Nama : Raden Gusti Mahesa Nurhakim Hartono

NIM : 19105030116

Judul Buku : A Study of Islamic History

Penulis : Prof. K. Ali, M. A.

Cetakan/Tebal Buku : 1980, 381 hlm.

CHAPTER I

THE BACKGROUND OF ISLAM

Of the human races that contributed to the ancient civilization of the world the Semitic
race was one of them. Musa, the founder of Judaism, Isa, the founder of Christians, and
Muhammad, the prophet of Islam were the sons of this Semitic race and the East was their
homeland. Of these monotheistic religions, Islam is the third and the last. Arabia, the birth
place of Islam, was the original home of the Semitic race. In course of time, the Semitic
people migrated to different parts of the Fertile Crescent and became known as the
Babylonians, the Assyirians, the Phoenicians, and the Hebrews (Jews) in history. With the
conquest of Persia by the Greek hero Alexander, the eastern civilization entered into Europe
and the Greeks developed it in various ways. There grew up a new civilization out of this
eastern and western culture. The new civilization is called the Hellenic Civilization. When
the Romans conquered Greece (146 B.C.) they became the heirs of the Hellenic Civilization.

Arabia, the cradle of Islam, is a vast peninsula in the south-west of Asia. The vast
region of Arabia is divided into several provinces of which Hijaz, Najd, Yaman, Hadramawt,
and Uman are important in the history of the Muslim world. The people of Arabia fall into
two groups, “the dwellers of cities” and “the Bedouins”. The dwellers of cities settle in one
place and they know how to till lands and grow corn. The Bedouins wander from one place to
another with all their belongings.

The period preceding the rise of Islam is commonly known as Jahiliyya or “Age of
Ignorance”, because the political, religious, and social conditions of Arabia were of the worst
order. The land of Arabia was barren. They earned their livelihood by tending cattle. People
of higher-status carried on inland and foreign business. The Arabs of this period were not
altogether devoid of culture. They were famous for their language and poetry. The Arabs
were the worshippers of idols and the shapes and figures of the idols were according to the
fancy of the worshippers. Al-Uzza, al-Laat, Manah, and Hubal were held in high estimation
by the Arabs. Only a section of the people of Madinah believed in a vague monotheism. In
Social and Moral, the Arabs were endowed with courage, dogged tenacity, wonderful
memory, sense of self-respect, feeling of freedom, love and allegiance for the tribe and tribal
leader, simplicity, generosity, hospitality and last but not the least the knack for poetry. But
these good qualities were outweighed by bad ones. During this dark age, the firmament of
Arabia was over-clouded with injustice, vice, and superstition.

CHAPTER II

PROPHETIC AGE

A. Early Life of The Prophet

Abdul Muthalib had several sons and daughters. When he was ruling over Hijaz,
Abrahah, the Christian chief of Yaman invaded Makkah and the house of Ka’bah. Prior to
this event, Abdul Muthalib took his youngest son, Abdullah, to the house of Wahhab, and
there he gave his son in marriage to Aminah, the daughter of Wahhab. Abdullah remained
with Aminah only for three days at her father’s house. He then left his wife and started for
Syiria on a mercantile expedition. On his way back, he fell ill at Madinah and died there,
leaving behind him five camels, a flock of goats and Ummu Aiman, a slave girl.

The widowed Aminah gave birth to a son on Monday, the 12 th Rabiul Awal, 570 A.D.
The child was named Muhammad by his grandfather and Ahmad by his mother. According to
the custom of Arabia the charge of the child’s upbringing was entrusted to Halima, a woman
of the Bani Sa’d. In the sixth year of his life, Muhammad was sent to the care of his mother.
The noble lady, in order to show her boy to the maternal relatives of his father, set out for
Madinah along with her slave girl. Arriving ar Madinah she alighted at the house where her
husband had died and been buried. But on their way back to Makkah, they reached a place
named al-Abwa where Aminah fell sick and died. After her burial there the orphan was
carried back to Makkah by Umm Aiman who was a faithdul nurse of the child.

In his seventh year, Muhammad began to feel desolation of the orphan state. The
charge of the orphan was now undertaken by Abdul Mutalib whose guardianship lasted only
for two years. After Abdul Mutalib the sole charge of the orphan was placed on his uncle Abu
Talib who was faithfully and kindly discharged his duties. As his uncle was not solvent
Muhammad had to work for his bread. His strict adherence to truth, scrupulous honesty,
unflinching faith, and stern sense of duty earned for him the title of Al-Amin, ‘The Trusty’. At
the age of twelve, Muhammad accompanied his uncle for business to Syria.

The fame of Muhammad had spread by this time throughout Arabia. Khadijah, on
hearing of the sincerity and truthfulness of Muhammad, invited him to her house and asked
him to take charge of her business. In Syiria, Muhammad made great profit by his honesty
and intelligence and added to the fortune of Khadijah. When he came back and stood before
her, she was much impressed by the charming personality of her agent. She wanted to marry
him and the marriage was performed with the consent of his uncle. After his marriage with
Khadijah, Muhammad used to go to a cave of mount Hira, not far from Makkah and spend a
month every year in meditation. One night as he lay in the cave, a voice spoke to him and
bade him read. He trembled with awe and said that he couldn’t read. When a third time the
voice ordered him to read, he read in the name of Allah. Thus the Holy Qur’an was first
revealed to Muhammad in the month of Ramadhan. Muhammad said later in his life that
when nobody believed in his mission, Khadijah believed in him, when he was friendless, she
befriended him, and when he was helpless, she helped him. When Muhammad was fifty,
Khadijah passed away from this land of living to the land of bliss.

