His rule extended to a large part of the civilized world but his household effects consisted of a bed and a water container made of leather. He received tributes from a number of countries in the shape of gold, silver and other commodities. But he would not sleep unless he distributed all of it amongst the needy people. If he did not have anything to give to the needy, he would borrow and give them. He never ever refused a needy person. Even on his deathbed many of his personal effects were found mortgaged because he had borrowed money for the needy. He never filled his stomach any day of his life. For many days there was nothing to cook in his house. Often when he found that there was nothing to eat, he used to fast. On many occasions, although he himself had not eaten anything and was hungry, if some needy person came, he gave him whatever was available and he himself remained hungry. And, he was the ruler of a number of countries.


He was born an orphan. His mother also died while he was a child. He was brought up by his grandfather and later by his uncle. He was very generous by nature but always short of resources and hardly able to provide for his family. Mohammed started to earn his livelihood from a very young age; he served as a shepherd boy to some neighbors. At the age of ten he accompanied his uncle to Syria when he was leading a caravan there. No other travels of Abu Talib (His uncle) are mentioned, but there are references to his having set up a shop in Mecca. (Ibn Qutaibah Ma'arif). It is possible that Muhammad helped him in this enterprise also.

By this time he was twenty-five, Muhammad had become well known in the city for his integrity and his honesty. A rich widow, Khadija, took him in his employ and consigned to him her goods to be taken for sale to Syria. Delighted with the unusual profits she obtained as also by the personal charms of her agent, she offered him her hand. According to divergent reports, she was either 28 or 40 years of age at that time, (medical reasons prefer the age of 28 since she gave birth to five more children). The union proved to be happy.
Zuhair, uncle and chief of the tribe of Prophet called for a meeting of certain chieftains in the city, and organized an Order of Chivalry, called Hilf al-fudal, with the aim and object of aiding the oppressed in Mecca, irrespective of their being dwellers of the city or aliens. Young Muhammad became an enthusiastic member of the organization. Later in life he used to say: "I have participated in it, and I am not prepared to give up that privilege even against a herd of camels; if somebody should appeal to me even today, by virtue of that pledge, I shall hurry to his help."

About the year 605 of the Christian era, the draperies on the outer wall of the Ka'bah took fire. The building was affected and could not bear the brunt of the torrential rains that followed. The reconstruction of the Ka'bah was thereupon undertaken. Each citizen contributed according to his means; and only the gifts of honest gains were accepted. Everybody participated in the work of construction, and Muhammad's shoulders were injured in the course of transporting stones. To identify the place whence the ritual of circumambulation began, there had been set a black stone in the wall of the Ka'bah, dating probably from the time of Abraham himself. There was rivalry among the citizens for obtaining the honor of transposing this stone to its place. When there was danger of blood being shed, somebody suggested leaving the matter to Providence, and accepting the arbitration of him who should happen to arrive there firs. It chanced that Muhammad just then turned up there for work as usual. He was popularly known by the appellation of al-Akin (The honest), and everyone accepted his arbitration without hesitation. Muhammad placed a sheet of cloth on the ground, put the stone on it and asked the chiefs of all the tribes in the city to lift together the cloth. Then he himself placed the stone it its proper place, in one of the angles of the building, and everyone was satisfied.

It is from this moment that we find Muhammad becoming more and more absorbed in spiritual meditations. Like his grandfather, he used to retire during the whole month of Ramadan to a cave in Jabal-an-Nur (mountain of light). The cave is called "Ghar-i-Hira" or the cave of research. There he prayed, meditated, and shared his meager provisions with the travelers who happened to pass by.

The moral and spiritual conditions, at that time, in Arabia were horrible. Debauchery and drunkenness were common. For small reasons the tribes used to fight with each other for years. One of their customs was that they used to bury alive their newborn daughters. They had hundreds of statues of their so called Gods in Ka'bah. Their pilgrimage was that they used to go round Ka'bah without clothing. Muhammad used to feel very sad on these conditions.

Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology. No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future.
He was forty years old, and it was the fifth consecutive year since his annual retreats, when one night towards the end of the month of Ramadan, an angel came to visit him, and announced that God had chosen him as His messenger to all mankind. The angel taught him the mode of ablutions, the way of worshipping God and the conduct of the prayer. He communicated to him the following Divine message:

"With the name of God, the Most Merciful, the All-Merciful.
Read with the name of thy Lord Who created,
Created man from what clings,
Read and thy Lord is the Most Bounteous,
Who taught by the pen,
Taught man what he knew not. (Quran 96:1-5)

Deeply affected, he returned home and related to his wife what had happened, expressing his fears that it might have been something diabolic or the action of evil spirits. She consoled him, saying that he had always been a man of charity and generosity, helping the poor, the orphans, the widows and the needy, and assured him that God would protect him.

The Prophet began by preaching his mission secretly first among his intimate friends, then among the members of his own tribe and thereafter publicly in the city and suburbs. He insisted on the belief in One Transcendent God, in Resurrection and the Last Judgment. He invited men to charity and beneficence. He took necessary steps to preserve through writing revelations he was receiving, and order his adherents also to learn them by heart. This continued all through his life, since the Quran was not revealed all at once, but in fragments as occasion arose.

The number of his adherents increased gradually, but with the denunciation of paganism, the opposition also grew intense on the part of those who were firmly attached to their ancestral beliefs. The opposition denigrated in the course of time into physical torture of the Prophet and of those who had embraced his religion. These were stretched on burning sands, cauterized with the red hot iron and imprisoned with chains on their feet. Some of them died of the effects of the torture, but none would renounce his religion. In despair, the Prophet Mohammed advised his companions to quit their native town and take refuge abroad, in Abyssinia.

The Prophet Mohammed (was instructed to call this religion) "Islam" i.e. submission to the will of God. Its distinctive features are two:

1. A harmonious equilibrium between the temporal and the spiritual (the body and the soul), permitting a full enjoyment of all the good that God has created, (Quran 7:32), enjoining at the same time on everybody duties towards God, such as worship, fasting, charity, etc. Islam was to be the religion of the masses and not merely of the elect.

2. A universality of the call - al the believers becoming brothers and equals without any distinction of class or race or tongue. The only superiority which it recognizes is a personal one, based on the greater fear of God and greater piety (Quran 49:13)

When a large number of the Meccan Muslims migrated to Abyssinia, the leaders of paganism sent an ultimatum to the tribe of the prophet , demanding that he should be excommunicated and outlawed and delivered to the pagans for being put to death. Every member of the tribe, Muslim and non-Muslim rejected the demand. (cf Ibn Hisham). There upon the city decided on a complete disseverance of relations with them. The group of Arab tribes called Ahabish, inhabiting the suburbs, which were allies of the Meccans, also joined in the boycott, causing stark misery among the innocent victims consisting of children, men and women, the old and the sick and the feeble. Some of the succumbed yet nobody would hand over the Prophet to his persecutors. An uncle of the Prophet , Abu Lahab, however left his tribesmen and participated in the boycott along with the pagans. After three dire years, during which the victims were obliged to devour even crushed hides, some tribes announced publicly their denunciation of the unjust boycott. At the same time, the document promulgating the pact of boycott which had been hung in the temple, was found, as Mohammed had predicted , eaten by ants, that spared nothing but the words God and Mohammed . The boycott was lifted, yet owing to the privations that were undergone the wife and Abu Talib, the chief of the tribe and uncle of the Prophet died soon after. Another uncle of the Prophet , Abu Lahab, who was an inveterate enemy of Islam succeeded to the headship of the tribe. (cf. Ibn Hisham, Sirah).

