Prophet Muhammad---the Last Messenger !

Discussion in 'Religious places & Spiritual people' started by Yumna, Feb 16, 2020.

  1. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


    It is an Islamic belief that Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon Him) was the last and final Messenger sent to Mankind and Jinn as well.

    But He (peace be upon Him) was not the founder of Islam as is commonly misunderstood or misinterpreted. He (peace be upon Him) was the last to come in the chain of Prophets of Islam starting with Prophet Aadam (peace be upon Him).

    Disclaimer:

    This is NOT my own research/work in any capacity.

    The main and original source of this Biography is an exhaustive research on the life of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) done by Dr.Yasir Qadhi.

    All credit goes to Dr.Yasir Qadhi and then to arqadhi BlogSpot who have transcribed all the lectures.

    I am thankful to arqadhi BlogSpot for allowing me to use their work.

    I will only try to present it in a concise way so it will not be as comprehensive as it actually is. If anyone is interested to know or read the all of it, can consult the original or secondary source.

    There will be other sources which I may be using occasionally and will credit the source accordingly.

    All good comes from the God, while evil comes from our own hands.

    Let's begin our Journey!


    SEERAH

    The word 'Seerah' simply translates to biography which means to traverse or to journey. It is derived from the root word which means to travel - and the reason why seerah (the biography of a person) is called seerah is because you are travelling his journey, his way of living, following his footsteps. Even though its use can be for the biography of anyone, the Muslim scholars use it only for the biography of the Prophet (peace be upon Him).

    Authenticity:

    How do we know what happened 1400 years ago? What are the sources and their authenticity?

    1) The Qur’an itself.

    2) Hadith (sayings of Prophet), every hadith is one snapshot of the Seerah.

    3) Books written specifically for Seerah. The first people to begin writing books of seerah were the sons of the companions of the Prophet. So many stories were told from their parents or/and other elders companions.

    {Companions of the Prophet were the disciples and followers of Prophet Muhammad who saw or met the prophet during his lifetime and used to be physically in his presence}

    And the greatest scholar of Seerah is Ibn Ishaq. And one of the best things about Ibn Ishaq is that he compiled everything with the authentic chain of narrators that tells us where the story comes from. We know every person in the chain: when he was born, when he died, how good he was as a Muslim in his character, did he have a good memory etc.; So that we can judge the authenticity.

    Then student of Ibn Ishaq called Ibn Hisham came along. These two are the basic books of the seerah: Ibn Ishaq (primary) & Ibn Hisham (secondary). The difference between these two books is: Ibn Hisham realized that Ibn Ishaq's volumes were too big, so he decided to summarize. He did not add anything but rather subtracted. Again, in those days there was no printing press so if you wanted a book, you had to write it cover to cover - this is also one of the reasons why he reduced.

    What did he cut off? Things like long poetry, lineage of the Arabs etc. So now when we read Ibn Hisham, we know for sure that we're reading something written just around 100 years after the Prophet (peace be upon Him) passed away and that is amazing! Finally ;

    4) Histories of Makkah and Madinah.

    In-Sha-Allah...To Be Continued !

    Stories of the prophets



     
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  2. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    Good to learn something new @Yumna
    Looking forward to learning more.
     
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  3. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


    Before we discuss the life of the Prophet (Peace be upon Him) we must begin with the world at his time.

    Prophet Ismail was left as a baby with his mother Hajar in Makkah - it's a barren land. And one of the tribes of Qahtan passes by and settled there in the area.After many years Prophet Ismail was married into this tribe -- and a few generations down, a luminary appears by the name of Adnan….a descendant of Prophet Ismail. There are about 7~10 generations between Adnan and Prophet Ismail (peace be upon Him). All of the Adnani tribes, most famously Quraysh, goes back to Adnan, who then goes back to Prophet Ismail (peace be upon Him) and there is no difference of opinion that the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) is the 20th offspring of Adnan.

