Messages From God As Jesus Theology Religion Essay Example

who identified him as the final prophet and cautioned him about the Jews. Being married to Khadijah, a wealthy widow of 40 years, Muhammad possessed the trading trains. He frequently engaged with the Arabs, also referred to as Hanefites, who opposed idol worship and pursued authentic faith. These Arabs would often forsake their idols and participate in meditation and prayer within Mecca's cave. In 610, during Ramadan, Muhammad had his initial vision which greatly impacted his life and shaped history.

In the Mt. Hera cave, Muhammad was praying when he was visited by the archangel Gabriel, who is considered to be God's messenger. Gabriel appeared in the form of a man and asked Muhammad to "recite" and embraced him. Despite Muhammad's inability to read, Gabriel repeated his request and embraced him. Overwhelmed, Muhammad fled from the cave, believing he had been possessed by a genie or demons. (Chew, 2001) He then confided in Khadijah and shared the details of the encounter with her.

Khadijah sought advice from her uncle, Wallace, a Hanefite who had converted to Christianity. Waraca, who believed that Mohammad's vision was divine, proclaimed Mohammed as a prophet to the people of Arabia. However, Waraca never embraced Islam and passed away two years later (Gascoigne, 2001).

Muhammad started asserting that he was receiving messages from God, much like Jesus and Moses did. Initially, the Pagan Arabs showed willingness to acknowledge this and even expressed curiosity towards the new "prophet." They held strong beliefs in Judaism and Christianity and were open to incorporating another religion into their society.

Everything changed when Muhammad began criticizing the traditional Pagan deities and insisted that the Pagan Arabs and their ancestors would

burn and suffer in hell eternally for worshiping false gods.

After that, they began to handle Muhammad and his followers with contempt (Ibn Ishaq, 1998). The Pagan Arabs stopped merchandising with them, mocked Muhammad in public, and some of the followers who started following Muhammad were beaten up by their Pagan Masters. To escape this suffering, Muhammad and his followers fled to Medina in 622 AD. They were welcomed by the local Pagan and Jewish tribes there, so Muhammad decided to establish his base in Medina. After setting up his new stronghold in Medina, Muhammad instructed his disciples to plunder the merchant caravans of the Pagan Arabs.

The Pagans became cautious and started to support their trains with armed soldiers after the attack on a heavily guarded merchant train by Muhammad's forces on 13 March 624 AD, which resulted in the capture of many heathens. This event, known as the Battle of Badr, was the first major conflict in the Muslim conquering of Arabia and had a significant impact on Muhammad's battle against his opponents. ( Haykal, 1933 ) Over the next few years, Muhammad extended his territory north of Medina and engaged in warfare with various pagan and Jewish Arab tribes. As his power and reputation grew, his relations with the three Jewish tribes of Medina began to deteriorate.

By performing this task, he expelled the first two groups from Medina which were the Banu Qaynuqa in 624 AD and the Banu Nadira in 625 AD. He also exterminated the last group, the Banu Qurayza, in 627 AD. In 630 AD, Muhammad conquered his hometown of Mecca and over the next two years, he dispatched his forces

across Western Arabia to conquer the remaining Pagan tribes. Muhammad destroyed the Pagan temples of his vanquished enemies and denied their surrender until they agreed to convert to his new religion.