His Community

Imagine the world 1400 years ago, the human knowledge and the ability to read and write was restricted to the privilege people. Imagine the life in the middle of the desert, where people live in a strict tribal order and every tribe has its own God, the rightness is defined by the power of men, the women were commonly a shame to the family and many people were slaves and objects for sale. Imagine in such world a man named Muhammad (s) declared that he is the messenger of one merciful God to all people and that all people are the same and equal. This was the community where the Prophet (s) declared his prophecy, and to avoid the conflict with such community, the Prophet (s) initially invited people to Islam secretly, by the end of the first three years has, the Islam was accepted just by about sixty men and women. Those were the first Islamic community and the first companions (as-sahabah or al-ashab, pl. saheb in Arabic meaning “companion”). Following this period the Prophet (s) started to invite all people, however just handful people has accepted the Islam, and meanly some people from Yathrib (later named Medina) around the eleventh years of the prophecy. At around the thirteen years of the prophecy, the Prophet (s) moved (Hijra) with his followers to Yathrib (Medina).

After Hijra to Medina the number of his followers and companions grew up very fast and the Islam began to attract not just the true believers but also the greedy persons, who saw the Islam as growing up power and an opportunity to take advantage of belonging to it, the Quran often referred to those people as “al-munafiqun”. In addition, the Quran also often blamed the community that surrounded the Prophet (s) if they misbehaved and often remind them not to apostate after the Prohpet (s) death and in fact the Quran predicted that this will happen with some of them, Quran 3:144 “Muhammad is not but a messenger. (Other) messengers have passed on before him. So if he was to die or be killed, would you turn back on your heels (to unbelief)? And he who turns back on his heels will never harm Allah at all; but Allah will reward the grateful”.

Following the Prophet's (s) death, the Islamic community went to many troubles and some people unlawfully took advantage to come to power, but fortunately, by the effort of the true believers and Imams (s), the Islam survived and we can explore and follow its true ideology today.