    Now if the Arabs had a prophet who was Ibrahim (peace be upon Him) and he taught Oneness of God, where did paganism came from among Arabs?

    It is narrated that Amr ibn Luhay---a chief of Arabs at his time, traveled to Syria where Amaliq (the Amalekites) reside - a tribe of tall people. He found them to be a powerful civilization who worship idols. And he asked them, "What are these idols you worship?" And they told him, "These are our sources of power - when we are in drought, when we are in hunger, when enemy attacks, we pray to these idols and miracles happen." Amr said, "Can you gift me one of these?" And they gave him an idol by the name of Hubal. And so this became the first idol of the Arabian Peninsula and also became the main idol of the Quraysh with time.

    How he was able to change the entire religion of their forefathers Ibrahim and Ismail (peace be upon them)?

    Three factors:

    1. Inferiority complex Amr had towards the advanced Amalekites - these people were a powerful civilization who had history, writing, architecture, large buildings, known to be undefeated, etc. So Amr ibn Luhay felt a complex and assumed that Amalekites must be correct in everything. Amr ibn Luhay was so astounded, he assumed surely they must be upon guidance, so he took from them their theology.

    2. Amr ibn Luhay was very influential among his people - he was their chieftain at that time. He was one of the most respected - had a lot of power, was a generous man, won different battles etc. So the people followed him, as he is prestigious and has high credentials. He was in charge of Makkah for a certain period of time, so that's when the idolatry spread among them.

    3. There were at least 2000 years between Amr ibn Luhay and Prophet Ibrahim (peace be upon Him) - so there was a long time of no guidance and Ignorance prevailed.

    There are narrations that say Iblis (shaytan) inspired Amr ibn Luhay through dream with the names of the very first idols - the name of the five idols from the time of Prophet Nuh (peace be upon Him), as mentioned in the Quran: Wadd, Suwa, Yaghuth, Ya'uq, and Nasr. Ibn Abbas (a close companion of Prophet) mentions the story of these five righteous men before the time of Prophet Nuh , who when they died, people built statues of them to remind themselves of their piety. But as generations passed, instead of just looking at the statues to remember them, people began venerating and worshiping them. Shaytan used the righteousness of these five men as the stepping stone to idolatry. So it's said that shaytan inspired Amr ibn Luhay to resurrect these five idols - and indeed they were worshiped in Pre-Islamic Arabia, even though their names were forgotten for millennia! But Amr ibn Luhay resurrected them.


    Pre-Islamic Arabia and their Pagan Practices:


    1: whenever a caravan left Makkah to travel , they would chip away a rock from the Ka'bah and take it as the equivalent of an idol and worship it.

    Note : Here I want to make it clear to the readers that most certainly they will read the name Allah frequently BUT when I say Allah, it is not meant to be a Muslim God.

    In fact, there is nothing like Muslim God, Hindu God, Christian God ,Sikh God or so n so God. GOD IS GOD. So when I say Allah, I am referring to ONE who is the Creator.}}

    (Muslims don't consider the bricks of Ka'bah to be sacred and holy. Neither we worship Ka’bah. We know that the location is holy, but NOT the bricks of the Ka'bah itself. Not the building itself. May be a lot of people don't know but Ka'bah is rebuilt or changes made every few decades just like any other structure of the world. There is nothing holy about the bricks and stones of Ka'bah. It is that particular area and the land of the Makkah that is sacred.)

    2: Another Companion mentioned, "Before Islam , we worshiped rocks and stones, and if we found a rock that looked more beautiful than the one we were worshiping, we would throw the old one away and put the new one in its place. And if we were traveling in the desert and we couldn't find a rock, we would gather sand, put it into a pile, bring a goat, squeeze some milk out of it to make the sand firm, and then do Circumambulation around that sand."

    Sadly, even to this day some Muslims are indulged in such practices, we see people bow to the graves of saints n righteous people and do circumambulation around their graves.