The annual pilgrimage of the Ka'bah brought to Mecca people from all parts of Arabia. The Prophet Mohammed tried to persuade one tribe after another to afford him shelter and allow him to carry on his mission of reform. The contingent of fifteen tribes, whom he approached in succession, refused to do so more or less brutally, but he did not despair. Finally he met half a dozen inhabitants of Madina who being neighbors of the Jews and the Christians had some notion of prophets and Divine messages. They knew also that these "people of the Book" were awaiting arrival of a prophet - last comforter. So these Medinians decided not to lose the opportunity of obtaining an advance adherents in advance and necessary help from Madina. The following year a dozen new Medinians took the oath of allegiance to with and requested him to provide with the missionary teacher. The work of the missionary, Mus'ab, proved very successful and he led a contingent of seventy-three new converts to Mecca, at the time of the pilgrimage. These invited the Prophet and his Meccan companions to migrate to their own town, and promised to shelter the Prophet and to treat him and his companions as their own kith and kin. Secretly and in small groups, the greater part of the Muslims emmigrated to Madina. Upon this the pagans of Mecca not only confiscated the property of the evacuees, but devised a plan to assassinate the Prophet . It became now impossible for him to remain at home. It is worthy of mention, that in spite of their hostility to his mission, the pagans had unbounded confidence in his probity, so much so that many of them used to deposit their savings with him. The Prophet Mohammed now entrusted all these deposits to Ali, a cousin of his, with the instructions to return them in due course to the rightful owners. He then left the town secretly in the company of his faithful friend, Abu Bakr. After several adventures, they succeeded in reaching Madina in safety. This happened in 622 AD, whence starts the Hijrah calendar.

Not content with expulsion of the Muslim compatriots, the Meccans sent an ultimatum to the Medinians, demanding the surrender or at least the expulsion of Mohammed and his companions but evidently all such efforts proved in vain. A few months later in the year 2 H., they sent a powerful army against the Prophet, who opposed them at Badr; and the pagans thrice as numerous as the Muslims, were routed. After a year of preparation, the Meccans again invaded Madina to avenge the defeat of Badr. They were now four times as numerous as the Muslims. After a bloody encounter at Uhad, the enemy retired, the issue being indecisive. The mercenaries in the Meccan army did not want to take too much risk, or endanger their safety.

The Prophet tried once more to reconcile the Meccans and proceeded to Mecca. The barring of the route of their Northern caravan had ruined their economy. The Prophet promised them transit security, extradition of their fugitives and the fulfillment of every condition they desired, agreeing even to return to Madina without accomplishing the pilgrimage of the Ka'bah. Thereupon the two contracting parties promised at Hudaibiya in the suburbs of Mecca, not only the maintenance of peace, but also the observance of neutrality in their conflicts with third parties.
Profiting by the peace, the Prophet launched an intensive programme for the propagation of his religion. He addressed evangelical letters to the foreign rulers of Byzantium, Iran, Abyssinia and other lands. The Byzantine autocrat priest - Daughter of the Arabs - embraced Islam, but for this, was lynched by the Christian mob; the prefect of Ma'an (Palestine) suffered the same fate, and was decapitated and crucified by order of the emperor. A Muslim ambassador was assassinated in Syria - Palestine; and instead of punishing the culprit, the emperor Heraclius rushed with his armies to protect him against the punitive expedition sent by the Prophet (Battle of Mu'tah).

The pagans of Mecca hoping to profit by the Muslim difficulties, violated the terms of their treaty. Upon this, the Prophet himself  led an army, ten thousand strong, and surprised Mecca which he occupied in a bloodless manner4. As a benevolent conqueror, he caused the vanquished people to assemble, reminded them of their ill deeds, their religious persecution, unjust confiscation of the evacuee property, ceaseless invasions and senseless hostilities for twenty years continuously. He asked them: "Now what do you expect of me?" when everybody lowered their head with shame, the Prophet proclaimed: "May God pardon you; go in peace; there shall be no reprisal against you today; you are free!" He then renounced the claim for the property confiscated by the pagans.

