Prophet Muhammad (s) Makkan Era ... Grade 2 & 3 (MCCGP)/Ages 6 & 7 (MAP)

BIRTH OF THE PROPHET (S)

Prophet Muhammad (s) was born in Makkah, Arabia, in the month of Rabi ul Awwal. His mother's name was Aminah, and father's name was Abdullah, son of Abdul Muttalib, bin Hashim bin Abd-e-Manaaf of Quraish family. Muhammad (s) belonged to Quraish tribe and Banu Hashim Family.

CHILDHOOD

In those days, people of Makkah sent their babies into the desert to be nursed by foster mothers from shepherds' families, and so little Muhammad (s) spent the first years of his life in the care of Halimah of the Banu Sa'd tribe.

Prophet Muhammad (s) stayed with Halimah for four years.

MOTHER'S DEATH

When Muhammad (s) was six years old, his mother Aminah took him to visit his uncles in Yathrib (Madinah).Young Muhammad (s) enjoyed meeting his cousins and learning to swim. They happily stayed there for a month. But sadly, on their journey back to Makkah, Aminah fell ill and died. Muhammad (s) who was only six years old at that time, returned home with his mother's maid, Umm Ayman.

His grandfather Abdul Muttalib took him in his care. Two years later, his grandfather also passed away, when Prophet Muhammad (s) was eight years old. Now Prophet Muhammad (s) was under the care of his Uncle, Abu Talib.

MARRIAGE AND CHILDREN

Muhammad (s) grew up to be a very kind, honest and a truthful young man. He was given the titles of SADIQ and AL AMIN for his honesty and trustworthiness. When he was 25 years old, a business woman named Khadijah (RA), hired Muhammad (s) to trade her goods in Syria. She sent her servant, Maysarah along with the Prophet (s) on this business trip.

Muhammad (s) did very well earning greater profits than ever before and Maysarah also gave a shining report of our Prophet's superior and excellent character.

Greatly impressed by Muhammad's (s) character, Khadijah (RA) married him. She was 40 years old at that time. They were blessed with six children, two boys and four girls. The boys died in infancy.

Names of his children with Khadijah were: BOYS (Tahir and Qasim); GIRLS (Zaynab, Ruqayya, UmmKulthum and Fatima).

Prophet (s) had another son named Ibrahim with his wife Maria Qibtiyya. He also passed away in infancy.

PROPHETHOOD

Muhammad (s) used to spend a lot of time in Cave Of Hira. Staying alone for days in that cave,he would ponder upon the truth of this life and spend his time in prayers.

One day in the month of Ramadan,Angel Jibril appeared to him, held him and asked him to read and so taught him the first five ayahs of Surat Al Alaq. These were the first revealed verses of Quran.

After sharing the entire incident with Khadijah, she comforted him and took Muhammad (s) to her cousin Warqa bin Nawfil, who reassured the Prophet (SAW) that his experience had been genuine.

Warqa Bin Nawfil who was learned in Christian and Jewish books confirmed, that Muhammad (s) is indeed a Prophet Of Allah.

Prophet (SAW) at this time was forty years old when he was granted Prophethood.

THE FIRST BELIEVERS

The Prophet SAW after his first experience of revelation, came to accept his role as Allah's Messenger with Khadija's help. She was the first person to believe in Allah's message and accept Islam. Next was Ali Ibn Talib, Muhammad's (s) cousin who accepted Islam. Ali at that time was only 10 years old.

Abu Bakar (RA) and Zaid Bin Harith were also among the first people to accept Islam.

At first Prophet Muhammad (s) taught khadija and a small group of friends how to pray, and they would pray together. Prophet (s) would preach Islam secretly and continued teaching it for three years.

PUBLIC CALL TO ISLAM

Three years later, he was commanded to give the message of Islam openly and in public.Prophet Muhammad (s) started teaching Islam to the people of Makkah but with very little success. The Quraysh were not happy with him and tried to stop him several times from spreading the message of Islam.

They treated Muhammad (s) very badly.Also his companions were not treated well. Muhammad (s) permitted his companions to migrate to Habasha (Ethiopia).

THE YEAR OF SORROW

Muhammad's (s) family and people who were accepting his message were suffering great hardships at the hands of Quraysh. During this period, his beloved wife Khadija (RA) and his uncle Abu Talib passed away.Muhammad (s) was very sad, as both of them were very near and dear to him and had supported him in good and bad times. Even though his Uncle Abu Talib did not accept Islam, he had always protected his nephew Muhammad (s) from the people of Quraysh and always stood by his side.

Now with the death of his uncle, the Prophet (s) was without protection and his enemies were happy and redoubled their brutalities.

TAIF

During his tenth year of Prophethood, Muhammad (s) visited a town outside of Makkah called Taif, with Zaid Bin Harith to invite people to Islam and hoping to get protection. But the people of Taif were very cruel to our beloved prophet (s) and threw stones at him and chased him out if town.

Bleeding and tired, he took shelter in the garden of Utbah Bin Rabi'ah.

THE NIGHT JOURNEY (MI'RAAJ)

The journey of Mi'raaj (night journey) took place after the 11th year of Prophethood.

Muhammad (s) was taken by Angel Jibril from Makkah to Masjid-Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem on the Burraaq, a horse like animal with a lightning speed.

From Jerusalem, he went to seven heavens where he met all the previous Prophets and Allah (SWT) gave Muhammad (s) a gift of five daily Prayers (Salaah).

This whole journey of going from Makkah to Jerusalem and then ascending to seven heavens and coming back to Makkah, took place in just one night in the month of Rajab.

MIGRATION TO MADINAH

The deaths of the Prophet's wife Khadija (RA) and his uncle Abu Talib,encouraged the enemy to oppress and harass Muhammad (s) and stop him from spreading the message of Islam.

Nevertheless, the Prophet (s) continued to successfully convey the message of Islam. A small group of people from the tribes of Yathrib (Madinah), met him at a place called Aqabah and accepted Islam. They also invited the Prophet (SAW) to live in Yathrib (Madinah).

This made Quraysh very angry, for Islam was now also spreading in Yathrib (Madinah).

The people of Quraysh sketched a plan to kill Muhammad (s). But Allah (SWT), had some other plans for our prophet (s).

Allah (SWT) commanded Muhammad (s) to leave for Madinah. The Prophet (s), therefore accompanied by Abu Bakr (RA), left Makkah for Madinah in the 13th year of his prophethood.

They stayed in the Cave Of Thawr for three days,before eventually migrating to Madinah.

The Prophet's (s) journey from Makkah to Madinah is called HIJRA.

This migration was the first real step towards the world wide spread of Islam.