    3: There were around 360 idols around the Ka'bah of various shapes and sizes. Some in the shape of full human bodies; some in the shape of animals, and some in the shape of half human & half animal.

    4: The Quraysh had the theology that Allah has daughters who were the angels. They worshiped the angels thinking they are the daughters of God.

    5: They all claimed that they worship those idols that they may bring them nearer to Allah.They claimed that they are our intercessors before God.


    In-Sha-Allah...To Be Continued !

    Stories of the prophets



     
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  4. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


    The Lineage of the beloved Prophet (Peace be upon Him) can be traced back to Prophet Ibraheem through Adnan who was one of the descendants of Prophet Ismail—the son of Prophet Ibraheem. What are the names of the ancestors and how many generations between Adnan and Ismail? We have no idea whatsoever.

    The lineage of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) til Adnan.

    1. Muhammad


    2. Abdullah

    3. Abdul Muttalib

    4. Hisham

    5. Abd Manaf

    6. Qusayy

    7. Kilab

    8. Murrah

    9. Ka’b

    10. Lu’ayy

    11. Ghalib

    12. Fihr

    13. Malik

    14. Al Nadr

    15. Kinana

    16. Khuzaymah

    17. Mudrikah

    18. Ilyas

    19. Mudar

    20. Nizar

    21. Ma’ad

    22. Adnan


    We will start with Abdul Muttalib (grandfather of Prophet Muhammad).

    He was the one to rediscover the lost well of Zam-zam.


    He saw in a dream that, 'If you go to such and such place next to this idol, between that stone and marker (because they had kept idols around the Ka'bah), if you go to this place and you dig, you will find zam-zam.' Initially he ignored the dream. But he kept on seeing the same dream until finally he realize, "This is from Almighty God.

    And the Quraysh (his tribe) used to mock him, "You think you're going to discover zam-zam when no one was able to find it for 3-4 hundred years?" But he kept on digging until he struck something far more precious than gold and oil, he struck water.He had found Zam-Zam.

    Around that time, it is said that Abdul Muttalib took a vow that, "O Allah, if you ever give me 10 sons to defend me, then I promise I'll sacrifice one for Your sake.

    Eventually, Abdul Muttalib had 18 children . (12 sons and 6 daughters)

    Abdul Muttalib became very sad, when he remembered his promise to sacrifice one of his children and When all of his sons reached adulthood, he told them about his vow and said, "Look, I'm a man of my word. Allah blessed me. And I have to give one of you in sacrifice".

    Abdul Muttalib did not know who he should sacrifice from his children.He decided to do a lottery amongst his children. The arrow chose Abdullah; the youngest & most beloved of his children. He decided to choose an arrow again (an old way of lottery) , but every time, the arrow chose Abdullah.

    Abdullah was loved by everyone. His sisters, brothers and other residents of Makkah. So they requested Abdul Muttalib to spare the life of Abdullah. They advised Abdul Muttalib to get another opinion from a priestess who lived in Madinah. She advised them to barter the life of Abdullah with ten camels, the normal Blood Money for accidental killing. She further advised them to go on adding ten camels till Abdullah’s name was picked.

    Abdul Muttalib decided to follow this advice, so every time the lottery chooses his son Abdullah, he increased the number of camels by 10 to sacrifice instead, till it reached the number 100, the lottery then chose the camels instead of Abdullah and finally One hundred camels were slaughtered in exchange of Abdullah.



    In-Sha-Allah...To Be Continued !
     
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  5. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    Thank you Yumna for these articles.

    I noticed close resemblance to names in the Old Testament.
    Ibrahim - Abraham
    Ismail -Ishmail

    So interesting to read and know. Thanks again.
     
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  6. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you very much dear.

