The Life of the Prophet When people think of the Prophet Mohammed and Islam, they think of war, terrorists, and violence. If people had enough knowledge about both the Prophet and Islam, those images wouldn’t even cross their minds. The Prophet Mohammed was and still is important in many ways because of how he affected people during his lifetime, the present life time, and will affect them in the future lifetime. Nevertheless, people think badly of the Prophet. People have said he was a polygamist and a pedophile for marrying more than one woman and some of them being underage. People must not forget, this was common at the time. It wasn’t wrong then; it wasn’t frowned upon. People don’t understand the conditions that the Prophet was in. He married women who were widowed and had no family. He would take them in and care for them because no one was there to do that. He also married daughter of his closest friends and successors. Although he married a girl at the age of six, she did not live with her husband until she was nine and she had matured. Although he had and still does have people who speak badly of him because they don’t understand or just talk. But there are more people who do know and do understand why he did what he did in his life. “An aura of goodness and holiness surrounded him” (Kelen 243). “Recite!” (answering-Islam) is how it all started. When the angel Gabriel came to the Prophet Mohammed in a mountain and told him to repeat after him the verses of God. The angle kept telling him to repeat after him but he was too terrified to do anything. Then finally, he repeated after him so that the angle would leave him. When the angle left him, he ran home to his wife, Khadijah, for comfort. She was a wise woman. She believed everything he said about what had happened in the mountain because she knew he would never lie to her and he was an honest man. She decided that after he would calm down, she would take him to her cousin, Waraqah bin Nawfal. He would be able to explain what had just happened to her husband. Finally, Mohammed calmed down and agreed to go see her cousin. He explained everything. He explained that an angel had truly come down to Mohammed with a message from God that he is now his Prophet and messenger. Mohammed was overwhelmed by his explanation. But he was proven to by God and his miracles that he is the messenger of God and that he is to spread the message that God is one and he, Mohammed is his messenger. When he went to preach to his people about this new religion, people thought he was crazy. Some people followed him immediately because they knew he was an honest and truthful man and anything that came out of his mouth was the truth. Through out the years, he converted many to Islam. They memorized the Qur’an, which was the Holy Book, and made a pilgrimage to Mecca, which is the Holy Land. “He was turning the pagan pilgrims into Moslem pilgrims” (Triggs 58). Other then converting people to Islam, he showed people that to have a good life in the afterlife, one must do good in this life. It was that simple. But one must also worship God. The people were amazed at how good it felt to do good and know that they would et rewarded for it in the afterlife. People were treated with kindness from the Prophet, and that was enough to make them convert to Islam. The present time is a reality in which we humans need to realize that the end of the world is coming soon. It is sad to think about but it is reality and there is no running away from it. People have to do good in this life to have best life in the afterlife. Prophet Mohammed has made it simple for everyone. There are five major rules in Islam, they are: fast the month of Ramadan, pay Zakat, which is basically a donation of some sort, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca at least once, pray five times a day, and submitting one’s self to God. People are submitting themselves to God daily, CIAR chairman, Nihad Awad said in 2002, “34,000 Americans have converted to Islam following the events of September 11” (qtd. Sultan.org). Many non-Muslims convert to Islam after big even such as wars. In the Prophets life, many non-Muslims converted after major wars and battles such as the Battle of Uhud, People “…including Amr and Khalid (who had fought against him at Uhud) (“Prophet”). When people now and read about the Prophet and how he dealt with prisoners from wars, they would see how nicely they were treated. For some people, seeing how the Prophet treated people is enough to make them convert because this touches people’s hearts. It has been said by many people that Islam will be the largest religion in the world considering at the rate it is growing the rate of how it is growing. Recently, Muammar Gaddafi said, “The 50 million (in Europe) will turn into a Muslim content within a few decades” (qtd. Opinionmaker.org). This is just one of many true statistics and if people took the time to read the statistics, they would be amazed. It seems the Prophet Mohammed was doing a pretty good job at revealing the message of God to the people considering the results now and perhaps, the future. Another reason why this religion is growing so fast is because the affect the Prophet has put on the people is so strong, they feel as if they have to help spread the sacred message which applied to all arabs. (Crim 499).
If people knew the correct knowledge about Islam and the Prophet Mohammed, maybe they could open their eyes to a whole new religion and see how people from the past and the present were affected, and possibly the future. If people don’t at least try to understand all of the peace and inspiration of Islam, ignorance and intolerance with perpetuate. Knowledge and understanding may being peace in the world, hopefully. But no one will know until they try.