Islamic: Empire of Faith PBS Special: Part 1
The Messenger
The call of prayer is bound together by the spirit of Islam, five times a day throughout the world,
“God is most great. I testify there is no other God but God. I testify Muhammad is the Messenger of God. Come and pray. Come and flourish. God is most great. There is no God but God.”
Islamic civilization has been one of humanities greatest achievement. A worldwide power founded simply on faith, a spiritual revolution that will shake the nations of three continents. Further west the history of Islam has been moved by fear and misunderstanding. Islam is moving with western civilization.
A single man will change the world forever. His name was Muhammad.
The Messenger
To a Muslim the life of Muhammad is revered. Muhammad was born around 570 AD in the Peninsula of Saudi Arabia. A land of savagery who were at constant war. While an infant his parents gave him a taste of life in the dessert. He was from Mecca. He was sent to live with the Betters because they were religious and respected. By the time he was six years old both parents died and he was sent to live with his uncle. He was orphan and grew to be passionate with those left out of society. He had many parents. He was a child of everybody. Pre Islamic civilization was poor. They recited poetry well. They sang of the glory of the tribe. Poets linked the tribes to their ancestors. Poetries bound them together in their victories and defeats. Warfare was a reality of this time and Muhammad’s uncle taught him how to take care of himself. In the wilderness rivalry over a single well would cause a feud for many generations. Without the tribes protection no one could endure. Most of the land was dry. Water was precious. Water makes the difference between life and death.
They had their gods, water, wind, fire, etc. They worshipped spirits from nature such as trees, springs, etc. The Kabba kept these spirits. It was said that Abraham built the Kabba before and that a sacred black stone had fallen from the sky.
The Kabba represented a place of peace and when they left that area they would return to conflict. In the middle around the Kabba, all people had to put down their arms and it became a place of trading. The spiritual part of the Kabba was hard to separate. The Kabba made Mecca a place for trade. The greatest treasure found was the mixture of culture. The local religion was mixed with Christians and Jews, and Arabs [Mecca, Jerusalem, Isfahan].
Muhammad’s world was the center of trade. Muhammad became a merchant. At 25 his talents caught the eye of Khadijah and she proposed marriage to him. She was a mentor to him. He learned a lot from her. He was intelligent and loved by all. He had a way with people and in resolving their disputes. Once when the Kabba fell in disrepair the chiefs were arguing who would repair it but before they started to fight Muhammad had a solution. The four leaders shared the weight and honor. They invited him to help. He was known as the “trusted one.” He was interested in religious questions too. He went into the rocks to meditate.
In a cave above Mecca, Muhammad had an experience that would define his life. An angel (Gabriel) appeared before him in the form of a man telling him to recite. For Muhammad this was disturbing. This was the beginning of the prophetic career of Muhammad. He had powerful words and above all, “there is only one God”. The central tenet of Islam is the unity of Islam. It’s only thinking about one thing. One God meant one people. There was to be no more tribal division. He had a strong social justice message. In Mecca you had the haves and have nots and Muhammad didn’t want that anymore. Islam was a new order, a new way of life. Everyone was equal. It was a universal appeal and that’s why it spread rapidly. He had a verbal expression. Muhammad was not a poet because they spoke through desire. Muhammad spoke of God.
Muhammad’s followers started to grow. They called themselves Muslims. They surrendered until God. They set out to spread his message which was through the Quran. It had to be written down so it wouldn’t be corrupted and it had to be maintained in writing. Power and tenderness came together in the Quranic language. The imagery of paradise was there but for God there wasn’t. The mystery remains.
You couldn’t talk about God because you couldn’t give an image and that’s why they didn’t like sculptures. In the Quran they shifted the pronouns around.
Islamic pictures were not favored. They didn’t need any pictures and they didn’t need pictures of Muhammad. If there were pictures they were not to be worshipped. Muhammad was a historical figure. You were to learn about your history from the pictures.
As Muhammad’s community grew so did the opposition. People were skeptical. If you’re a prophet they said “where is your miracle” and they were given the answer “this is a miracle, the Quran”. That wasn’t miracle enough. Their doubts increased. The idea of life after death they hated. Muhammad also spoke of eternal damnation. The unjust would go into the fire. They started to hate him. The social order and economic system was threatened. As his followers increased the business area was affected and people left town. The tribal leaders decided Muhammad and his message must be removed. They didn’t want him taken over. They wanted his uncle to remove his protection around Muhammad which would clear the way for murder without retribution. The leaders didn’t want to give up multiple gods. Muhammad’s followers was forced away from the market place and starved and if they didn’t have clan protection they starved or killed. In 619 A.D. Khadijah and his uncle died his first great love and protector. Now his enemies had the opportunity to kill him but in Yathrib, north of Mecca a refuge open to Muhammad. These people needed Muhammad’s skills. He settled the people’s dispute if they would protect him and his followers. They began a new community not by blood but by faith.
