The Handy Islam Answer Book. John Renard
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virtue and integrity to fulfill the role of final and definitive intermediary of the divine communication. As a human being, Muhammad naturally had his faults. But Muslims regard him as the finest our species has yet produced, the ideal family man and leader of humanity. Muhammad himself never claimed to be a wonder-worker. His sole miracle was the Qur’an (kur-AAN, and hereafter transliterated as Quran), the Muslim sacred scripture. Popular tradition has nevertheless sometimes idealized Muhammad, expanding his powers and prerogatives to include various kinds of marvels. One dual experience, called the Night Journey and Ascension, stands out. According to tradition, God conveyed Muhammad by night from Mecca to Jerusalem, and from there through the various levels of heaven and hell. Popular lore has attributed other wonders to Muhammad, but it is most important to appreciate the enormous affection and reverence Muslims universally feel for their Prophet.
Did Muhammad have any children?
Muhammad and Khadija had six children together, and Khadija had two children from a prior marriage. Muhammad’s first six children included two boys (neither of whom lived past the age of two) and four girls, all of whom lived into young adulthood. Fatima, their fifth child, went on to become the most influential and important of all Muhammad’s children. His seventh child was born to his Coptic wife, Maria, and died at about eighteen months. Fatima was thus the sole offspring of the Prophet to survive his death. Muhammad knew more than his share of parental grief.
Do Muslims worship Muhammad?
Muslims have never considered Muhammad any more than a very special human being, particularly favored by God. They universally revere him, hold him in the greatest esteem, and feel enormous depth of affection for him. Muhammad provides first and foremost the ultimate model of what God wants every human being to strive for. Of course, Muhammad was what he was by God’s grace and power; one can neither aspire to, let alone achieve, the status of prophet by one’s own effort. Muslims are quick to point out that Muhammad himself considered the Quran his only “miracle,” but tradition and popular lore over the centuries have attributed a number of extraordinary experiences to the Prophet.
Do Muslims attribute any special powers to the Prophet? What is his spiritual status?
Nevertheless, in order to understand Muhammad’s lofty spiritual status, one needs to appreciate some of the experiences he is said to have gone through. Tradition reports that on the twenty-seventh night of the month of Rajab in the year 621 C.E., Muhammad underwent a two-fold mystical experience. In the first part, God “carried his servant by night, from the Mosque of the Sanctuary to the Farther Mosque” (Quran 17:1). Later interpreters would equate the first site with the shrine of the Ka’ba in Mecca, the second with the southern end of the temple platform in Jerusalem, where now stands an early eighth-century structure called “the Farther Mosque” (al-masjid al-aqsa). This “Night Journey” (isra) was already clearly a kind of otherworldly experience, for ancient narratives place Muhammad in the company of earlier prophets in the Farther Mosque, and they naturally ask him to lead them in the ritual prayer. The second phase of the journey, however, called the “Ascension” (mir’aj), finds the Prophet riding a winged human-faced steed named Buraq and led by Gabriel toward the very throne of God. Marvelously embellished tales have developed around this experience. Vivid descriptions of Muhammad’s excursion follow him through the various levels of heaven, where he meets all of his major prophetic forebears, down to the dark circles of hell where Gabriel shows him the horrors of the damned. This is truly the picture of a heroic journey of initiation in the mysteries of the unseen world. Many Muslims believe the journey involved physical locomotion, but a strong tradition of non-literalistic interpretation has always regarded it as a spiritual and inward experience. However one interprets these moments in Muhammad’s life, the power of the link tradition forged between the Prophet and Jerusalem remains as great as ever and continues to be part of the mix in current events in the Middle East.
What events led to the Muslim community’s understanding of the “official” beginning of Islam?
Under pressure from the leading Meccans, Muhammad had been investigating the possibility of moving his community from the increasingly hostile environment of Mecca to a safer haven. Hopeful prospects arrived in 621 C.E. with a delegation from Yathrib, a city several hundred miles north of Mecca. Looking for someone to help them negotiate a peaceful settlement to factional problems in their city, the representatives invited Muhammad to come and apply his already renowned talent for arbitration. Arrangements were finalized, and in 622 C.E. the Muslims headed north to Yathrib, whose name would soon change to Madinat an-Nabi (“City of the Prophet”), or simply Medina. That crucial journey was called the Hijra or Emigration. It marked the birthday of Islam, so to speak, and the beginning of the Muslim calendar (with dates marked A.H., “after the Hijra”).
When Muhammad led his followers to the city of Medina it marked the beginning of the Muslim calendar in 621 C.E. Today, Medina is an important city that many pilgrims visit as part of the Hajj.
What are some key events during the Medina period?
Muhammad’s years in Medina, as reflected in the text of the Quran as well as in later historical writing, witnessed major changes in his style of leadership and in the shape of the community of believers. Muhammad’s prominence in the new setting gave prestige to the community. As the group increased, so did the demands on Muhammad’s administrative time and skill, so that what began as spiritual leadership gradually grew into a more comprehensive oversight. During the Medinan period the Muslims also took up arms against the Quraysh and fought a number of serious military engagements with the Meccan forces. After nearly eight years of bitter conflict, the two sides struck a truce. The Muslims would be allowed to return to Mecca without opposition. In 630, Muhammad led a triumphal band to claim the city for the Muslims. Two years later, Muhammad returned to Mecca for what would be his farewell pilgrimage to the Ka’ba. He died in Medina in 632 after an illness of several months.
What happened when Muhammad died? Did Muslims develop religious institutions to carry on the leadership Muhammad had begun?
Muhammad’s death thrust the young community into a protracted debate over the criteria of legitimate succession. According to sources compiled as many as two or three centuries after Muhammad’s death in 632 C.E., two predominant solutions to the problem of succession emerged. One group maintained that the Prophet had explicitly designated his son-in-law Ali to be his Caliph (literally, “successor” or “vicegerent”). The other, convinced that Muhammad had made no such appointment, opted for the procedure of choosing from among a group of elder Companions of Muhammad. They chose Muhammad’s father-in-law, Abu Bakr. The group that supported Ali’s candidacy came to be called the Shia (party, faction, supporters) of Ali, popularly known as Shi’ites. Those who backed Abu Bakr were in the majority and formed the nucleus of what came to be called the “People of the Sunna and the Assembly,” Sunnis for short. Ali’s backers continued to insist that Ali was unfairly passed over three times, gaining only in 656 C.E. the leadership role that had been his by right for nearly thirty-five years. The well-known distinction between Sunni and Shi’i identifies only the largest institutional division within the Muslim community. Muslims are quick to point out that none of these so-called “divisions” indicates any noteworthy variations in belief and practice among the world’s 1.6 billion Muslims. Still, major classical sources from within the tradition have seen fit to describe their own history in terms of these allegiances.
Is Mecca the only Islamic holy city?
As the birthplace of Muhammad and the site of the Ka’ba, Mecca, and its immediate environs, is naturally the holiest place on earth for Muslims. According to tradition, other prophets and important holy people passed through Mecca as well. Abraham nearly sacrificed his son Ishmael at Arafat (the valley just outside Mecca) and built the Ka’ba. God rescued Abraham’s consort, Hagar, and their son Ishmael from dying of thirst in the desert by causing the well of Zamzam to bubble forth. In 622 Muhammad traveled with his young community to Medina and there established Islam as an all-encompassing social entity. From Medina, the Prophet secured access to Mecca for Muslims and in Medina he died. Muhammad’s house