essentially orphaned, the tribe is doing essentially just the base necessities to keep you alive. Then his grandfather dies when he is 8 years old, and he goes under the custody of his uncle, Abu Talib. As he grows older, he does learn a skill; he essentially becomes a merchant. He goes on trading journeys with his uncle Abu Talib to places like Syria, and as he does that, according to Islamic tradition, he gets a very favorable reputation. He gets these titles like Al-Amin, the trustworthy one, or Al-Sadiq, the truthful.

Now, he continues doing that until the age of 25. At 25 years old, something very interesting happens. A very wealthy widow, arguably one of the wealthiest people in all of Mecca, who runs a vast trading enterprise, Khadijah, who is 40 years old, employs Muhammad. Apparently, she is so impressed by his honesty and his ability to be trustworthy that she proposes to him. Remember, she’s 40; this would be her third marriage, and he is 25, and he accepts the proposal.

This is significant because, as we'll see in this video, Khadijah is the first one to follow Muhammad or believe in Muhammad's revelations. He continues to work with his wife, arguably work for his wife, and then in 610, he is now 40 years old. He is praying in a cave on the outskirts of Mecca, and while he is praying, he is purported to get his first revelation from God. According to Islamic traditions, that first revelation is proclaimed: "In the name of thy Lord and cherisher who created man out of a clot of congealed blood. Proclaim, and thy Lord is most Bountiful, who taught by the pen taught man that which he knew not."

So Muhammad, according to Islamic accounts, he’s kind of very concerned by this. He does not view himself as a preacher; he does not view himself as someone who should be a prophet. He goes to Khadijah, and he's worried. Khadijah takes him to her Christian cousin, who reassures Muhammad, who tells Muhammad that he believes that he is a prophet in the tradition of Abraham and Moses. So that, to some degree, makes Muhammad feel a little bit better, and he doesn’t have some revelations for a while, and he becomes concerned, but then he eventually starts to have many, many revelations.

He keeps it to himself at first, but roughly 3 years later, he starts to publicly preach these revelations. These revelations, which really talk about the Oneness of God, "There’s no God but God," are very appealing especially to some of the economically lower strata. But you could also imagine it’s very, very threatening to the establishment of Mecca. You have to remember, the establishment of Mecca revolves around the worship of these idols, and now you have this guy, a member of the K tribe, the tribe that worships Hubal, the tribe that is in charge of Mecca that benefits from all these people worshiping these various idols. He’s now saying that idol worship is a sin. He’s saying that there’s no God but God, that all of these idols are false idols.

So the K tribe, Muhammad's own tribe, begins to significantly persecute the early Muslims. So much so that many of the early Muslims have to migrate from Mecca to the kingdom of Axum, which was ruled by a Christian king who protects them from the K tribe. This is now modern-day Ethiopia or Eritrea. Things are not going well for these early Muslims; they’re really being targeted by the K tribe. They’re being killed, they’re being tortured, and then things get even worse for Muhammad.

In 619, you have the death of his wife Khadijah, and just to get a sense of how powerful Khadijah was to Muhammad, we have this quote that we get from the Hadith, which are accounts of Muhammad's life and sayings. It tells us: "God Almighty never granted me anyone better in this life than her. She accepted me when people rejected me. She believed in me when people doubted me. She shared her wealth with me when people deprived me, and God granted me children only through her." This is once again according to the Hadith, the sayings or the life of Muhammad as accounted for by one of the Hadith.

Not only did his wife, who up to that time was his only wife, die and was a significant figure, but in that same year, his uncle also dies. You can imagine this year, 619, often referred to as the Year of Sorrows. It’s a fairly low point for Muhammad. He’s been preaching for about—or he’s been getting these revelations and preaching for around nine years now, and things are not looking good.