Muhammad+and+Human+Nature

=Muhammad and Human Nature=

Introduction to Muhammad:
Muhammad was an orphaned at an early age, became a merchant in Mecca, and by the age of 26 he had became discontented with the commercial life of Mecca and it’s lack of spirituality. He retreated to a cave where he received a revelation from God that he should surrender to him, and after a three year hiatis he became a regular visiter to the cave were he recieved the Word of God from the angel Gabriel. He became known as a prophet and messenger bringing down spiritual messages from the cave in the form of oral verses which were transcribed into writing by his followers. Muhammad began preaching a single God, forgiveness of sin, resurrection, help to the needy and poor, and chastized the rich. For his preaching a rift developed between the commercial interests of Mecca as well as their religous idols which where a further source of Mecca's income. To escape persecution he migrated to the town of Medina in the year 1622. The time he migrated to Medina is known as the Hijara and is now marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. Over time his followers had grown to over 10,000 and he decided to conquer Mecca as well as the surrounding tribes. After several battles Muhannad had successful converted Mecca and the Arabian Penensula to largly Muslim control.

Muhammad’s life was very much a human existence and not that of a prophet or god.
 * Harsh Early life demonstrates human imperfection:**
 * Muhammad did not have a perfect upbringing, at first being born into a wealthy Arabic merchant family His father, Abdullah, died 6 months before he was born
 * Soon after birth, Muhammad was sent to live with a family in a different tribe (Bedouin tribe). He stayed with foster mother and father until the age of 2 (his mother was there as well).
 * At the age of 6 his mother died and Muhammad became fully orphaned.
 * Muhammad was sent to his grandfather in the Quraysh tribe. Shortly after when Muhammad was 8, his grandfather died
 * Muhammad was then send to live with his uncle, Abu Talib, whom he was brought up by for the rest of his childhood


 * Human suffering in middle life:**
 * Married first wife, Khadijah, and had six children
 * Controversy between Muslims on Muhammad’s reasoning for marrying Khadijah, either because he loved her or because she was very wealthy. Demonstrates humanity if he married her because of money, desires, or material possessions. This however, depends on the viewpoint
 * Out of Muhammad’s six children, two died.


 * Demonstrates disbelief and self doubt about the revelations that Gabrielle gave him:**
 * After the first revelations he had great self doubt, and was distressed.
 * Contemplated committing suicide, but was then consoled by his wife, Khadijah.




 * These introduce inaccuracies and faults because they are not first person accounts:**
 * The Koran was written by Muhammad’s followers when he was alive as an orally related document, and thus the exact wording as the words of God are questioned by some scholars
 * The Sira and the Hadith literature, which are essentially biographies of Muhammad's life, were written after his death and many portions of them were lost and then rewritten.

Muhammad began preaching the existence of one God, forgiveness of sins, resurrection of life after death, giving to the needy and poor, and destruction of idolatry and in general religion as practiced in Mecca at that time. This lead to a great rift between the ruling class of Mecca and Muhammad and he was driven from Mecca to Medina by the people of Mecca. **During this time Muhammad demonstrated acts that were primarily human in nature as his desire for power became stronger:**
 * Muhammad was forced to survive in the desert by raiding Mecca’s mechant caravans stealing goods and money.
 * As his followers increased they increasingly turned to violence as a means to convert people in the area to Islam.
 * In Medina his power grew to the point that his followers took over the city and all resistance was put down, much of it by force.
 * In 624 Muhammad attacked a Meccan merchant caravan with 300 warriors and he ambushed Meccans at Badr. This began the battle of Badr.
 * Although outnumbered 3 to 1 in the Battle of Badr, the Muslims prevailed. 45 Meccans were killed and 75 prisoners were taken for ransom, many of which were wealthy merchant, whom Muhammad ransomed back to Mecca for money.
 * With his new power and wealth Muhammad consolidated his power in Medina. He became intolerant of idol worship and other aspects of that culture that didn’t conform to his idea of Islam. Many inhabitants where killed or thrown out of the city.
 * Three Jewish tribes were at first supportive of him. However, as Muhammad’s power grew and he began to make alliances with Bedouin tribes and others in his ongoing fight against the Meccans Muhammad turned against the Jews. The Jewish people were starting to become suspicious of a non-Jewish leader and in 627 he beheaded all the men and sold the women and children of the Jewish Banu Qaynuqa tribe. The other Jewish tribes were also persecuted and driven from Medina. This shows Muhammad’s use of force, violence, and desire for power to brutally take over a people.



Muhammad’s lust for power and control next resulted many years of warfare to consolidate his dominance over the Arabian Peninsula and in particular, against the town of Mecca. Many of this was done by brutal force and not under the peaceful means of religion conversion as practiced by other peoples.
 * Following the battle of Badr Muhammad led expeditions on numerous tribes which were unallied with Mecca
 * Mecca gathered an army of 3,000 men and set out to attack Medina This led to the battle of Uduh, which was a Muslim defeat. However the Meccans failed to defeat the Muslims completely, who withdrew to Medina.
 * Following the defeat at the battle of Uduh Muhammad’s opponents at medina claimed that the defeat the Uduh proved that he was not genuine
 * However Muhammad went back up to the mountain cave and came back with more Qur’anic verses that blamed the defeat on his followers. He claimed that they were not being steadfast enough to Muhammad and his religion. This raises the possibility that the verses Muhammad brought down were not genuine but were designed to consolidate his power and put the blame of his defeat at the Battle of Udah on his followers rather than himself. This would show Muhammad’s human weakness by showing him lying about the Qu’ran and making up verses to support his position and consolidate his power.

Muhammad then delivered a Koronic verse commanding the hajj, which is the pilgrimage to Mecca
 * Muhammad decided to make a peaceful pilgrimage to Mecca and set out with 14,000 men, who were halted just before they arrived.
 * Both negotiated to stop war and came to the treaty of hudaybiyya, which said that they could not perform Hajj that year, but could from that year on unarmed
 * Mecca did not benefit from treaty, whereas Medina and the Islams did because they began to go to Mecca peacefully and convert many people to Islam.
 * However, Muhammad broke the treaty and went to Mecca and entered Ka’ba and smashed all of the idols in 628 C.E. He then installed then sacred black stone in the Kabba.



===In the end, this showed that Muhammad used the Koran and his religious fervor in order to gain power and conquest over Mecca and the entire Arabian peninsula. This was achieved by the most part using military tactics, forming and then breaking alliances and treaties, and years of warfare. None of these events are consistent with a God fearing man who practices peace, love, helping those in need, and other practices of Islam, but rather those of a tyrant possessed by power.===

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