Muhammad (بن عبدالله) ibn Abd Allah ﷺ (abt. 570 - 632)

Born about 0570 in Makkah, Hejaz, Arabia

Ancestors

Husband of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid — married 0595 in Mecca, Arabia

Husband of Sawda bint Zamaah — married about 0619 in Makkah, Hejaz, Arabia

Husband of A'isha Siddiqa bint Abi Bakr — married 0624 in Mecca

Husband of Safiyya bint Huyayy — married 0628 in Madinah, Hejaz, Arabia

Husband of Maymunah bint al-Harith al-Hilaliyah — married 0629 in Siraf, Saudi Arabia

Husband of Maria bint Shamʼun al-Qibtiyya — married after 0630 in Madinah, Hejaz, Arabia

Descendants

Died 8 Jun 0632 at about age 62 in Madinah, Hejaz, Arabia

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Biography

Muhammad (بن عبدالله) ibn Abd Allah ﷺ is Notable.

Birth

Birth:

Date: Circa 0570

Place: Mecca or Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Death and Burial

Death:

Date: 8 June 0632

Place: Medina or Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Burial:

Place: Medina or Madinah, Saudi Arabia

Birth and Parents

Muhammad (Arabic: محمد‎‎; pronounced [muħammad]; transliteration: Muḥammad) was born in the Year of the elephant (approximately 570 CE) in the Arabian city of Mecca. Some 20th century scholars have suggested different years, such as 568 or 569. His more complete name was Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn Abd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim. His birthday is believed to be in the month of Rabi' al-awwal. ^[1]

He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan, part of the Quraysh tribe, and was one of Mecca's prominent families, although it appears less prosperous during Muhammad's early lifetime.^[1]

Muhammad's father, Abdullah, died almost six months before he was born. According to Islamic tradition, soon after birth he was sent to live with a Bedouin family in the desert, as desert life was considered healthier for infants; some western scholars reject this tradition's historicity. Muhammad stayed with his foster-mother, Halimah bint Abi Dhuayb, and her husband until he was two years old. ^[1]

Childhood and Youth as Orphan

At the age of six, Muhammad lost his biological mother Amina to illness and became an orphan. For the next two years, until he was eight years old, Muhammad was under the guardianship of his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, of the Banu Hashim clan until his death. He then came under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the new leader of the Banu Hashim.^[1]

According to Islamic historian William Montgomery Watt there was a general disregard by guardians in taking care of weaker members of the tribes in Mecca during the 6th century, "Muhammad's guardians saw that he did not starve to death, but it was hard for them to do more for him, especially as the fortunes of the clan of Hashim seem to have been declining at that time." ^[1]

In his teens, Muhammad accompanied his uncle on Syrian trading journeys to gain experience in commercial trade. Islamic tradition states that when Muhammad was either nine or twelve while accompanying the Meccans' caravan to Syria, he met a Christian monk or hermit named Bahira who is said to have foreseen Muhammad's career as a prophet of God.^[1]

0595 Marriage to Khadijah

At the age of 25, Muhammad married the wealthy Khadijah bint Khuwaylid who was 40 years old. The marriage lasted for 25 years and was a happy one. Muhammad did not enter into marriage with another woman during this marriage.^[1]

610 Began Preaching

Muhammad would periodically seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer. At the age of 40, in circa 0610, he reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave, where he stated he received his first revelation from God. Three years later, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly. He proclaimed that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to him is the right course of action, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to the other prophets in Islam. ^[1]

619 Death of Khadijah and Loss of Protection

Muhammad's wife Khadijah and uncle Abu Talib both died in 619, the year thus being known as the "year of sorrow". With the death of Abu Talib, leadership of the Banu Hashim clan passed to Abu Lahab, a tenacious enemy of Muhammad.

Soon afterwards, Abu Lahab withdrew the clan's protection over Muhammad. This placed Muhammad in danger; the withdrawal of clan protection implied that blood revenge for his killing would not be exacted.

