The First Muslims

History and Memory

Asma Afsaruddin

• Publisher: Oneworld Publications
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781780744483
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

A fresh look at the origins and development of Islam, this is a fascinating reconstruction of the era of the first three generations of Muslims. Using a wealth of classical Arabic sources, it chronicles the lives of the Prophet Muhammad, his Companions, and the subsequent two generations of Muslims, together known as the "the Pious Forebears". Examining the adoption in contemporary times of these early Muslims as legitimizing figureheads for a variety of causes, both religious and political, Afsaruddin tries to establish where their sympathies really lay. Essential reading for anyone interested in the inception of the Islam, this important book will captivate the general reader and student alike.

The Rise of Islam and Life of the Prophet Muhammad

In roughly 610 CE, an approximately forty-year-old man by the name of Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah began receiving divine revelations in a cave in the mountains overlooking the ancient city of Mecca in the Arabian peninsula. Thus, the sources report, began the prophetic mission of Muhammad, the last in a long line of prophets sent by the one God (Ar. Allah) through time for the guidance of humankind. The emissary, through whom the Prophet received his communications from the divine sphere, commanded him to “Recite/read in the name of your Lord!” (Qur’an 96:1). Extra-Qur’anic tradition names this heavenly messenger Gabriel, the angel entrusted with imparting God’s message to His specially chosen apostles on earth. The first word spoken to Muhammad, in Arabic Iqra’ (“Recite/Read!”), foreshadowed the name al-Qur’an given to his collected pronouncements, translated as “the Recitation” and “the Reading.”

From all accounts, Muhammad was an unpretentious and self-effacing young man who was given to introspection and long periods of meditation before his call to prophethood. Orphaned before birth and brought up in modest circumstances by his widowed mother, Amina, and after her death by his uncle, Abu Talib, he developed great compassion for those who were similarly economically and socially disadvantaged. Modern scholars have commented on the influence of Muhammad’s personal and social circumstances upon his prophetic career.¹ There is no doubt that these early experiences predisposed him to a certain affinity for the downtrodden and the disadvantaged. The Qur’an itself underscores how God’s mercy protected him during his orphaned childhood and rescued him from waywardness (Qur’an 93), on account of which he is exhorted to give thanks to his Creator and to be kind to those who are less fortunate. Considerable portions of the Qur’anic text must be read in this manner in the context of the Prophet’s life.

Muhammad’s early piety and upright character are well documented in the biographical literature. He is said to have earned the title al-Amin (“the Trustworthy”) on account of his personal integrity and honesty. He formed an alliance, known as Hilf al-Fudul (“Alliance of the Virtuous”), with a group of like-minded young men, which required them to come to the aid of those who needed an extra helping hand, such as widows, orphans, slaves, the poor, and the elderly. Even after his call to prophethood Muhammad would fondly remember his membership in this alliance and is said to have remarked that were it to be revived in the Islamic period, he would gladly join it again.²

His honesty impressed a wealthy widow by the name of Khadija bint Khuwaylid for whom he worked as a merchant, and she proposed marriage to him. At the age of twenty-five, Muhammad married Khadija, who was about fifteen years his senior. The marriage produced three daughters, and two sons who died in their infancy, and conferred relative prosperity on Muhammad, allowing him to spend more time in seclusion and meditation. Khadija proved to be a devoted soul-mate who provided comfort and valuable counsel throughout their twenty-five-year, monogamous marriage. Although Muhammad would go on to marry other women after her death, the sources make clear that he never forgot her and did not cease to speak affectionately of her.³

The young Muhammad, the biographers tell us, was pained by the widespread immorality and social malaise that he saw around him. The sources paint this immediate pre-Islamic period, known in Arabic as al-Jahiliyya, as a period of social and moral decline. Al-Jahiliyya is commonly translated as “the Age of Ignorance;” ignorance, that is, of the word of God. Scholarly studies have uncovered another layer of meaning which is illuminating of Arab tribal values before Islam. In the pre-Islamic repertoire of virtues and vices, the noun jahl, from the same root as jahiliyya, was often contraposed to the noun hilm. Hilm was a prized trait in the well-bred, refined individual and particularly in the leader of the tribe. It is difficult to adequately translate hilm by a single English equivalent. The Arabic word refers to a combination of fortitude, self-control, clemency, and urbanity of disposition, among other qualities. Jahl, as its antonym, indicates a certain recklessness of behavior and boorishness of disposition. Therefore, it is pertinent to understand the designation al-Jahiliyya as also referring to an age of recklessness and disregard for certain moral, spiritual and social values revered by Muslims and other righteous peoples.⁴

The Qur’an does not suggest that its constellation of values represents a sharp rupture from all Jahili values. Rather, it retains and promotes certain values held to be consonant with its world-view, transforms others, and categorically rejects those that are in direct contravention of its own.⁵ Thus, as mentioned, Muhammad in the Islamic era continued to speak highly of the Hilf al-Fudul because of the values of generosity, hospitality, chivalry and compassion for the poor and the helpless that this pact upheld, values that also fit very well within the Islamic ethical schema.

