While different groups—Seljuks, Mongols, and Turkomans—
would rule the region over a period of more than a thousand
years, Islam would remain constant.
Islam was founded in the 600s by a man who, as an orphaned
youth, had been a lowly shepherd. His name was Muhammad ibn
Abdullah. He later would be known as the prophet Muhammad.
His system of belief, based on a dream, would become a major
influence on modern Middle Eastern religion and politics.
It would be the religion of Ayatollah Khomeini and would
serve as the basis for Iran’s revolution more than a thousand
years later.10 AYATOLLAH RUHOLLAH KHOMEINI
MUHAMMAD’S ANGELIC VISIONS
The prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, was born to a tribe of
traders in Mecca, a city now located in Saudi Arabia. Raised by an
uncle, he grew to be a caravan merchant and traveled great distances
across the Arabian deserts. But it was not his trading that made him
wealthy; it was his marriage to a well-off widow named Khadijah. With
her, he lived a comfortable, ordinary life until he reached middle age.
At that time, he began taking moody sojourns into the mountains
near Mecca. On one of these retreats, on what Muslims call the Night
of Power, Muhammad felt called to be a prophet. He understood that
he was to recite to the citizens of Mecca a sequence of messages he
received from God through Gabriel, the archangel. From then until the
end of his life, Muhammad regularly proclaimed the divine revelations
that eventually would become the Qur’an, or Koran. They teach that Allah,
the only God, is a God of compassion. They warn against idolatry and
tell of a coming judgment day.
His teachings proved to be not altogether popular, for many people
of Mecca at the time worshiped idols. Muhammad and a band of his
devotees in A.D. 622 were obliged to flee Mecca in fear for their lives.
Their flight to Medina, an oasis to the north (also located in modern-day
Saudi Arabia), is remembered by Muslims as the Hegira. Muhammad’s
teachings were welcomed in Medina, and he was made a local governor.
Later, he was able to return to Mecca.
Today, a journey or “pilgrimage” to Mecca is a key requirement of
Islam. The Arabic term Islamimplies submission to God’s will.http://www.ebook3000.com