Author Archives: Ruth

Muhammad’s Family and the Revelations

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Ruth

Sometimes there were long silences, while other times, the revelations came in quick succession. Muhammad was able to recite each one to his family and close friends, who also memorized them. Each revelation incident became a surah, a chapter in … Continue reading →

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The First Revelations of Muhammad

Posted on December 8, 2020 by Ruth

When Muhammad was forty years old, probably in the year 610, he was staying in the cave of al-Hira for prayer and meditation when the first revelation occurred. He saw the figure of a man appear to him and command, … Continue reading →

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Muhammad the Meccan

Posted on December 7, 2020 by Ruth

Muhammad’s revelations did not begin until he was forty years old. During the period of normal life, he ran their caravan trading business and raised his family. As noted earlier, he adopted the former slave Zayd fairly early in this … Continue reading →

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How do we know about Muhammad’s life? (what is a hadith?)

Posted on December 3, 2020 by Ruth

Before going on with Muhammad’s life story, let’s look at one of the basic problems. At the time of Muhammad’s life, Arabia was not a society that wrote much down. Paper is what makes writing easy; Arabia had parchment like … Continue reading →

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Muhammad’s First Marriage

Posted on November 30, 2020 by Ruth

Muhammad is said to have been 25 when his employer, Khadijah, asked him to marry her. She was trying to run a business inherited from her deceased husband, having to depend on relative strangers and men whose interests might go … Continue reading →

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Early Life of Muhammad

Posted on November 29, 2020 by Ruth

Muhammad ibn (son of) Abd-Allah ibn Abd al-Muttalib was born at Mecca in approximately 570, maybe earlier. His father had died while returning from a caravan trip to the west, before the baby was born. Not long after his birth, … Continue reading →

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Muhammad’s Family

Posted on November 28, 2020 by Ruth

It helps to know a little bit of background on Muhammad’s clan and tribe, because the shape of these family structures were extremely important to the way Islam developed. In the entry on Mecca, you read that his tribe, the … Continue reading →

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The Outside World in Muhammad’s Time

Posted on November 27, 2020 by Ruth

The nearest neighbors to Muhammad’s Arabia (circa 600) were Abyssinia (modern Somalia and Ethiopia), “Rome,” and the Sasanian Empire of Persia. I put “Rome” in quotes because at that time, it included Egypt, some of North Africa, Palestine/Syria, Anatolia (modern … Continue reading →

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The Arab World in Muhammad’s Time

Posted on November 25, 2020 by Ruth

Muhammad was born in Mecca sometime around 560 AD. We’ve traced the development of culture in Arabia for about the thousand years before this, bringing us up to his time. What did it mean then to be an Arab? The … Continue reading →

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Classical Arabic and Poetry

Posted on November 19, 2020 by Ruth

We come to the last major cultural element that brings us up to the time—and the phenomenon—of Muhammad. This is a particularly difficult element for Americans to understand because it’s so unlike us. (1) Every culture has at least one … Continue reading →

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