Understanding Islam: A Primer for the Masses

Part One – How it all started

The Setting for the Prophet of Arbistan
The birthplace of Mohammed, the founder of the religion that is again threatening the world with catastrophic implications, is now called Arabia, the modern name for Arabistan. This large tract of land between the Euphrates, the Persian Gulf, the Sindian, the Indian and Red Sea, and part of the Mediterranean Sea is where this degrading, abusive, and militant belief first started to fester.

The modern Arabians are sprung from two stocks, the Kahatan or Jokatan, the son of Eber mentioned in Genesis (x. 26) and the other descended from Adnan, descended from Ismael the son of Abraham by Hagar an Egyptian slave. The Joktan descendants are called Al Arab al Ariba that is pure Arabs, while the descendents of Adnan are called Al Arab al Mosterba. The later can not claim to be pure Arabs because their origin and language was Hebrew. One can divide the classes into those that wander and are called Bedouins or dwellers in tents in the desert; and those that settled and live in cities.

The Arabs living between the populations of Asia and Africa were influenced and had aspects of their religion in common with adjacent peoples. The Arabs originally believed in the existence of one God, creator of the all whom they called Allaha Taala, the highest God. However they soon lost their early monotheism and fell to idolatry, fetishism, animal, and star worship. They began to worship the hosts of heaven, known as Sabeanism. They began to ascribe divine powers to the stars as they observed their risings and settings and changes in the weather.

The ancient Arabs worshiped seven temples dedicated to the seven planets. This star worship became corrupted and other deities, superstitions, and idolatrous practices crept in. Ancient Arabia was a refuge for all sorts of religious fugitives. Each group added its own flavor to the stock of religious beliefs. Arabs took for their own abodes and haunts of gods; marked as sacred by pillars smeared with sacrificial blood where bloodshed, cutting of trees, hunting game was forbidden. This was the origin of Haramain (sacred territory) around Mecca and Medina.

The Persians by their proximity to Arabs introduced the Magian religion to some. The Jews fleeing from Roman destruction in great numbers into Arabia also introduced the Jewish religion to many Arab tribes. Before the birth of Mohamed, Christianity had also permutated among Arabia. So it wasn’t long before Arabia was peopled by those who espoused ascetic anchorites, whose perfect retirement from the world, dedicating their lives to austerities and pious practices and whose steadfast preparation for the life to come had impressed the Arabs. So many religions and practices frequently conflicted with one another, produced the necessity of a re-conciliatory religion that could be adapted to the nature of people. Hanifs was the outcome of this quest. It was adopted by a small number of Arabs who worshipped only Allah, rejecting polytheism and searched for freedom from sin and resignation to God’s will. Hanifism was a step to Islam. That was the state of religion in Arabia before Mohammed who called this “the time of ignorance”. This is how the ground was set for the prophet of Islam.

The other aspect of Arab society that prepared the way for Mohamedism was the lack of any one national loyalty. Divided among them selves, the different tribes of Arabia were independent of each other and the influx of refugees from Greek and Roman tyranny had increased the strength of some these tribes. Arabia at the time of Mohamed was the center of many political schemes and plots. It would have been impossible to establish and propagate this new religion in a united Arabia with social and civil powers. Things were ripe for a Mohamed’s extraordinary success.

Mohamed – the Early Life
Mohamed was born in 570AD to Abdullah the great-great-grandson of Abdul Muttalib whose father, Kussai, was the Koreish (naturalized Arabs) tribe. While out on a trading expedition, Abdullah died at Medina, shortly before the birth of the prophet of Islam. Mohamed’s grandfather gave the child the name Mohamed, the Praised One. The grief form the death of her husband caused his mother’s milk to dry up and besides it was the custom at the time for Koreishite mothers to give their infants to be nursed by Bedouins. They dwelt in Arabia’s desert and this way the infant’s health will be secured by the desert air. Halima, the Bedouin nurse took charge of Mohamed for five years.

