Tuesday, March 14, 2006

The call to Islam: getting over a number of struggles

When Mohamed was 40 years old, 15 years after his marriage to khadija, a turning point occurred in his life. While he was mediating in a cave named "Hiraa", Muhammad received his first revelation from God through the Angel Gabriel. This revelation, which continued for twenty-three years, is known as the Quran.

Since this incident, Mohamed's mission to call people for the new religion started and started with it the challenges that he face in his journey. This takes us to the following question.


Why was spreading Islam difficult at the beginning?

It seems part of the human nature that we sometimes stick to the old traditions and we do not stop to reconsider the habits we inherited from our ancestors. This seems to be the case in the Arab Peninsula, where Mohamed was born, and where Mohamed’s call for the new religion first started.

Prior to the emergence of Islam, the Arab Peninsula was dominated by values such as the existence of slaves, the low-status given to women and the worship of statues. For instance, women were regarded as property to be inherited after death and baby girls, especially in the lower substrata of society, were soon doomed to death after their birth for fear of disgrace.

And because Islam, the new religion, mainly criticizes such values and calls for a reconsideration of the habits and traditions adopted by people, it seems normal that people living at the time of Mohamed would revolt against the new religion. And it was against this background that Mohamed started to call for the new religion, a matter which took place over several stages.

The first stage: calling secretly for the new religion

Since it was difficult for Mohamed, who was not a well-to-do member of his tribe, to call for the new religion, he started to do this on a small scale. So, those who believed in Mohamed’s mission at first were his wife Khadija, and few members of his family.

However, a turning point occurred when a small group of the prestigious and wealthy people of Makkah (where Mohamed lived) joined the religion. Amongst those were Abu Bakr who later became one of the companions of the prophet. This period of secretly calling for the new religion took three years, after which started a new stage of calling for Islam.

Publicly calling for the new religion

After a period of three years, Mohamed started to publicly declare his faith; he won more followers; the majority of those were slaves and women, who found in the new religion which calls upon the equality between men and women, and slaves, and free people, enough support for their claim.

At the same time, Mohamed had to face many challenges from the nobles and leaders who found their position being threatened. They stood together, under the pretext of defending the religion of their ancestors, to fight the new religion.

Muslim’s immigrations to Ethiopia

As the result of these challenges from the Makkan unbelievers, some Muslims were subjected to torture, persecutions, isolations and boycotts. However, the Prophet was patient and worked on protection of Muslims. He asked Negus, King of Ethiopia, who believed in Christianity, to allow Muslims to migrate to his country. Negus welcomed the Muslims emigrants in his territory and refused to hand them over to the MakKan unbeliever rulers.


Death of khadija, Mohamed’s wife


Shortly after this, Prophet's faithful wife and greatest help, Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, who also supported Mohamed, passed away. With the passing away of these two supporters, the Prophet lost the two who were the greatest restraint to the cruelties of Quraysh. As we shall see, the events following showed that the Prophet had yet greater difficulties to face.

15 Comments:

At 9:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

jazakom khairan...

me too will try to get visitors isA...


Locus cerolius

 
At 8:20 AM, Blogger LuLu...! said...

masha'allah...
wallahy perfect...
thx for the info....

 
At 5:18 AM, Blogger Fantastic Logos said...

صلى الله على محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم

كل سنه وانت طيبه
:)

 
At 5:20 AM, Blogger Fantastic Logos said...

صلى الله على محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم

كل سنه وانت طيبه
:)

 
At 12:44 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jasakom khayran

 
At 2:44 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

أحييك على الجهد المخلص فقلما نجد مدونات تتحدث عن الرسول الكريم سواء بالعربية أو بأي لغة أخرى. ذكاءُ منك أن تجعلي لغة الخطاب بالإنجليزية.

لا أعرف إن كان هذا الكلام منقولاً أو من إبداعك، لكنني أرجو منك في البوستات القادمة أن تقتربي أكثر من النصوص المكتوبة عن الرسول محمد (ص) وعن تاريخ الإسلام بأقلام كتّاب معاصرين ويتحدثون الإنجليزية بصفتها لغتهم الأم.

