User:Proabivouac/Sandbox

Stillman

When all hope was gone they [i.e. Qurayza] sought to surrender on the same terms as had the Naḍīr. This time the Prophet intended to make an example of them. He still could not act with complete disregard of public opinion. The degree of the Qurayẓa's treason was by no means clear. Muhammad had previously spared the Banū Qaynuqā c at the request of their former allies the Khazraj. Many Awsites were now pleading that their former confederates be shown mercy. Always the master politician, Muhammad stepped aside and appointed Sa`d b. Mu`ādh to pass judgment upon them. Sa`d was a devout Muslim and a chieftain of the Aws, who was dying of wounds received during the siege against the Qurayza. Sa`d took the hint and condemned the adult males to death and the hapless women and children to slavery. Muhammad then declared that this was none other than Allah's decision. Actually, it is clear from the Muslim sources that the Qurayza's fate had been decided even before their surrender. One of Muhammad's emissaries, Abū Lubāba, who had advised the Qurayẓa to give up, had to perform penance for hinting to the Jews what their real fate would be.

When they asked him if they should surrender to Muhammad, Abu Lubaba answered affirmatively, but, as Ibn Ishaq puts it, Abu Lubaba "made a sign with his hand toward his throat, indicating that it would be slaughter". From this gesture, Stillman infers that Muhammad had already decided their fate.

The next morning, the Banu Qurayza unconditionally surrendered and the Muslims seized their stronghold and their weapons. Some among the tribe of Aws wanted to honor their old alliance with Qurayza, and asked Muhammad to treat the Qurayza leniently as he had previously treated the Qaynuqa for the sake of Abd-Allah ibn Ubayy. Muhammad could not completely disregard public opinion, and the degree of the Qurayẓa's treason was unclear. Muhammad then suggested that one of the Aws would be an arbitrator, and when they agreed, he appointed Sa'd ibn Mua'dh, a leading man among Aws who was dying from a wound suffered during the siege of the Qurayza, to decide the fate of the Jewish tribe. Sa'd ibn Mua'dh pronounced that "the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives". Muhammad approved the ruling, calling it similar to God's judgment. Sa'd dismissed the pleas of the Aws, according to Watt, because being close to death and concerned with his afterlife, he put what he considered "his duty to God and the "Muslim community" before tribal allegiance.

Muhammad lead/overview

The majority of the following material is redundant and/or unnecessary: the aim is to eliminate the pointless "Overview" section, which currently is essentially a competing lead, and compress this into four paragraphs.

Muhammad (Arabic: محمد muḥammad; also Mohammed, Mohamet, and other variants) (570-632 AD) was an Arab religious, political and military leader who founded Islam and the Muslim community (Arabic: أمة Ummah). He united the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula into a federation of allied tribes with its capital at Medina. Muslims regard Muhammad as the final prophet of God (Arabic: الله Allah).

Youth

Muhammad was born ca. 570 CE in the city of Mecca in Arabia. He was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his uncle, later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26.

Born to ‘Abdu’llah ibn ‘Abdu’l-Muttalib, Muhammad initially adopted the occupation of a shepherd, and later became a merchant. In his youth, he was called by the nickname "Al-Amin" (Arabic: الامين ), a common Arab name meaning "faithful, trustworthy" and was sought out as an impartial arbitrator.

Revelations

According to Islamic tradition, it was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan, where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming the oneness of God, that complete "surrender" to Him (lit. islām) is man's religion (dīn), and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus, and other prophets.

During the month of Ramadan, Muhammad would retreat to a cave located at the summit of Mount Hira, just outside Mecca in the Arabian Hijaz, where he fasted and prayed. According to Islamic belief, when he was about forty years old (610 CE) he was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and commanded to recite verses sent by God. These revelations continued until his death twenty-three years later. The collection of these verses is known as the Qur'an.

The revelations (or Ayats, lit. Signs of God), which Muhammad had continued receiving till his death, form the verses of the Qur'an, regarded by Muslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (hadith) are also upheld by Muslims, who consider him to be the “Perfect Man”, whose example (sunnah) is to be followed in all aspects of life.

According to Islamic traditions, Muhammad began receiving revelations from God (Arabic: ألله Allah) from the age of 40, delivered through the angel Gabriel over the last 23 years of his life. The content of these revelations, known as the Qur'an, was memorized and recorded by his followers and compiled into a single book shortly after his death. The Qur'an, along with the details of Muhammad’s life as recounted by his biographers and his contemporaries, forms the basis of Islamic theology. Within Islam, he is considered the last and most important prophet of God. Muslims do not regard him as the founder of a new religion but as the restorer of the original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham and other prophets, whose messages had become misinterpreted or corrupted over time.

Mecca

He expanded his mission as a prophet, publicly preaching strict monotheism, condemning the social evils of his day, and warning of a Day of Judgment when all humans shall be held responsible for their deeds.

Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was largely met with hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly and so were his followers. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his followers migrated to Yathrib (Medina) in the year 622. This historic event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632 AD, on returning to Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.

After ignoring Muhammad's preaching, the elites in Mecca, feeling threatened by his message, harassed Muhammad and persecuted his followers. This continued and intensified over more than a decade. The hardships reached a new level for Muhammad after the deaths of his wife Khadija and his uncle Abu Talib, who, although not becoming a Muslim, had protected Muhammad throughout.

Medina

In 622, Muhammad, accompanied by his followers, left Mecca for Yathrib (now known as Medina) in a journey known as the Hijra (the Migration).

where he was the leader of the first Muslim community.

In Medina, Muhammad managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632 AD, on returning to Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.

Eight years of war between Muhammad and Meccan forces followed, ending with the Muslim victory and conquest of Mecca. The Muslims subsequently removed everything they considered idolatrous from the Kaaba. Most of the townspeople accepted Islam. In March 632, Muhammad led the pilgrimage known as the Hajj. On returning to Medina he fell ill and died after a few days, on June 8.

Legacy

Under the caliphs who assumed authority after his death, the Islamic empire expanded into Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Persia, Egypt, North Africa, southern Spain, and Anatolia. Later conquests, commercial contact between Muslims and non-Muslims, and missionary activity spread Islam over much of the Eastern Hemisphere, including China and Southeast Asia.

After Muhammad, a rapid creation of an empire under the Umayyads established a new polity from the Atlantic to the Indus River. Within a few decades of his death, his successors united all of Arabia in an Islamic empire which conquered the Sassanid and, in part, the Byzantine empires. With remarkable swiftness, they conquered present-day Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Armenia, and most of Byzantine-held North Africa. The Caliphate soon pressed on to the Iberian Peninsula in the west, and much of Central Asia and Sindh (present day Pakistan) in the east. By 750, Islam was as fully established as the other two Abrahamic belief systems, Judaism and Christianity, and at which time, it was one of the world's greatest military powers.