In his fifth year Mohamed started having (later diagnosed as) epileptic fits. Since such attacks were attributed to evil spirits it alarmed Halima greatly. She resolved to get rid of this child and he was returned to Amina his mother. On a visit to Medina his mother died. The slave Baraka brought Mohamed to his grandfather Abdul Muttalib was now obliged to care for Mohamed until his own death. He made arrangements to have his eldest son Abu Talib care for Mohamed which he did. Abu trained Mohamed in his trade as a merchant. At the age of twelve Abu took Mohamed on a trading expedition with a caravan into Syria. All along Mohamed was catered to with great affection. Mohamed learned what it was like to be lordly and to exercise power and never to forget it. For the rest of his youth Mohamed’s life was without incident. When he was not on trading expeditions, Mohamed would spend his time tending sheep and goats like others of his age. These were fond memories of Mohamed. He would later lament “no prophet has been raised up, who has not first done the work of a shepherd”.

At the age of twenty, he was involved in the “sacrilegious war” between the Koreish and the Hawagin tribes. This war occurred within the sacred months and in the sacred territory. He was quoted “In this war I discharge arrows at the enemy and I do not regret it”.

Khadija, a rich widow of Mecca and also a descended of Kussai accepted Mohammed, on the recommendation of his uncle Abu Talib, and put him in charge of one of her trading caravans to Bostra, sixty miles east of Jordan on the road to Damascus. He led the caravan north. Judiciously he bartered with merchants of Bostra, Alleppo, and Damascus, mostly Syrians. He managed to double Khadija’s expected profits. This pleased her very much. His bartering success, attractive personal qualities, and his favorable looks caused Khadija to marry Mohammed, even though at the time she was forty years old and twice married before. This marriage raised Mohammed to equal status with the richest in Mecca. Being of strong mind and mature experience, she kept Mohammed in check even to the point of not taking any other wife for as long as she lived. In his old age Mohammed partook in having many wives even taking them, some times by force, from their husbands at the time. Khadija bore him six children, two sons who died young and four daughters; Zeinale, Rockeya, Kolthum, and Fatima. Fatima turned out to be the most famous.

Prior to his life as a profit of Allah, Mohammed lived in a time filled with blood feuds common among whole tribes and revenge being a religious duty. Female infanticide was rampant in Arabia. At first it was due to poverty and famine. Later it became a social custom to limit population growth. Because wars and feuds decimated the male population there were too many females. Women in general were respected and burying them alive with a veil was unknown before this custom was later introduced by Mohammed. Polygamy and polyandry were both practiced with right of divorce for both men and women. Temporary marriages were quickly made and just as quickly dissolved. Idolatry, divination, bloody sacrifices, and sensualism were prevalent. No one knows if Mohammed was tempted by these happenings but he surely must have been curious. Most likely it was her influence over Mohammed that strengthened his attachment to monotheism. Mohammed trusted her implicitly and in return she was a true believer. When just about all called him a fake, she stood by him and freely stated he was the Apostle if Allah.

The Kaaba and Mohammed
Circumstance seemed to be good to Mohammed. The Kaaba (a small stone building in the court of the Great Mosque at Mecca that contains a sacred black stone and is the goal of Islamic pilgrimage and the point toward which Muslims turn in when praying) was endangered by a flood. The locals decided to rebuild the walls and add a roof. A disagreement arose as to who would have the honor to place the stone in the new walls. Before they came to blows, they decided that it should be decided by the first person to enter the sacred place via the gate of Beni-Sheyba. To be sure Mohammed was the first to reach the sacred spot and was chosen to make the decision. Mohammed had a knack for tact, diplomacy, and ingratiating himself and forming warm friendships. He took off his mantel and placed the sacred stone on it. He then directed that one from each of the four groups arguing about who should have the honor, to come forth and each raise a corner of the mantel. He then guided the stone to its new place. This decision heightened his popularity and influence among the tribesmen.
This occurrence served to confirm his belief in the divineness of his mission and strengthened his faith and adherents in the after days. It was at this time he decided to adopt his cousin Ali the son of his uncle Abu Talib. He admitted to also adopting Zeid, a slave presented to him by Khadija. These two acts he did to make up for the lose of his own two sons, it is believed.