Mohammed

Nobody could ever imagine that an ordinary man serving in the house of a window would one day have divine intuition and crores of people would bow their heads in reverence and follow his path treating him as messenger of god. This great man later on came to be known as Hazrat Mohammed.

Mohammed was born in A.D. 570 in an ordinary family in Mecca. His father died before he was born and his mother also died when he was hardly six years old. He was brought up by his paternal uncle. At the age of 20 he began to serve a rich distinguished and comely widow named Khadija. It proved to be a turning point in his life.

He married Khadija tough she was fifteen years older than he in age, yet she was a source of inspiration to him. Not only did she solve his financial problems but also inspired him in his religious experiments. Seven children were born to them but there was son who could be his successor. He did not take another wife during the life-time of Khadija.

Mohammed was one of those spiritual masters who professed that they got divine messages from god. He used to get messages through the angel `Gabriel’. The angel gave him the messages to establish a new religion and to be God’s messenger.

Mohammed began to relate his divine experience to the people but they appeared very strange to them. People with traditional religious belief did not feel attracted to him. They began to oppose him and as a result of it he was forced to leave Mecca. He fled Medina in A.D. 662.

He had to leave Mecca but the people of Medina welcomed him. The number of devotees began to increase. `Hijri’ year also starts from here. `Hijri’ literally means leaving one place.

He emerged as a religious leader. Initially he commanded his followers to perform their `Namaz’ twice a day. Later it began to be performed five times a day. He believed in one God. Before Mohammed, Arabs were divided into small sects. Some of them believed in ghosts and some others worshipped other gods and goddess. He opposed such worship and established the concept `One God’.

Islam means `submission to God’. The word Muslim is derived from Islam. Almost all Arab countries embraced Islam. The Arab counties, which were scattered into castes and clans, were welded into a single administrative unit before the death of Mohammed. Then Islam spread to other countries. They came to India and brought Islam with them. Islam spread to India. middle East, Far East and Europe by the 11th century. The Muslim scholar of middle ages made important contributions in the field of philosophy and medicine etc.

Hazrat Mohammed passed away in Medina in A.D. 632. After him a dispute arose among his followers. Mohammed was an emotional man. He did not like spilling blood. He did not like cowardice. When he went to offer prayers at the grave of his mother after 53 years he burst into tears. Once when he was in Medina, his nurse came to meat him. He stood up and cried `mother, mother’ and spread his precious `chadar’ on the ground for her to sit on. Once a person asked him, ``Hazrat what is the dearest thing to you?’’

Mohammed answered, ``Truth-And out of the worldly things, children, flowers and prayers’’.