    It is an article of faith in Islam to believe in all the Prophets that were sent by the God and they are the same Prophets: Abraham,Moses,David,Ishmail,Jacob, etc ,and to believe in all the Divine Books that is Bible,Torah,Psalms and the last one --- Qur'an.

    peace!
     
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  7. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


    Year Of The Elephant:



    Abraha was the governor of Najashi in Yemen.

    (Not the same Najashi that the Prophet's companions emigrated to later, but this was his father)

    He saw his people, every year, go north and when he asked them, he was told that there is a house of Allah they go there to do hajj.

    When he heard this, he said "I will build you a house that is far better than any of your houses, and you will do hajj here."

    He built a massive cathedral, and it was made out of glass. And he built a cathedral in Yemen the likes of which, he thought, would become the biggest temple in the entire Arabian Peninsula.

    And he then said, "All of you have to come over here rather than going up north to the Ka'bah."

    But it is said that people still continued to go Makkah to make their Hajj And he (Abraha) became so angry, that he said, "I will destroy that House (Ka’bah), so people have no choice but come to this House that I built." And he gathers his powerful army, built of elephants and mighty men. Of course because they were from Abyssini (Africa) Otherwise, elephants did not live in the Arabian Peninsula. He marched on to destroy the sacred House, filled with pride at his strength. It is also said that he hired an Arab guide to take him to the Ka'bah and his name was Abu Rughal.

    When they arrived at Makkah, and the people came to know of that mighty army and its force of elephants they fled to mountains, deserting their own homes and the House Of Allah, undefended. When he entered Makkah, he captured the livestock of people which included around 200 camels and sheep of Abdul Muttalib.

    It is said that Abdul Muttalib came to meet Abraha and when Abraha was told about him n that he is the chief of the Makkan people, he welcomed Abdul Muttalib.

    Abraha said to Abdul Muttalib, "I have no problem with you people. There's nothing personal, I just want to destroy your House of Worship".

    Abdul Muttalib replied, "But I didn't come to you to talk about the House. I didn't come to you to talk about the Ka'bah. I came to you to talk about my camels."

    And this is when Abraha lost all respect for Abdul Muttalib and he said, "I am here to destroy your Holy House, and you came to me to talk about your camels”.Abraha had thought that Abdul Muttalib is going to argue about the Sacred House and so he was honoring him as a Chief.

    Abdul Muttalib replied, "It's not my business. The House has a Lord, it has its Owner who will protect it. I am the owner of the camels, so I came to protect my camels”.

    Abraha returned the livestock and they left back to the mountains.

    Soon after wards, Abraha decided to march to destroy the Ka’bah.

    They faced the leading elephant towards the Ka'bah, but he wouldn’t take a step and they are telling him to go forth, but he would not take a step, they whipped him, they beat him, the elephant would not move. But whenever they turned him in any other direction, he would start moving in that direction with other elephants following him.

    And as they're debating what to do, the sky was covered with birds and suddenly the birds started to cast small stones and this small stone literally annihilated everything it touched- and it becomes a pile of broken and molten flesh. Thus, the mighty army perished in no time.

    Glorious Quran narrates,

    “Do you {Prophet} not see how your Lord dealt with the army of the elephant? Did HE not utterly confound their plans? HE sent flocks of birds against them,pelting them with pellets of hard-baked clay:He made them like cropped stubble”. 105:1-5


    In-Sha-Allah...To Be Continued !


     
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  8. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    In the Name of God,the Most Beneficent,the Ever Merciful !


    Parents of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him):

    Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) was born in the same year, a few weeks or months later to the incident of Abraha ,so quite literally this means Sayyida Aaminah (Mother of Prophet )was pregnant with Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) at the time when the incident took place.