Muhammad then visited Ta'if, another important city in Arabia, and tried to find a protector, but his effort failed and further brought him into physical danger. Muhammad was forced to return to Mecca. A Meccan man named Mut'im ibn Adi (and the protection of the tribe of Banu Nawfal) made it possible for him to safely re-enter his native city. ^[1]

Additional Marriages

Muhammad is said to have had thirteen wives in total (although two have ambiguous accounts, Rayhana bint Zayd and Maria al-Qibtiyya, as wife or concubine. Eleven of the thirteen marriages occurred after the migration to Medina.^[1]

Muhammad's marriages after the death of Khajida were contracted mostly for political or humanitarian reasons. The women were either widows of Muslims killed in battle and had been left without a protector, or belonged to important families or clans whom it was necessary to honor and strengthen alliances with.^[1]

After Khadija's death, Khawla bint Hakim suggested to Muhammad that he should marry Sawda bint Zama, a Muslim widow, or Aisha, daughter of Um Ruman and Abu Bakr of Mecca. Muhammad is said to have asked for arrangements to marry both. ^[1]

According to traditional sources Aisha was six or seven years old when betrothed to Muhammad, with the marriage not being consummated until she had reached puberty at the age of nine or ten years old. She was therefore a virgin at marriage. Muslim authors who calculate Aisha's age based on other sources of information, such that available about her sister Asma about whom more is known, estimate that she was over thirteen and perhaps in her late teens at the time of her marriage.^[1]

After migration to Medina, Muhammad (now in his fifties) married several more women.^[1]

Muhammad did household chores and helped with housework such as preparing food, sewing clothes, and repairing shoes. He is also said to have had accustomed his wives to dialogue; he listened to their advice, and the wives debated and even argued with him.^[1]

Nine of Muhammad's wives survived him. Aisha, who became known as Muhammad's favourite wife in Sunni tradition, survived him by decades and was instrumental in helping assemble the scattered sayings of Muhammad that form the Hadith literature for the Sunni branch of Islam.[153]^[1]

622 Hijra: Migration from Mecca to Medina

Initially Muhammad gained few followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes. ^[1]

To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. ^[1]

Muhammad's life is traditionally defined into two periods: pre-hijra (emigration) in Mecca (from 570 to 622), and post-hijra in Medina (from 622 until 632). ^[1]

629 March on Mecca

In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed.

632 Death

In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammed fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.^[1]

Muhammad died 8 June 632 CE^[2]

The tomb of Muhammad is located in the quarters of his third wife, Aisha. (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi, Medina)^[1]

Significance

Muhammad was the prophet of Islam. ^{[3] [4] [1]}

From a secular historical perspective he was a religious, political, and social reformer who founded the religion of Islam. ^{[4] [5]}

From an Islamic perspective, he was God's Messenger (rasūl Allāh) sent to confirm the essential teachings of monotheism preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. ^{[4][6] [7] [8]}

Issue

See Wikipedia: Children_of_Muhammad

Khadija

Khadijah is said to have had four daughters with Muhammad and two sons. The two sons died in childhood. All but one of his daughters, Fatimah, died before him. ^[1]

1. [[Bint-Muhammed-2|Ruquya (Muhammed) Omeya, born 601. Ruqayyah bint Muhammad. Also Ruqayya Hashimi, born 603
2. Umm Kulthoom Hashimi, born 608 Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad.
3. Zaynab Hashimi, born about 600. Zainab bint Muhammad,
4. Fatimah Muhammad, born in Mecca, 606. Fatimah Zahra. Some Shi'a scholars contend that Fatimah was Muhammad's only daughter. Muhammad's descendants through Fatimah are known as sharifs, syeds or sayyids. These are honorific titles in Arabic, sharif meaning 'noble' and sayed or sayyid meaning 'lord' or 'sir'. As Muhammad's only descendants, they are respected by both Sunni and Shi'a, though the Shi'a place much more emphasis and value on their distinction.^[1]Fatimah Zahra (Syedda) Hashimi, born 616.
5. Abd-Allah ibn Muhammad -- died in childhood
6. Qasim ibn Muhammad, -- died in childhood).

Maria

1. Ibraheem A.s. born about 600. Maria al-Qibtiyya bore him a son named Ibrahim ibn Muhammad, but the child died when he was two years old.^[1]

Adopted Child

Zayd ibn Harith was a slave that Muhammad bought, freed, and then adopted as his son. He also had a wetnurse.[246] According to a BBC summary, "the Prophet Muhammad did not try to abolish slavery, and bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves himself. But he insisted that slave owners treat their slaves well and stressed the virtue of freeing slaves. Muhammad treated slaves as human beings and clearly held some in the highest esteem".^[1]

Research Notes

Questionable Genealogical Line Between Muhammed and Europeans

An article discusses how some popular genealogies show a line of descent from Muhammed to many living people in Europe, and identifies the flaws in those lines of descent. As WikiTree are subjected to research and refinement, it is expected that these weak links will be identified and the linkages disconnected.

