c visits, Muhammad became confident he had indeed been chosen as the messenger of God and began to proclaim as he had been commanded.
Muhammad’s message to his countrymen was to convert from pagan polytheism, immorality and materialism, repent from evil and worship Allah, the only true God. He was always careful to clarify his role in God’s work – he was only a prophet. He was not an angel, he did not know the mind of God, he did not work miracles. He simply preached what he had received.
In the first three years of his ministry, Muhammad gained only 40 followers. And as his teachings threatened the Meccan way of life, both moral and economic, he and his followers experienced heavy persecution. It first took the form of mockery, but soon turned into open violence. Members of the small movement were stoned, covered in dirt as they prayed, beat with sticks, thrown into prison and refused service by merchants.
Persecution continued to increase until Muhammad received some welcome news: he had gained followers in the city of Yathrib, 280 miles north of Mecca. The city was in need of a strong leader, and a delegation from Yathrib proposed that Muhammad take the job. In return, they pledged to worship Allah only, obey Muhammad and defend him and his followers to the death. Allah revealed to Muhammed his approval of this arrangement, and Muhammad made plans to escape to Yathrib.
The leaders in Mecca heard of the planned escape, and attempted to prevent it. But Muhammad and his close friend Abu Bakr managed to make a narrow escape north out of the city, evading a Meccan search party and arriving safely in Yathrib. This event is celebrated by Muslims as the Hijira. The year in which it occurred, 622, is the date at which the Muslim calendar begins. Yathrib was renamed Medinat al-Nabi, “the City of the Prophet,” and is now known simply as Medina, “the City.”
In Medina, Muhammad proved himself an able politician and statesman as well as a prophet.
Exercising superb statecraft, he welded the five heterogenous and conflicting tribes of the city, three of which were Jewish, into an orderly confederation…. His reputation spread and people began to flock from every part of Arabia to see the man who had wrought this ‘miracle.’ (Smith, 230).
After establishing himself in Medina and accomplishing the job he had been invited to do, the people of Medina began several years of battle with Muhammad’s former home city. In 624, the Muslims won their first battle against the Meccans. As the latter had a much larger army, the former took the victory as a sign that God was on their side. However, a subsequent battle was not victorious, and Muhammad himself was wounded. But in 627, the Meccans attacked Medina, and Medina came out on top. The Prophet was not to lose again.
In 630, Muhammad and his forces marched to Mecca and defeated it. The Prophet rededicated the Ka’ba temple to Allah, witnessed the conversion to Islam of nearly the entire Meccan population, then returned to Medina. Muhammad died in 632, having conquered nearly all of Arabia for Islam.
By 634, Islam had taken over the entire Arabian peninsula. Within 100 years of Muhammad’s death, it had reached the Atlantic in one direction and borders of China in the other. This success was due in large part to the military and political abilities of Muhammad’s successors, the caliphs.