    Abdullah was a young man (18-25) and Abdul Muttalib chose for him the daughter of the chief of Banu Zuhra. Quraysh is a large tribe and within it are many small tribes - Banu Hashim is one, Banu Zuhra is another. So the chief of the Banu Zuhra had a daughter called Aaminah. Abdul Muttalib proposed for Aaminah, daughter of Wahab on behalf of his son Abdullah. Wahab agreed and soon after Abdullah got married to Aaminah and this took place shortly before the caravan season, soon after few weeks of the marriage, Abdullah departed with the Caravan, never to return.

    On the way back from Syria, he felt severely ill. And by the time they got to Yathrib (which was later to become Madinah!), he said he'll stay with his relatives in Yathrib to recover, as he didn't want to slow the caravan down.

    By the time the caravan got back to Makkah, Aaminah is told that Abdullah is sick and stayed back in Yathrib. And the next news came that he has passed away and buried in Yathrib (journey between Makkah-Yathrib on camel backs took around 8-9 days).

    Revered Aaminah became widow at the age of 18 or 19, pregnant with the beloved Prophet (peace be upon Him).

    The Birth of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him)

    That time Arabs did not had an established calendar and only had calendar based on events (e.g. the Year of the Drought, when this and that happened, the Year of the Invasion etc.) ,their calendar (lunar) had a fixed number of days for the twelve months; Muharram, Safar, Rabiul Awwal, Rabi-ul akhar, Jamadul awwal, Jamadul akhar, Rajab, Sha’aban, Ramadan, Shawwal, Zul ka’ad, and Zul hajj.

    Looking at the earliest book of Ibn Ishaq (died 150 H) says, "The Prophet (Peace be upon Him) was born on a Monday, 12th Rabi' al-Awwal, in the Year of the Elephant."

    There are different opinions on the exact date the Prophet (peace be upon Him) was born – though none of them are clear with solid evidence, some say it was 2nd and some say it was 9th or 10th of Rabi' al-Awwal .

    So what is agreed upon without any doubt is, it was the month of Rabi' al-Awwal, it was Monday and it was the same year of the Elephant Event,570 AD.

    P.S: [And there is a modern view, though I don’t know from whom that when calculating the exact age of prophet (peace be upon Him) from the time of his passing away from this world, the date of which is accurate and recorded in the books ,it corresponds to Monday, 5th of May, 570 AD.]

    And Allah knows the best.

    Muhammad/Ahmad (peace be upon Him)

    Ibn Ishaq mentions that when the Beloved Prophet (peace be upon Him) was born, his grand-father Abdul Muttalib held a grand feast and he chose the name Muhammad.

    [Muhammad means the one who is worthy and deserving of praise and none was ever named by this name before him.The Prophet (peace be upon Him) was also known as Ahmad, which means the one who has praiseworthy qualities…both names from the same root word “Hamd” which means praise. It is said that He (peace be upon Him) was named “Ahmad” by his mother Aaminah.]



    In-Sha-Allah...To Be Continued !


    "Today is 15th Sha'ban. May God bless us in our days,months and years.May Almighty let us to reach Ramadan.May Almighty remove this
    pandemic from HIS earth and have mercy on all Beings...aameen!"
     
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  9. kkrish

    kkrish IL Hall of Fame

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    Very interesting @Yumna .
    I did not know about the calendar till,I read about it here.
    I also noticed that every time "Prophet" is mentioned it is followed by "peace be upon Him" (The Prophet (peace be upon Him) )
    Can you explain that please, if possible?
    Thank you
     
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  10. Yumna

    Yumna Platinum IL'ite

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    Thank you @kkrish for your response and I am glad you find it interesting.

    Yes dear,you are correct that each time Prophet is mentioned,it is followed by "peace be upon Him".And it is not only with Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon Him) but if any other prophet's name is mentioned,it will also be followed by "peace be upon Him".If you have read any story in my thread "Stories of the Prophets",you notice this every time a prophet's name is written..




    "Peace be upon Him' is used as a sign of honor and love.As you may be aware that the Islamic greeting is "Assalamu-alaikum",which means "may peace be upon you".

    Thank you once again :)
     
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