The Prophet Muhammad

The Prophet’s Mosque, Madinah. s The Prophet Muhammad Poised between Africa, Asia and Europe, the Arabian peninsula lay at the very heart of the ancient world. Yet no ambitious conqueror had invaded the territory; no ruler had sought to bring it under his domain. All military campaigns had been limited to the area bordering Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Palestine and Lebanon. As for the Arabian peninsula, no one had considered it worth fighting for. True, its shores were lapped by three seas, but its interior offered little beyond inhospitable desert and barren mountains. The Early Years Makkah was the central township of this land, it was in this “uncultivable valley” in which it lay that the Prophet Muhammad, on whom be peace, was born on 22 April A.D. 570. His father, ‘Abdullah ibn ‘Abdul Muttalib, died a few months before the birth of the Prophet. He was only six years of age when his mother, Aminah, also passed away. For two years he was cared for by his grandfather, ‘Abdul Muttalib, and, when he too died, the Prophet’s uncle, Abu Talib, became his guardian. Abu Talib’s demise occurred three years before the emigration of the Prophet to Madinah. The Prophet then, at the most difficult stage of his life, was left without a protector. But nature had endowed the Prophet with a remarkable personality. Those who saw him in his youth used to remark: “This boy has a great future.” As he grew up, the nobility of his personality used to have an effect on anyone beholding him, but he was so soft-spoken and