- Traditions About the Prophet
a. Unlike Jesus, Muhammad was not the redeemer of humankind. He was a
mortal man, but also the perfect paradigm of what a Muslim should be.
b. Many of the traditions concerning the Prophet were gathered together
sometime after 750 CE into a Life written by Muhammad ibn Ishaq and
has become a standard.
c. Tradition has it that Muhammad was born in Mecca, late in the sixth cen-
tury, and orphaned young.
d. He married Kadijah, a woman who was apparently important in the mod-
est trading life of the town.
e. Kadijah was the mother of all of his children except for a son born of a
concubine after her death. None of his male children survived infancy.
f. The leading tribe in Mecca, the Quraysh, had combined commerce and
shrine-pilgrimage in the town.
g. The Meccan shrine was the Ka’ba, a stone “House of Allah” with a sur-
rounding taboo zone (haram) in the middle of the settlement. Many gods
were worshiped here.B. The Call, the Response
- The Message at Mecca
a. In 610, already well into adulthood,
Muhammad had a revelation from the
Angel Gabriel and began to recite or
chant the message God was sending
through him to the Meccans.
b. The message given to Muhammad
was that there is no god but the God.
c. He also stressed the idea of the
“Last Judgement” with its punish-
ments for the wicked and rewards
for the just.
d. Muhammad refused to perform—or
have God perform—miracles on his
own behalf as testimony to his devo-
tion to the Quran. The Quran itself
was God’s miracle.
e. From 610 CE and for the next 22
years of his life God continued to
give revelations to his prophet, all
attesting to the same message of
submission to God, in Arabic “Allah.”
HISTORY OF MECCA
Situated 45 miles from the Red
Sea Coast, Mecca is considered
the holiest city of all Islam.
During the time of Muhammad,
Mecca a shrine city of little dis-
tinction and little property, was
known as a local pilgrimage and
trading center.
The Ka’ba, built by Ibrahim and
his son Isma’il, lies in the center
of the town. Around the Ka’ba lies
a great taboo zone, al-Haram and
around this, between mountains
the mud brick buildings of Mecca
arose. From ancient times,
Muslims determined to live clos-
est to the holiest place on earth,
and built their houses near the
grounds of the mosque.
Mecca today is important for the
compulsory hajj made by
Muslims. Each year many hun-
dreds of thousands of Muslims
make the trek to Mecca to per-
form the rituals there.