HISTORY OF ISLAM

 Islam is the youngest religion in the history of mankind, and in terms of the number of adherents it ranks second in the world, the number of adherents of Islam is about two billion people.

Muslims live in one hundred twenty-five countries around the globe, and in twenty-eight states of the world, Islam is the official state religion.

Muslims, the majority belong to the Sunni stream, makeup from 85 to 90% of all followers of Islam, while the rest are subdivided into Shiites and Ibadis.

Islam and its sources

Translated from the Arabic language, the word "Islam" means "surrender to the One God" or "obedience". Islam is the world's monotheistic Abrahamic religion.     

The Messenger of Allah Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is a preacher of Islam, and the main source of Islam is the Holy Book of the Koran, as well as the Sunna of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which is the second most important source of Islamic law and doctrine. Sunnah is a collection of hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ or legends, stories that tell about the life of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, his sayings and wise sayings, about his deeds. Islamic services are performed in Arabic

                                                                                    First Muslims

Islam considers the first Muslims to be the first people on earth, Adam and Eve or Havva. In a number of Islamic prophets, they  name Nuh or Noah, Ibrahim or Abraham, Davud or David,          Musaor Moses, Isa or Jesus, as well as a number of others. Representatives of other Abrahamic religions - Christians and jews - are called "People of the Book" in Islam. The Holy Book of the Koran presents stories about the creation of the world, about how the first man on earth arose, about the worldwide flood, and others.

The origin of Islam

The exact year of the origin of Islam cannot be determined: the origin of Islam is associated with the city of Mecca in western Arabia and the beginning of the seventh century. During this period of history, the dominant religion was paganism, and each tribe honored its own gods, whose idols were installed in Mecca. In this segment of history, a gradual destruction of the tribal patriarchal system began, and society begins to divide into classes, as a result of which something should have appeared that would unite people spiritually.

In these conditions, Islam arises, which is an Abrahamic religion, like Judaism and Christianity, which also go back to the most ancient forms of monotheism, that is, all these religions are united with Islam by a fundamentally single picture of the world and belongs to the revelatory or revelatory tradition.

Awareness of monotheism took place at the earliest stages of the emergence of Islam and this was expressed in the sermons with which the Prophet Muhammad addressed his ummah, the main idea of ​​which was the idea of ​​the need to cleanse monotheism or tawhid from those distortions that were introduced by polytheists, Christians, and Jews ...

The religious and historical situation in Arabia on the eve of the birth of Islam

On the eve of the emergence of Islam on the Arabian Peninsula, hanifiya, or autochthonous Arabian monotheism prevailed, rooted in the prophet Abraham (Ibrahim). The modern concept points to the existence of two relatively independent monotheistic traditions during this period, which eventually merged into the Arabian prophetic movement. In the period when Islam arose, that is, until the moment of coming to the prophetic mission of Muhammad ﷺ, in Several Abrahamic prophets already acted in Arabia, but it was on Muhammad ﷺ that God entrusted the mission of spreading Islam. Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was significantly different from other prophets, both from a political and ideological point of view, which was one of the main components of the success of Islam.

Partly the population of the Arabian Peninsula during this period of time converted to Judaism, partly - adopted Christianity, and in some states, such as Yemen and Bahrain, Zoroastrianism was preached. The Arabian Peninsula during this historical period was divided between the Lakhmid principality, which was an ally with Iran, where the Sassanids ruled, and the Ghassanid principality, which was a vassal of Byzantium.

Central Arabia remained free after the Ethiopian king made a campaign to Mecca and the Meccans miraculously managed to escape, and the king's army and the Ethiopian king himself were destroyed by red-hot stones, which were thrown on them by birds flying from the sky. This event was known to Arab and Meccan contemporaries and is described in the Quran's chapter "Elephant".

The founder of Islam: the prophetic activities of Muhammad ﷺ

Contrary to popular belief, the founder of Islam is not Muhammad ﷺ. According to Muslims, there were already prophets before him, and Muhammad is the last prophet of Islam or the "Seal of the Prophets". Muhammad ﷺ did not preach a new religion but restored the true faith.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, being a Meccan by origin and birth, a native of the Quraysh, was active as a Meccan Hanif: from the moment of birth to the beginning of his prophetic mission, he led an ordinary life, later was engaged in cattle breeding and drove caravans. Muhammad ﷺ took an active part in the restoration of the common Arab shrine of the Kaaba by the Quraysh.

