Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

Muhammad ibn Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim (570-632 CE) is the final Prophet and Messenger of Allah ☪, the Seal of the Prophets (Khatam al-Anbiya), and the most beloved of all creation. Born in Mecca on 12 Rabi al-Awwal in the Year of the Elephant, he was orphaned before birth when his father Abdullah died, and lost his mother Aminah at age six. He was raised first by his grandfather Abd al-Muttalib and then by his uncle Abu Talib of the noble clan of Banu Hashim from the tribe of Quraysh. He was sent to all of humanity, not to one people alone. Allah says in the Quran (Surah Al-Anbiya 21:107): "And We have not sent you except as a mercy to the worlds."

From his earliest years, he was known as al-Amin (the trustworthy) and al-Sadiq (the truthful). He worked as a shepherd in his youth and later as a successful merchant, including trading journeys to Syria in the service of his employer and later wife, Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, whom he married at age twenty-five. She was the first to believe in him.

At age forty, while in seclusion in the Cave of Hira, the angel Jibril came with the first revelation. Allah says in the Quran (Surah Al-Alaq 96:1-3): "Read in the name of your Lord who created — created man from a clinging clot. Read, and your Lord is the Most Generous." This began a revelation continuing twenty-three years until his death.

The Prophet ☪ spent thirteen years calling the Meccans to Islam, facing persecution, torture of companions, social boycott, and the deaths of Khadijah and his uncle Abu Talib in the same year (the Year of Sorrow). His greatest miracle is the Quran itself. Allah says (Surah Al-Baqarah 2:23): "And if you are in doubt about what We have sent down upon Our servant, then produce a surah the like thereof." He was also granted the Night Journey (Isra) to Jerusalem and the Ascension (Miraj) through the heavens, confirmed in Surah Al-Isra (17:1).

In 622 CE he migrated (Hijra) to Medina, marking the start of the Islamic calendar. In Medina he established the first Muslim state, authored the Constitution of Medina, unified warring tribes, and built the first mosque. He led the Muslims through the battles of Badr, Uhud, the Trench, and the conquest of Mecca in 630 CE, where he declared a general amnesty: "Go, for you are free."

He delivered his Farewell Sermon at Arafat before 100,000 companions, declaring: "I have left among you two things; as long as you hold to them, you will not go astray: the Book of Allah and my Sunnah." He passed away in Medina in 11 AH (632 CE), aged sixty-three. He was buried in his chamber beneath the green dome in Masjid al-Nabawi.

He is the last in the great chain of prophets. Allah says (Surah Al-Ahzab 33:40): "Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets." No prophet comes after him. His Sunnah, preserved in the hadith collections, forms the second source of Islamic law alongside the Quran. His significance for every Muslim is total: he is the living model of the Quran made manifest.