A short life sketch of Mohammed - The Koran and the kafir : Islam and the infidel

 

A short life sketch of Mohammed  - The Koran and the kafir : Islam and the infidel

A short life sketch of Mohammed  - The Koran and the kafir : Islam and the infidel



CHAPTER 21

A SHORT LIFE SKETCH OF MOHAMMED 117

daughter of Abu Bakr, a close disciple of Mohammed. Ayesha, according to many was Mohammed's most favorite wife.

Mohammed's Wives:

A SHORT LIFE SKETCH OF MOHAMMED

Mohammed was born in the year 570 A.D. His father had died a few months before his birth. He lost his mother when he was about six years of age. Mohammed was brought up by his uncle.

Financially Mohammed was very poor. Some say that Mohammed was illiterate but opinions differ on this. Education or no education, Mohammed was very intelligent and wise. He was thoughtful and meditative.

It is said that Mohammed was of medium build and not too tall or short. Since no formal pictures of Mohammed are available, one has to go by descriptions of Mohammed written by his followers. Mohammed was handsome, had a large head with black thick hair, wide forehead, heavy eyebrows and large black eyes with slight redness on the sides and long eyelashes. He had a fine nose, well spaced teeth and a thick beard, wide chest and shoulders, light colored skin and thick palms and feet.

Mohammed was married by Khadija Bibi, his employer and 15 years his senior. At the time, Mohammed was twenty- five years old. Mohammed was Khadija Bibi's third husband; the lady was a widow when she married Mohammed.

Khadija Bibi was wealthy and after marriage with her, Mohammed lived in comparative luxury, for the first time in his life. They had several children, both boys and girls. The boys did not live long and the girls were given away in marriage. They adopted a son named Zayed after their sons died.

Khadija Bibi died when Mohammed was about 49 years old. Between the ages of 49 and 63, after Khadija died, the prophet married thirteen wives. The names of eleven are given below. At the age of 52 Mohammed married Ayesha, a girl of six (some say nine) years of age. Ayesha was the

116

1 Khadija Bibi

2 Sauda Bibi

3 Ayesha Bibi

4 Hafna Bibi

5 Safia Bibi

6 Umme-Habiba Bibi

7 Umme-Salma Bibi

8 Moyumuna Bibi

9 Zainab bint Jahsh Bibi

10 Zainab bint Khuzaymah Bibi

11 Juwairya (Zudia) Bibi

Zainab, daughter of Jahsh was initially married to his adopted son Zayed. But one day the prophet 'beheld in a loose undress, the beauty of Zainab, and burst forth into an ejacula- tion of devotion and desire. The servile, or grateful, freeman understood the hint, and yielded without hesitation to the love of the benefactor'. Zayed divorced Zainab so that Mohammed could marry her.

Among Mohammed's concubines were Rehana and Mary (also known as Mariam). Mary was a Christian slave girl presented to Mohammed whereas Juwairya and Rehana both were Jewish girls captured in battles with the Jews. Juwairya eventually married the prophet and gave up her Jewish faith. Rehana did not agree to give up her Jewish faith and would rather live as a concubine against her own will, than marry the prophet. Both Juwairya and Rehana had lost their men folk in the battles with the Moslem followers of Mohammed.

Among the many battles that the prophet of Islam fought with his enemies, the kafirs, the more wellknown are the following:

Battle of Badr: the Qurayza were defeated. (624 A.D.)

Battle of Uhud: the Moslems were defeated. (625 A.D.)

War of the ditch: Meccans attack the Moslems and the attackers are driven off. (627 A.D.)



118 THE KORAN AND THE KAFIR

Battle of Khaybar: the Jews are defeated. (629 A.D.)

In the year 627 A.D. the Jewish tribe of Qurayza was raided by Mohammed. Some 700 men were beheaded. Edward Gibbon writes in his famous book, 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire': "...seven hundred Jews ere dragged in chains to the market-place of the city; they descended alive into the grave prepared for their execution and burial; and the apostle beheld with an inflexible eye the slaughter of his helpless enemies. Their sheep and camels were inherited by the Musulmans: three hundred cuirasses, five hundred pikes, a thousand lances, composed the most useful portion of the spoil."

All the Jews that survived the battle of Khaybar were also put to the sword in 629 A.D.

It was in 630 A.D. that Mecca was taken by Mohammed. The entire population was converted to Islam and the Kaaba established as the religious center of Islam. All kafirs were forbidden entry into Mecca.

The Moslem year starts from 622 A.D. This is the year of HIJRA or flight of Mohammed and his followers to Medina. Mohammed believed that he was poisoned by a Jewish woman as revenge after the battle of Khaybar. During the last four years of his life, his health declined, epileptic fits became more frequent, his other infirmities increased. died in the year 632 A.D., June 8.

He

During the twenty-four years of his marriage with Khadija Bibi, the youthful prophet abstained from the right of polygamy and just before his impending death he liberated his slaves: seventeen men and eleven women. Till the third day before his death he regularly performed the function of public prayer. Gibbon says in his book: "In spite of his polygamy Mohammed left no heir. In 655 or 656 A.D. his son in law, Ali, became Commander of the Faithful, but his descendants did not retain power".