Muhammad Ibd Abdullah

Perhaps the best-known figure in Islamic history is Muhammad Ibd Abdullah. He was a powerful inspirational leader, who many consider to be the founder of Islamic religion.

Muhammad was born in 570 C.E. in the Arab city of Mecca. Mecca was an extremely important city, both during the time leading up to and following Muhammad’s lifetime. It was the place where the largest Arabic religious shrine, Kaaba, was located, and was home to a variety of different people, numerous fugitives, exiles, refugees, and merchants.

A tremendously influential religious experience caused Muhammad to believe that he was a messenger sent by Allah to speak to and guide the Arabs. Muhammad’s religious encounters with Allah over the next 22 years were documented in a book known as the Quran, which is observed to be the religious scripture of Islam, even to this day. Through the Quran, Muhammad demanded his followers to take on a monotheistic view, with Allah being the one and only god. He stressed social justice and moral values such as solidarity, equality, and generosity.

Muhammad’s revelations and teachings attracted a few important Meccan leaders, as well as free slaves and several from lower and poorer classes. However he also drew the attention of some of Mecca’s elite families, who were opposed to his strong testaments. Eventually, these oppositions drove Muhammad and his followers out of Mecca and to the town of Yathrib, later known as Medina. This migration marked the beginning of the new Islamic calendar.

Unlike the religious figures from the other Universal Faiths (Jesus and the Buddha), Muhammad was a political and military leader as well as a religious one. Muslims drew no line to separate the church from the state in regards to laws or leadership. Muhammad led them in religious practices and into battle until his death in 632 C.E.

Reference:
Robert Strayer, Ways of the World, a Brief Global History - Volume I: to 1500. pgs 303-308.