When he was forty years old, in 610, Muhammad ﷺ announced that he was a Rasul, that is, a messenger, and Nabi, that is, a prophet of Allah, the One God. After that, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ began to preach the new religion of Islam in Mecca. The first verses of the Quran was recited by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ at the same time. In his sermons, calls were made to return to monotheism, to the faith of Ibrahim or Abraham, to the faith of the prophets Musa or Moses and Isa or Jesus, to pronounce prayers and fast, give charity, and honestly make a trade. In his calls during sermons, the Messenger of the Highest spoke of the need to believe in the One God, that believers should unite into a single brotherhood and observe simple moral standards.

According to Muhammad ﷺ, prophets were sent to all nations, the appearance of which was connected with the fact that they were to instruct people on the true path. One of the main issues that the Prophet Muhammad paid attention to was the issues of faith (iman) and unbelief (kufr), issues of the afterlife, Hell, and Paradise.

Opposing the spread of Islam

But the Meccan nobility did not support the ideas of Mohammed ﷺ and met his prophetic preaching activity with hostility. The history of the emergence of Islam tells about the difficult trials that the Prophet Muhammad experienced at first, because very few people accepted the new faith from the very beginning: only the Prophet Muhammad himself and his wife Khadija accepted Islam, as well as his cousin Ali ibn Abu Talib which he took on education, at the age of 9 years. Also among the first Muslims was Abu Bakr, who was a rich merchant, as well as forty other people, among whom were rich and poor people, mostly at a young age, who later became the first companions of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. 

The Prophet Muhammad ﷺ was forced to flee, accompanied by his followers, from the persecution of his compatriots, the polytheists.

Resettlement of Muslims

The first hijra, pilgrimage, and resettlement was performed by the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in 621: he moved to Yathrib in order to sever all ties with the society in which he grew up, but which did not accept the call to monotheism and began to persecute him and his followers. Later, Yathrib was named Madinat-un-Nabi in the honor of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, which means “the city of the Prophet”.

In Yathrib (Yathrib), people cherished the hope that the appearance of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ would put an end to wars and civil strife through his just judgment. In Medina, the Prophet ﷺ and his companions found themselves practically without a livelihood, and the local Ansaras from among the Muslims of Medina helped them. In Medina, Muhammad ﷺ managed to rally the local population around himself, and the first Muslim ummah or community was created in the city. But the religious struggle (ghazal) between the Muslims of Medina and the polytheists of Mecca continued for another eight years.

The reason for the Prophet's battles ﷺ

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ justified the hopes of the Medinians and stopped the conflicts that took place inside, but the Meccan polytheists still oppressed the Muslims from Mecca, and from 623 military clashes between the Medinians and the Meccans began to take place. In 624, the Battle of Badr took place, which ended in the defeat of the Meccans, although their number outnumbered the Muslims by three times. Many Meccans were captured, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ suggested that the captives teach the children of the Medinians to read and write in exchange for their freedom.

Later in 625, the Battle of Uhud took place, in which the Meccans took over. A year later, an army from Mecca, together with the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula, came to the city of Medina to end Islam once and for all. The Meccan polytheists were also helped by the Jewish tribe in Medina, which violated the agreement with Muhammad on mutual assistance and non-aggression. The Muslims, who had an army four times smaller, but being wiser in tactics and strategy, we're able to resist the Meccans, who were forced to return home with nothing.

Muhammad ﷺ conquered Mecca in 630, having already established control over most of Arabia.

The spread of Islam

In just 23 years, thanks to the prophetic activities of Muhammad ﷺ, the new faith, Islam, quickly spread across the Arabian Peninsula.

 

There is a legend according to which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ sent a letter urging the then rulers of Byzantium, Persia (Iran), Ethiopia, and Egypt to convert to Islam. Everyone, except the king of Persia, received the ambassadors favorably: the Iranian king tore the letter, but soon after this event the Iranian king Khosrov Parviz died.

Prophet Muhammad ﷺ died in 632, and by that year almost all Arab tribes had converted to Islam.

The success in spreading Islam was largely due to the fact that the teachings of Muhammad ﷺ condemned inequality between people, usury, brought justice and development.

When the Muslims conquered Mecca in 630, Islam became the common religion of all Arabs and Mecca itself became the center of Islam. In the period from the fifth to the seventh century, the ancient states of the Kindles, Ghassanids and Lakhmids, Palmyra, Saba, Himyar, and Nabatea fell into decay and disintegrated, and this process contributed to the active Islamization of the region.

The history of the development of Islam after the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ: The Righteous Caliphate

The emergence of Islam radically changed the entire political, social, economic, everyday life of many peoples from Spain to the coast of Indonesia.

