Describe the life of the prophet from childhood up to 610AD

1. Childhood;
- Prophet Muhammad was born on the 12th of Rabil-Awal in 570AD the year of the elephant in Mecca.
- He belonged to the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraish tribe,
- His father was Abdullah who died four months before Muhammad was born.
- His mother was called Amina bint Wahab,
- As it was the custom of the Arabs that a baby is not breast fed by the biological mother,
- Muhammad was taken to the foster mother called Halima.
- Since Muhammad was from a poor family, Halima hesitated for a moment but later accepted.
- Before - But upon taking up the young Muhammad the animals started producing/giving a lot of milk.
- Muhammad was brought back to his mother Amina.
- When Muhammad reached the age of six the mother died and remained a total orphan.
- However he was now taken care of by his grandfather Abu- Mutwalib.
- At the age of 8, the grandfather also died and it was his uncle Abu-Talib that took up his care.



2. As a youth;
- Muhammad grew up with his uncle Abu-Talib.
- He used to help his uncle in many things. E.g. he used to rear the animals of his uncle.
- He never participated in pre-Islamic Arabia practices e.g. wine drinking, gambling e.t.c.
- He was humble and honest,
- He respected the elders and had mercy on the little ones.
- He was truthful which trait was not common in Arabia.
- He never participated in worshiping idols.
- He was kind and always helped the needy, poor and the widows.
- He was obedient.
- When he was 13 years he requested his uncle to take him alongside in trade.
- The uncle first hesitated but later accepted.
- On their way, they met a Christian monk called Bahira.
- Bahira observed Muhammad and asked him questions and was impressed with his answers.
- Bahira requested Abu-Talib to take good care of the boy for he might became a prophet.
- He also told him to protect Muhammad from the Jews as they would kill him.



3. Muhammad as a trader and his marriage to Hadijjah;
- Muhammad got experienced in trade as he continuously traded with his uncle.
- Due to his trust worthy dealings many people wanted to trade with him.
- This news of Muhammad’s honesty, trustworthiness and fairness in trade reached the ears of rich window called Khadija.
- Khadija requested Muhammad to lead her trade caravan to Syria.
- Muhammad executed it very well and brought back a lot of profits.
- This pleased Khadija and the two continued doing business together.
- As the time went by Khadija got interested in Muhammad and proposed to him in marriage.
- After consultations with his uncle, a marriage was concluded between the two Khadija was 40 years and Muhammad was 25 years old.
- The two lived a happy life and were blessed with 6 children, i.e. 2 sons and 4 daughters.
- The sons were Abdullah and Qassim.
- The daughters were Fatmah, Ummm kuluthum, Zainab and Rukayah, it was only Fatma who survived after Muhammad’s death.
- Muhammad and Khadija lived in a charitable life. For example one time Arabia was hit by famine and the two helped out the needy.
- Also the Ka-aba was destroyed by floods and the two gave in their wealth to help in its re-construction.
- On the same note about the ka-aba, after its reconstruction there arose a problem of who was to replace the black stone.
- It was agreed that the person who enters first the gate of the kabba in the following morning.
- Fortunately Muhammad entered the gate to the court yard at the Ka-aba first.
- So he was given a task to replace the Blackstone.
- This was bound to course conflicts but since Muhammad was so different, he asked for the piece of cloth, placed the black stone on it.
- He asked for representatives, each from the four clans and instructed each representative to hold one corner of the cloth.
- They then moved towards the Ka-aba and Muhammad put the stone in its right position himself.
- Muhammad was able to solve a would be conflict and it is this among other things in his life that predicted what he was going to become in future (a prophet).



4. The search for truth and messengership of Muhammad;
- Due to the prevailing conditions in Arabia, Muhammad used to go in the cave on mountain Hira to meditate.
- The bad acts in his society like gambling, idol worshiping always made him to go into seclusion thinking about how he could solve them.
- One day as he was in the cave on mountain Hira angel Gibril appeared to him.
- He instructed Muhammad to read and since the prophet was illiterate, he replied that he could not read.
- The angel told him to read and said that he cannot read.
- Gibril then pressed him and it is said that his ribs almost met from either sides.
- Due to pain, Muhammad then asked Gibril what can I read?.
- Then Gibril gave him Quran:96:1-5,
+ “Read in the name of your Lord,
+ Who created, created man from a clot,
+ read your Lord is most high,
+ who taught man by pen,
+ Taught man what he knew not........”

- This was the first revelation that Prophet Muhammad got.
- This incident scared Muhammad and he ran away to his home thinking that he had been possessed by evil spirits.
- He narrated what happened to his wife Khadija upon reaching
- Khadija comforted him and told him that he had become a prophet.
- The following morning, Khadija took the prophet to her cousin Waraq who was well known for interpreting such incidents.
- Waraq told them that Muhammad had become a prophet of Allah.

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francis1897 answered the question on March 1, 2023 at 12:39