Two or three years ago, there was a presentation at our church discussing the differences between the Koran and the Bible. I thought it was very interesting and the intent was to give both “sides” a better understanding of each other. I’m really not sure that it accomplished that much, because as usual, neither side listened with an open mind.
But anyhow, I thought that the story of Mohammed, the author of the Koran, was pretty interesting in and of itself….
Arabia, in the sixth century A.D., was in a pretty disorganized state of affairs. There were multiple tribes always fighting and stealing from each other. And in between wars, men mostly passed the time with drunken orgies and gambling.It seemed like the prevalent attitude was to live for pleasure today, because tomorrow you might lose everything.
That was the state of Arabia when Mohammed was born in 569 A.D.. He was always serious and as he grew up he thought more about spiritual things. One night (in 610 A.D.) while Mohammad was asleep in his cave, the angel Gabriel showed up and told him that he — Mohammed — was a messenger of Allah (the Arabic word for God.) At first, Mohammed thought it was just a bad dream. But the vision kept coming back, and always with the same command: to become the prophet of his people, and to bring them a new religion that would end the fighting and bring people together — it was to be called Islam, from the Arabic word for “peace.”
So Mohammed started preaching and made a few converts, but he also made dangerous enemies, especially among the wealthy upper classes, who didn’t like being told that no one was better than anyone else as far as Allah was concerned.
In 622 A.D.,a group of citizens from the city of Medina visited Mohammed. They were looking for a strong leader and Mohammed accepted their invitation and moved to Medina with 200 of his followers. That migration is called the Hijra and is so important in the history of Islam that the Muslim calendar starts numbering from that year.
When Mohammed rode into Medina, every family begged him to stop and make his home near them. But Mohammed didn’t want hurt anyone’s feelings, so he said he’d leave it up to the camel he was riding. Where the camel stopped, that’s where Mohammed dismounted and built his home.
Mohammed often used his talent for diplomacy when dealing with Medina’s hostile neighbors — and when that failed, he was equally screwed in running military campaigns. Over about a ten year period, using Medina as his home base, he gained more and more converts to Islam, defeated his enemies, and brought the tribes of Arabia together into a single nation.
He was, and remained, a modest, down-to-earth man. Even after his victories brought him great power, he lived a simple life. He usually did his own chores, and was often seen mending clothes, milking goats, or shopping in the marketplace for his family’s dinner.
Over a period of 23 years, a little at a time, Mohammed wrote the Koran, the holy book of the Muslims. They believe it continues and completes the stories told in the Old and New testaments. In response to the comments that it was a great miracle that a book like that was written by a nearly illiterate man, Mohammed said that the book was dictated to him by Gabriel.
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