Born Into A Very Noble Family: Prophet Muhammad - PBUHy
Islamic Perspectives - Muslim JournalsArab News
& Information - By Adil Salahi
Muhammad (peace be upon him) was born in Makkah at the
beginning of the last third of the sixth century. At
that time, the world generally was in a miserable
state, as if general collapse was about to overwhelm
everything. Nowhere in the world was there a coherent
faith or a solid system under which a community and a
state could prosper. The two superpowers, the
Byzantine and the Persian empires, were on the verge
of collapse. In Byzantium, the Christian faith was no
longer the guiding light. In fact, its intellectuals
were engaged in endless, futile debates about
everything real or imaginary. Its power, in land and
sea, had weakened. Commanding vast areas of land, it
could only maintain its rule by leaving its different
provinces in a state of practical autonomy. Muslims
were soon to deprive it of most of its provinces in
Asia and North Africa.
The Persian Empire was in no better shape. Its
religion had been distorted. Monotheism gave way to
dualism, with good and evil represented by two
different deities that were engaged in a permanent
fight, and women were made the vehicle used to spread
evil. Moreover, political chaos prevailed, with many
instances of rebellion and sedition.
Elsewhere we could see no solid system based on
coherent beliefs that satisfied thinking minds, or on
a set of moral values that could sustain law and order
and establish a proper human society that knows its
way to progress.
In Arabia, a tribal society existed that gave
affiliation to one’s tribe supreme importance. Makkah
had a special status, as a result of its religious
importance with the Kaaba at its center. Moreover, it
enjoyed economic prosperity due to its organization of
proper international trade. In fact, most of the
wealth of Arabia was concentrated in Makkah, and held
by a small group of its noblemen. This led to a life
of luxury with its associated vices, such as gambling,
drinking, loose sexual morality and exploitation of
the poor.
A hierarchy of tribes established itself on the basis
of certain values, such as wealth, numbers and
military prowess. Yet the top position in that
hierarchy indisputably belonged to the Quraysh, as it
lived in Makkah and was the custodian of the Kaaba,
the temple built by the Prophet Abraham and Prophet
Ishmael and consecrated for the worship of God alone.
Within every major tribe there were a number of clans,
each clan comprising a number of families. The system
meant that loyalty to one’s immediate family
transcended all claims of loyalty. Yet loyalty moved
upward, stage by stage, from a small clan to a larger
one, then to the tribe. Among the Quraysh, the
Hashimite clan, was considered the most noble, but it
was not the richest. Its nobility derived from its
direct descent from the Prophet Ishmael and from the
fact that for several generations it held custody of
the Kaaba and provided food and water to the pilgrims
who came from all over Arabia.
The chief of the Hashimite clan was Abd Al-Muttalib,
grandfather of Muhammad (peace be upon him), who by
the time of the Prophet’s birth was a very old man. He
was not rich by Makkan standards, but was recognized
by all as the most noble person in Makkah. His
standing was enhanced a couple of decades before the
birth of his grandson, when he dug the well of Zamzam
in response to a dream he saw on successive nights,
giving him its exact location.
Thus, Muhammad was the son of the most noble family in
Arabia, where nobility of birth was given a very high
degree of importance. Yet he was not born into a rich
family where children could be spoilt.
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