They were yet unbelievers, but mark the magnanimity of that great soul who not even reproach them for their evil deeds, who let them go even without taking a pledge from them for the future. Here was a practical proof of that laudable precept Love thine enemy. Not only was Mecca conquered, but with it were conquered also the hearts of the bitterest foes of Islam. They now saw with their own eyes how the combined forces of opposition offered by the whole country had proved an utter failure against the mighty truth which came from the lips of a man who had stood alone in the midst of all opposition. The righteousness of the cause was not only too clear to them, and men and women came forward spontaneously to embrace the faith. There was not a single instance of conversion by force. Those that still adhered to the old religion were treated in the same spirit of friendliness as the members of the brother-hood. Even a hostile critic has to admit:

"Although the city had cheerfully accepted his authority, all its inhabitants had not yet embraced the new religion nor formally acknowledged his prophetical claim. Perhaps he intended to follow the course he had pursued at Medina and leave the conversion of the people to be gradually accomplished without compulsion… [Sir William Muir]

This produced a great psychological change of hearts instantaneously. When a Meccan chief advanced with a fulsome heart towards the Prophet, after hearing this general amnesty, in order to declare his acceptance of Islam, the Prophet told him; "And in my turn, I appoint you the governor of Mecca!" Without leaving a single soldier in the conquered city, the Prophet retired to Madina. The Islamization of Mecca, which was accomplished in a few hours, was complete.

The fall of Mecca was a signal to the whole of Arabia. In fact, the Quraish were generally at the bottom of all organized opposition. With the sole exception of the battle of Hunain, which had to be undertaken against the Hawazin immediately after the conquest of Mecca, regular warfare between the Muslims and the non-Muslims in the whole of Arabia now came to an end, At Hunain even the unbelieving Meccans fought on the side of the Muslims.

Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology. No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured. Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expects something great and revolutionary from him in the future. But when he came out of the Cave (Hira) with anew message, he was completely transformed. Is it possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into an 'an imposter' and claim to be a prophet of Allah and invite all the rage of his people? One might ask: for what reason did he suffer all those hardships? His people offered to accept him as their king if he would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offer and go on preaching his religion single-handedly in face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people. Was it not only God's support and his firm will to disseminate the message of Allah and his deep-rooted belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for humanity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him? Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus Christ and Moses and other Prophets of God (peace be upon them), a basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?

Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder and accepted his message.

In the year 10 AH, when the prophet went to Mecca for Hajj (Pilgrimage), he met 140,000 Muslims there, who had come from different parts of Arabia to fulfill their religious obligations. He addressed them his celebrated Sermon of the Mount, in which he gave a resume of his teachings: " Belief in One God without images or symbols, equality of al the Believers without distinction of race or class, the superiority of individuals being based solely on piety; sanctity of life, property and honor; abolition of interest, and of vendettas and private justice; better treatment of women; obligatory inheritance and distribution of the property of deceased persons among near relatives of both sexes, and removal of the possibility and the accumulation of wealth in the hands of the few. " The Quran and the conduct of the prophet were to serve as the basis of law and healthy criterion in every aspect of human life. Then he said in al loud voice:

"Oh, Allah be may witness that I have delivered Thy message"
The gathering shouted in one voice "Yes thou hast."

On his return to Madina, he fell ill; and a few weeks later, when he breathed his last, he had the satisfaction that he had well accomplished the task which he had undertaken to preach to the world the Divine message.
He bequeathed to posterity, a religion of pure monotheism; he created a well-disciplined State out of existing chaos and gave peace in place of war, everybody against everybody else; he established a harmonious equilibrium between the spiritual and the temporal, between the mosque and the citadel; he left a new system of law, which dispensed impartial justice, in which even the head of the State was as much a subject to it as any commoner, and in which religious tolerance was so great that non-Muslim inhabitants of Muslim countries equally enjoyed complete juridical, judicial and cultural autonomy. In the matter of the revenues of the State, the Quran fixed the principles of budgeting, and paid more thought to the poor than to anybody else. The revenues were declared to be in no wise the private property of the head of the State. Above all, the Prophet Muhammad set a noble example and fully practiced all that he taught to others.