At first, the Prophet Muhammad preached quietly among relatives, friends, and acquaintances. The first to accept Islam at his behest was, as is universally acknowledged, his wife, Khadija. Among other early converts were his cousin and later son-in-law, ‘Ali ibn Abi Talib, his close friend and later father-in-law, Abu Bakr, his freedman and adopted son Zayd ibn Haritha, and others. The Qur’an’s clear and powerful message of egalitarianism and social justice particularly appealed to those who were on the periphery of society. Thus younger people, women, and those from less influential tribes and non-Arab backgrounds were especially attracted to Islam. As the number of converts grew, the Prophet received the divine command to proclaim Islam publicly.

Out in the open, Muslims now became vulnerable to rank hostility from the pagan Meccans and persecution by them. An economic boycott imposed on the Muslims by the Quraysh (the Prophet’s tribe) caused unbearable financial and social hardships for the former. To escape these hardships, a small band of Muslims was encouraged by the Prophet to escape to Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) whose ruler was the Christian Negus. The Negus’ kindness toward the refugees would forever earn him and Christian Abyssinia a special place in the hearts and imagination of Muslims.

A brighter glimmer of hope appeared in roughly the year 620 CE when a small delegation of men and women arrived in Mecca from the neighboring city of Yathrib seeking an audience with the Prophet. News of Muhammad’s preaching had reached them and they expressed their receptivity toward this new religious dispensation. Upon meeting the Prophet, they embraced Islam at his hands and swore to defend their new religion in what became known as the Pledge of ‘Aqaba in 621. They also invited the Prophet to take up residence among them. During the following two years, Meccan Muslims began to migrate to Yathrib in small waves.

It was during this period shortly before the Migration that Muhammad is reported to have made his night journey to Jerusalem and from there ascended to the heavens. This event is referred to in Arabic as al-Mi‘raj (“the ascension”) in the hadith and biographical literature and is only obliquely referred to in the Qur’an (53:16–18). When the Prophet spoke of his nocturnal journey the day after the event, some expressed incredulity at his statement, but Abu Bakr is said to have believed in him without hesitation, thereby earning the epithet al-Siddiq (“the Truthful”). This mystical, otherworldly experience would fire the literary imagination of Muslims in the later period. A specific literary genre providing wondrous details about the Prophet’s celestial steed, his ascent through the various levels of heaven, and encounter with the prophets of earlier times came into being.⁶

In 622, the Prophet finally received divine permission to migrate himself to Yathrib, which upon his arrival was re-named Madinat al-nabi (“the City of the Prophet”), Medina for short. Two Companions in particular, Abu Bakr and ‘Ali, played a critical role in the hijra (“migration”), for which henceforth they would be gratefully inscribed in the collective memory of the polity. On the night of Muhammad’s departure, loyal ‘Ali slept in the Prophet’s bed as his decoy and fooled the pagan Meccans into thinking he had not yet left for Medina. Accompanying Muhammad on his perilous journey toward Medina was his stalwart friend Abu Bakr, who sojourned with him in a cave outside Mecca for two nights to avoid detection by the Meccans in pursuit of them, an event widely believed to be referred to in Qur’an 9:40. Years later, ‘Umar ibn al-Khattab, the second caliph, would recognize the cosmic significance of the hijra and declare 622 to be the first year of the new Islamic era.

THE CONSTITUTION OF MEDINA

After moving to Medina, Muhammad drew up a document which detailed the relations primarily between the Muhajirun (Migrant Muslims from Mecca), the Ansar (lit. “helpers;” sc. the Medinan Muslims), and the Jews of Medina. The articles of this document, known in Arabic as Sahifat al-Madina (lit. “the Document of Medina,” or, as is more commonly translated into English, as “the Constitution of Medina”), have been preserved in an early biography of the Prophet composed by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767), available to us in the redaction made by his student Ibn Hisham (d. 833). This document is generally accepted by modern scholars as authentic and largely believed to have been drawn up sometime before the Battle of Badr in 624. Among the reasons adduced for its authenticity are its archaic language and the use of terminology, such as “believers” (al-mu’minun) rather than “Muslims” that is more common in the early Medinan period. As Montgomery Watt has stated, “No later falsifier, writing under the Umayyads or ‘Abbasids, would have included non-Muslims in the ummah, would have retained the articles against Quraysh, and would have given Muhammad so insignificant a place.”⁷

In his preface to the terms of the treaty, Ibn Ishaq states that “the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him) wrote a covenant between the Migrant Meccan Muslims and the Medinan Helpers, and included the Jews in it and concluded a pact with them. He guaranteed for them [sc. the Jews] their religion and their property, and conferred on them specific rights and duties.”⁸ The historical significance of the Constitution is considerable, since it gives us a very clear idea of the nature of the polity and of inter-faith relations envisaged in this early period. Some of the salient articles of this treaty are reproduced below:

In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate!