استوقفني شيء آخر وهو هجاء كلمة "محمد" بالإنجليزية هل هي Muhammadأم Mohamed أعرف أنك تعين الفرق جيداً. أؤمن بأن لكل هجاء فلسفة أو لنقل أيديولوجية - إن لم يخني التعبير! فالهجاء الأول شائع أكثر في الكتابات الإنجليزية التي يكتبها كتاب مسلمون أو أكاديميون ليست العربية لغتهم الأم. الهجاء الثاني مستخدم في الكتابات التي ينتجها (في الغالب) مؤلفون غير مسلمين أو لنقل إنه الأكثر شيوعاً في الكتابات الأقل معاصرة.

نفس الكلام ينطبق على كلمة قرآن هل الهجاء الصحيح لها Quran (وهي الأكثر شيوعاً في الكتابات المعاصرة التي يكتبها مسلمون) أم Koran التي تشيع في الكتابات الأقل معاصرة وفي نصوص إسلامية كتبها غير مسلمون.

برأيي أن المشكلة في الكتابة عن التاريخ الديني أنك - أحياناً - تضطرين إلى استعارة ألفاظ من التاريخ الديني لديانة أخرى (وإن كانت الكتابات المعاصرة تحاول جاهدة التخلص من هذه المشكلة) فبدلاً من الكلام عن "الزكاة" باعتبارها alms-giving تظهر كلمة Zakat ونفس الكلام ينطبق على الحج الذي كانت ترجمته إلى كلمة Pilgrimage مجرد ترجمة إجرائية غير دقيقة!

 
At 2:45 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Sorry that was me! Blogger is playing around

 
At 1:59 PM, Blogger Shaimaa Zaher said...

علاء الدين:شكرا جزيلا على اهتمامك بإرسال تعليق هنا، الذي صنع فارقا لي لأن لا أحد يهتم لهذا الموضوع على الأغلب (عمل مدونة للرسول عليه الصلاة والسلام) فنادرا ما يجيء لي تعليق هنا!

احتاج للتفكير وقراءة ما كتبته مرة ثانية، لكن مبدئيا هذا كلامي أنا، أقصد إني لم أنقله عن أي موقع آخر، لكني استعنت بالطبع بما قرأته عن حياة الرسول (ص ع) سواء بالعربية أم بالإنجليزية. ولي تعليق آخر على كلامك بإذن الله بعد أن أكون قرأته مرة أخرى..

وصباحك ياسمين وفل يا رب :)

 
At 1:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

sexy guys

 
At 8:09 AM, Blogger Muhammad said...

When in Rome, according to the English proverb, do as the Romans do. Maybe that's why I'm going to stick to English?!

First of all, I'd like to truly thank you for your serious work on this subject. Not so many people would get involved in acquainting "the other" with Islam in their journals. However, you may find some consolation in this Hadith:
لأن يهدي الله بك رجلا خير لك من حمر النعم
Or at least, it could possibly be the beginning of a better relationship based on reciprocal understanding .. Just like you said in the very beginning; "I had this urge to let people know about prophet Mohamed,and correct the misconceptions that some have about him. Who knows? May be we can bridge the gap one day"

Honestly speaking, it was pretty much useful for me as well. I mean as a Muslim who knows a lot or a little about his religion. Actually, what attracted me most is your simple, clear way that doesn't allow boredom to creep in.

Bas you're only telling facts. Isn't there still something missing? I mean why not employ your writing talents a little better? I can't figure out how to employ them here, but still, I believe you can.

Hey, it's not a big deal that you don't get lots of comments. I'll be following up.
Well, I'm enough, aren't I?:)

 
At 5:46 AM, Blogger Aladdin said...

No new posts? Hope ur ok!

 
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At 3:18 AM, Blogger mhmdwahab said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 5:35 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

صلى الله على محمد صلى الله عليه وسلم

 

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