Some people have actually tried to establish a documented line between Muhammad, who was born in the 6th century, and the medieval English monarchs, and thus to most if not all people of European descent. ^[9]

Nobody has succeeded yet, but one proposed lineage comes close. ^[9]

Though it runs through several strongly suspicious individuals, the line illustrates how lines of descent can wander down through the centuries, connecting famous figures of the past to most of the people living today. ^[9]

The proposed genealogy runs through Muhammad's daughter Fatima. Her husband Ali, also a cousin of Muhammad, is considered by Shiite Muslims the legitimate heir to leadership of Islam. ^[9]

Ali and Fatima had a son, al-Hasan, who died in 670. About three centuries later, his ninth great-grandson, Ismail, carried the line to Europe when he became Imam of Seville. Many genealogists dispute the connection between al-Hasan and Ismail, claiming that it includes fictional characters specifically invented by medieval genealogists trying to link the Abbadid dynasty, founded by Ismail's son, to Muhammad. The Abbadid dynasty was celebrated for making Seville a great cultural center at a time when most of Europe was mired in the Dark Ages.

The last emir in that dynasty was supposed to have had a daughter named Zaida, who is said to have changed her name to Isabel upon converting to Christianity and marrying Alfonso VI, king of Castile and Leon. ^[9]

Yet there is no good evidence demonstrating that Isabel, who bore one son by Alfonso VI, is the same person as Zaida. So the line between Muhammad and the English monarchs probably breaks again at this point. But if you give the Zaida/Isabel story the benefit of the doubt too, the line eventually leads to Isabel's fifth great-granddaughter Maria de Padilla (though it does encounter yet another potentially fictional character in the process). ^[9]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18 1.19 1.20 1.21 1.22 1.23 1.24 1.25} Wikipedia: Muhammad Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
2. ↑ Elizabeth Goldman (1995), p. 63, gives 8 June 632 CE, the dominant Islamic tradition. Many earlier (primarily non-Islamic) traditions refer to him as still alive at the time of the invasion of Palestine. See Stephen J. Shoemaker,The Death of a Prophet: The End of Muhammad's Life and the Beginnings of Islam,[page needed] University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
3. ↑ Buhl, F., Welch, A.T., Schimmel, Annemarie, Noth, A. and Ehlert, Trude (2012). "Muḥammad". In P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel, W.P. Heinrichs. Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). Brill. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0780. (subscription required (help)). Muḥammad, the Prophet of Islam.Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Alford T. Welch, Ahmad S. Moussalli, Gordon D. Newby (2009). "Muḥammad". In John L. Esposito. The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World. Oxford: Oxford University Press. The Prophet of Islam was a religious, political, and social reformer who gave rise to one of the great civilizations of the world. From a modern, historical perspective, Muḥammad was the founder of Islam. From the perspective of the Islamic faith, he was God 's Messenger (rasūl Allāh), called to be a “warner,” first to the Arabs and then to all humankind. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
5. ↑ Morgan, Diane (2009). Essential Islam: A Comprehensive Guide to Belief and Practice. p. 101. ISBN 978-0-313-36025-1. Retrieved 4 July 2012. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
6. ↑ Esposito (2002b), pp. 4–5. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
7. ↑ Peters, F.E. (2003). Islam: A Guide for Jews and Christians. Princeton University Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-691-11553-2. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
8. ↑ Esposito, John (1998). Islam: The Straight Path (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 9, 12. ISBN 978-0-19-511234-4. Cited by Wikipedia. Muhammed Accessed April 8, 2017. jhd
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5} "Genealogist: Almost Everyone on Earth Descended From Royalty," Monday, July 3, 2006, AP.

Acknowledgements

• WikiTree profile بن عبدالله-3 created through the import of export-Forest.ged on Dec 24, 2011 by Ahmed Khalil.

See also:

Timeline of the Prophets Life