This is a writing of Muhammad the Prophet between the believers and Muslims of Quraysh and Yathrib and those who follow them and are attached to them and who strive militarily (jahada) with them. They are a single community (umma) distinct from other people ... The God-fearing believers are against whoever of them acts wrongfully or seeks an act that is unjust or treacherous or hostile or corrupt among the believers; their hands are all against him, even if he is the son of one of them ... Whosoever of the Jews follows us has the (same) help and support ..., so long as they are not wronged [by him] and he does not help [others] against them.

The peace (silm) of the believers is one; no believer makes peace apart from another believer, where there is fighting in the way of God, except in so far as equality and justice between them (is maintained) ... Wherever there is anything about which you differ, it is to be referred to God and to Muhammad (peace be upon him). The Jews bear expenses along with the believers so long as they continue at war. The Jews of Banu ‘Awf are a community along with the believers. To the Jews their religion (din) and to the Muslims their religion. (This applies) both to their clients and to themselves, with the exception of anyone who has done wrong or acted treacherously; he brings evil only on himself and on his household. For the Jews of Banu al-Najjar the like of what is for the Jews of Banu ‘Awf. For the Jews of Banu al-Harith, the like ... For the Jews of Banu Sa‘ida, the like ... For the Jews of Banu Jusham, the like ... For the Jews of Banu ‘l-Aws, the like ...

It is for the Jews to bear their expenses and for the Muslims to bear their expenses. Between them, there is help (nasr) against whoever wars against the people of this document. Between them is sincere friendship, mutual counsel (nash wa-nasiha), and honorable dealing, not treachery. A man is not guilty of treachery through the (act of) his confederate. There is help for (or, help is to be given to) the person wronged ...

Whenever among the people of this document there occurs any incident (disturbance) or quarrel from which disaster for it (the people) is to be feared, it is to be referred to God and to Muhammad, the Messenger of God (peace and blessings be upon him). God is the most scrupulous and truest (fulfiller) of what is in this document.⁹

These salient articles point to six noteworthy features: (1) the military jihad in this early period is conceived of as a defensive enterprise in which not only the Muslims (referred to mostly as “believers”) engage in but all those who are attached to them and the Prophet, and expressly includes the Jews; (2) the “single community” (umma wahida) is a multi-tribal and multi-faith community comprised of the Migrant Muslims, the Medinan Muslims, and the Jews, membership in which is predicated on honorable behavior, mutual cooperation, especially in matters of armed defense, and the avoidance of treachery; (3) the Jews and their clients are allowed to continue to practice their religion unmolested (“to the Jews their religion”) as long as they, like the other parties, continue to uphold the terms of the agreement; (4) Jewish–Muslim relations in particular are to be based on honorable dealings with one another, sincere friendship and mutual counsel (nash wa-nasihah), and not treachery; (5) Kinship, the basis for individual membership within a tribe, is replaced with religious faith and personal righteous behavior as the bases for inclusion of the individual within the multi-faith umma; (6) and, finally, Muhammad’s claim to be God’s apostle and thus to be acting in His name as the arbiter of the community is clearly established.

In recent times, there has been renewed attention paid to this highly important document by modern Muslims as an early testament to the pluralist connotations of the term umma and to its actual realization in the earliest years of the Muslim community. In its deployment of the term umma, the Consti...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• 1. The Rise of Islam and Life of the Prophet Muhammad
• 2. The Issue of Succession to the Prophet
• 3. The Age of the Rightly-Guided Caliphs
• 4. The End of Rightly-Guided Leadership
• 5. The Age of the Companions
• 6. The Age of the Successors
• 7. The Successors to the Successors I: Administration, Leadership, and Jihad
• 8. The Successors to the Successors II: Humanism, Law, and Mystical Spirituality
• 9. Constructing the Pious Forbears I: Historical Memory and the Present
• 10. Constructing the Pious Forbears II: Historical Memory and the Present
• 11. Assessment of Islamist and Modernist Views
• 12. Conclusion
• Endnotes
• Select Bibliography
• Glossary
• General Index