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, the first Muslim state of the Caliphate was formed, in which power, both secular and spiritual, was concentrated in the hands of the Caliph. The first caliphs of the state were Abu Bakr, and then Umar, Usman, Ali, them the Umayyad dynasty came to power, and then they were replaced by the Abbasid dynasty. As a result of the wars of conquest conducted by the Caliphate during the seventh and eighth centuries, Islam spread to Central and Western Asia, as well as to North Africa, Transcaucasia, India, and then to the Balkan Peninsula through Turkey

The reign of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq

After the death of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, when the question arose that the caliph, that is, his “deputy”, should be elected, Abu Bakr was elected to this position. He managed to stay in power for only two years, after which he died, but even during these two years, he managed to convince the tribes that turned away from Islam to return to religion. The history of Islam says that Abu Bakr did a lot to spread Islam: he managed to start hostilities against Persia and Byzantium, which at that time were the most powerful empires. On the eve of his death, Abu Bakr appointed Umar (Omar) as his successor.

The reign of Umar ibn al-Khattab

Omar (Umar) became the second caliph of the Islamic state, and he, continuing his military campaigns against Byzantium, conquering Syria, and also capturing Egypt, Palestine, partly the Maghreb, which was located in North Africa.

Under Caliph Umar, the Muslims also waged a military operations against the Sassanid dynasty that ruled in the Persian Empire: in the battle of Qadisiyah and Nihavend, he inflicted heavy defeats on the Iranian armies, and soon occupied the capital of the Sassanid state, Ctesiphon, which was located not far from Baghdad. Muslims also occupied Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Mazandaran, Khuzestan, and part of Fars, which constituted the main territories of Iran.

During the reign of Omar, reforms were carried out that laid the foundations of Muslim statehood: the procedure for taxation was determined, laws were established. In the conquered territories, Caliph Omar adhered to the policy of religious tolerance, Christians and Jews were given protection and free worship of their religion.

The reign of Uthman ibn Afwan

The next caliph was elected Uthman (Uthman), at that time Uthman was the most worthy of the caliph title and the choice of council members were correct and fair.

Under him, all the key posts in the state were occupied by his relatives Omeyada, for this reason, a lot of criticism came towards Uthman (Osman), as a result, a riot arose, during which the rebels killed the Caliph. Osman took an important step in the further development of Islam and the creation of the foundations of religion - during his reign, the complete canonical text of the Holy Book of the Koran was compiled. Before At that moment, the text of the Koran existed only in the memory of the Hafiz - people who memorized the text of the Holy Book of the Koran by heart at the moment when each ayah appeared, being sent down to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ during the life of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Osman gave the order to collect the entire Koran and write it down when at once seventy Hafiz died in one of the military battles

The reign of Ali ibn Abu Talib

The next caliph was Ali ibn Abu Talib, who became famous as a courageous, just caliph who made a huge contribution to the formation of Islam and whose services to Islam are enormous. During the reign of Caliph Ali, the fight against corruption was launched, the Caliph sought to distribute state revenues so that the gap between the rich and poor citizens of the state was reduced as much as possible. The first four caliphs entered the history of Islam as the Righteous Caliphs and the state they headed was called the Righteous Caliphate.

Development of the Caliphate

The first three centuries of Islam's existence, when it originated and spread, went down in history as the golden period of Arab culture - the first Muslim religious schools were formed, ethical, philosophical and legal provisions were formulated, as well as the rules of The Arabic language was formed, the foundation was laid for such sciences as literature, chemistry, geography, and medicine.           

The history of Islam continued in the feudal state, which became the successor of the Righteous Caliphate - the Umayyad Caliphate or Damascus Caliphate, which was headed by the Omeyad dynasty. During the existence of this state, the Islamic world spread to North Africa, partly the Iberian Peninsula - Andalusia, as well as to Tabaristan, Sindh, Djurjan, Central Asia, Southeast Asia, including Malaysia and Indonesia. Islam in the modern world plays a large and important role in the lives of believers: it is not only a religious ideology that has come down from the time of the emergence of Islam to the present day but also the ideology that determines the secular life of Muslims, a measure of their civic behavior and value systems. The Islamic religion, Islam has a great influence on all spheres of Muslim life.

The history of the Islamic world is a separate direction for many historians and researchers, covering more than 14 centuries of human life, it is thanks to Muslim scientists that it was possible to preserve the scientific heritage of previous civilizations and develop new directions in science, culture, and art.