On receiving prophethood at the age of forty, Muhammad began to preach his mission
among the misguided citizens of Makkah. His wife, Khadijah was the first who gave up
idolatry and accepted his mission. Then came Ali, Abu Bakr, Utsman, Abdurrahman, Zayd,
Zubayr, and Talha under the banner of Islam. As time went on the number began to increase
and within three or four years the converts to the new faith amounted to nearly forty souls.
The success of Muhammad was an eyesore to the Quraysh. The preaching of Muhammad
structed at the root of their beliefs by denying all the old gods. There was a priest-class
among the Quraysh who thought that the rising power of Islam meant their own doom and
destruction.

Inhuman oppression and torture on the Muslims touched the tender heart of the Prophet
who advised his followers to seek shelter in a foreign land. In the 7 th month of the 5th year of
Muhammad’s mission, eleven men and four women including Utsman and his wife set out
for Abyssinia. The emigrants were cordially received by the king of Abyssinia. When the
Quraysh leaders heard this, they followed them. But the emigrants had already gone beyond
their reach. Thereupon the chiefs of the Quraysh sent a delegation to the king of Abyssinia
with a request to expel the Muslims from his kingdom. Najashi, the king of Abyssinia heard
both the sides and was highly impressed by the ideal of the Muslims. He allowed the
Muslims to live there peacefully. The Quraysh delegation went back to Makkah
unsuccessfully. This emigration to Abyssinia convinced the Quraysh of the sincerity and
resolution of the Muslims who were ready to undergo any loss and hardship rather than
abjure the faith of Muhammad. But the most important result of the emigration was that the
Muslims of Makkah now knew that there was a place where they could seek shelter and
protection from the persecutions of the Quraysh.

After staying two months in Abyssinia, the emogrants came back to Makkah. The
Quryash became jealous of the gradual success of Islam and they now began to redouble their
persecution of the Muslims. The Prophet again advised his followers to take refuge in
Abyssinia. The number on this occasion was 101, of which 18 were women. At the rapid
success of Muhammad, the Quraysh became frightened. They approached Abu Talib for
compromise on condition that Muhammad should give up his mission.

In the sixth year of Muhammad’s mission, Hamza and Umar embraced Islam. Their
conversion to Islam was a triumph for Muhammad and his faith. Thus when the influence o
Muhammad began to grow day by day, the Quraysh entered into a league, in the 7 th year of
the mission, against the Hashimites. They proclaimed a total boycott and the Hashimite
including the Prophet were compelled to retire into the secluded quarter of the city, known as
the shi’b (quarter) of Abu Talib. In the 10th year of his mission, he lost his wife, Khadijah,
who was followed five weeks later by Abu Talib to the grave. At last the deadly enmity of the
Quraysh forced him to turn is attention to Taif where, he hoped, people might listen to him.
For ten days he stayed there delivering his message to them. Though many influential men
came at his call, no hopeful impression was made. While he was returning to Makkah, they
followed the Prophet and pelted him with stones till his very shoes were covered by blood.

Muhammad was waiting for the next pilgrimage ad when the day of pilgrimage came
he sought the appointed spot. A band of twelve faithful disciples came by this time to
Makkah and the Prophet contacted them at Aqabah. Ten were of the Khazraj and two of the
Aws of tribe. The hopes of Muhammad were now fixed upon Yathrib and he waited patiently
for the call from the Yathribites. Just during this period the Mi’raj took place, Muhammad
met his Maker one night at Heaven and was charged with the behest that his people were to
prostrate themselves in prayer five times a day. In the following year of the first pledge of
‘Aqabah, seventy three men from Yathrib came to Makkah and offered an oath of allegiance
to the Prophet. The new converts to Islam pledged to help and protect the Prophet. They also
invited him to go to their city.

Yathrib, on the other hand, was a fertile land and produced various kinds of vegetables.
The climate wasn’t so extreme as that of Makkah. People were tender-hearted, considerate,
and thoughtful. So, Islam could find a more suitable ground at Madinah than at Makkah in its
early period of expansion. The priest class and the Qurayshite aristocracy stood as the
greatest bar on the way of progress of Islam. The Banu Aws and Banu Khazraj were at feud
with each other. Muhammad had the blood of Khazraj in his veins through the marriage of
Hashim with a lady of Yathrib and favourable interest was at least secured among the
members of the tribe. The Jews were then living at Yathrib. They were informed of the
coming of Prophet as a zealous supporter of their Scriptures and as Muhammad.

The years of humiliation, of persecution, of seeming failure, of prophecy still

unfulfilled, were over and the years of success had begun. The Prophet of Islam had been
neglected and abused by his own people at Makkah, while at Madinah he was now only
received as an honoured chief but also made President of the Republic. At Madinah his power
and position began to enhance and Islam was gaining ground day by day. Here he was left
disturbed to preach his mission freely among the misguided people who were eventually
converted to his faith.