In the course of a single caravan journey, Islam makes its beginning. This journey is known as the Hirja 622 in the Christian Calendar marks the Muslim year 1 (A.H).
Muhammad’s goal in Yathrib was to bring unity and peace. This town became known as the city of the prophet (Medina). He wanted a community of believers to bring harmony. He didn’t challenge their other faith (at this time). He treated Judaism and Christianity as “People of the Book”. They believed God revealed himself through Moses.
The call of prayer the first Islamic Pillar was the call to unity. Praying together was a good thing. The result is powerful. It unified the body, mind, soul all together. They bowed and touched their head to the ground. Muhammad was giving a revelation for the people to face the Kabba in Mecca. It is the Shrine of Abraham, the one true believer in God. As they were praying to Mecca their enemies were getting together to attack them. Muhammad’s people began to gather arms. They were being overrun. The Meccans were heavily armed. They came armed with a powerful weapon, their belief in their faith. Muhammad’s troops fought knowing that God was guiding them. For three years they held out with staggering odds. As word spread other tribes saw God’s hand. One by one they helped Muhammad and the tide turned. Finally the city fell to Muhammad 630 AD Mecca won with 10,000 strong. Usually men were killed, women and children became slaves. Muhammad embraced the Meccans instead of killing them. He was kind. Not all of Mecca was safe. They surround the Kabba and marched seven times around it. He raised the staff and the idols were destroyed. By breaking the idols he broke the tribal system. Some of the leaders were saying the God’s of their fathers are being destroyed. This was like Moses breaking the tablets or Jesus casting out the money sellers. The destruction of the idols were a new beginning, the breaking of the past and the creation of a new force.
Mecca was just the beginning. Slowly different areas were united to the banner of Islamic union. A world community, faith was born in an extraordinary aliment of history personal and historical.
The Muslims turn to the North, Lebanon and Syria then west to Egypt. It’s growth was explosive. Within 50 years people whose father’s were camel herdsmen now were governing the empire. The empire was larger than Roman. How such small an army can conquer so much. It spread because people were fed up with previous regimes. Convert or die wasn’t true. They allowed the conquered people to maintain their life. They wanted a religion free from clergy. The times created the movements and men. The Roman Empire collapsed, the Byzantine Empire wasn’t strong enough , there was a need of new vision, a new way of looking toward life and Muhammad’s movement filled that void. The lessons of the Quran were playing out on a global prayer. They keep their prayers at St. John the Baptist and let the Christians keep their prayers right next to them. Side by side the two faiths shared the same building in peace. As the Muslim community grew they bought the church from the Christians and built a Mosque on the site. They decorated it with golden Mosaics of paradise from the Byzantine Empire. The great Mosque of Damascus would become a model of new mosque to come all across the empire. They transformed their lands. They devise a water systems separating fresh water from bad water. All over you found they brought water from the mountains. They filled the aqueducts with water. Agriculture flourished. They saved their most monumental feat for the Holy City of Jerusalem.
The Islamic first great work of art is the Dome of the rock. This holy site goes back to the place of Abraham were he nearly sacrificed his son. It was built near to where Jesus was said to have been buried.
The Dome of the Rock is perfect. It is holy to Abraham and Isaac. Islam has come to stay. In just 100 years Muhammad’s vision has transformed the spiritual and political map of the world and his followers have established an empire larger than Rome, but Muhammad never lived to see it. He died. Medina fell into despair. He wanted to be buried simply. He didn’t want people to worship his grave, that would interfere with their worship of God. God had only spoken to them through Muhammad but now that the prophet left them maybe God as well. His death set up a crisis and question of who would take over were in the people’s mind. There were different opinions. According to the Shi’ites, Ali was the successor (family). The Sunnis believed they were to choose one of their peers/the elders, Abu Bakar, he said “if you worship Muhammad know that he is dead if you worship God know that he lives forever.” The strength of power, “knowing one God” Muhammad’s message would bring power.
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