Outline Lecture Thirteen—Redefining the Umma: Muhammad and Khadija

I) The Historical Setting of Muhammad’s Message

a) The Calling—610 C.E.
Retreat like all the others supposedly: 40yearsold
Experienced some trances/visions/etc
i) Annual family retreat on Mount Hira
(1) Tradition among many people in Mecca because it is a bit cooler
(2) Occasion for family members to spend a lot of time together, meditate, and pray
together
(3) Muhammad took his family there every year: ‘quintessential family man’
ii) “A man like any other man”—a “bashar”
(1) Very invested in his own family
(2) Except one nagging sense of spiritual emptiness
iii) Dreams or trances of the angel Gabriel to “recite”
(1) Visited repeatedly and beckoned to recite and read
(2) He would hold up a cloth and tell him to recite
(3) Muhammad was illiterate and couldn’t ‘recite’ because he couldn’t read
(a) Sets him up as an unwitting and an unassuming person chosen by Allah to do
something
iv) Image of an unwitting, reluctant messenger of God
(1) Precedence of the reluctant prophet in the Old Testament with Moses and
Abraham
(2) When he started getting visions he thought he was being possessed – by a jinn
v) Initial doubts
Most Bedouins at this time did not want to join any sort of religion
(1) Immediate fear of being jinn-possessed
(2) Crucial role of his wife Khadija in reassuring him
(a) At times so distraught that he thought about committing suicide
(b) With each vision it was some sort of seizure
(c) She helps and comforts him during this physical and mental trauma
(d) She would hold him tight and reassure him that he was ok and that it was
unlikely the work of jinns
(e) Reassures him that this is in line with the tradition of prophesy established by
the Hebrew bible and precedence of other religions
(i) Also he is such a good man that there was no way it could be a jinn
(ii) Still took 3 years for him to do anything
b) The Message of “The Seal of the Prophets”
Saw himself as the final prophet who came to restore the truth and understanding of
monotheism
Saw himself in line with Abraham, Moses, Jesus and other Jewish prophets
Near person to God = Jesus in Islam
i) To revive the spirit of ethical monotheism that had been distorted
(1) ‘son of god’
(2) ‘trinity – father son and holy spirit’
 (3) Prompts him to declare himself the seal of the prophets = one who would give the
final message from God
(a) He was a merchant and travelled a lot
(b) Intermingled extensively with merchants of different faiths
ii) A belated yet decisive contribution to the monotheistic tradition
(1) “Last should be first” mentality
(2) Last but conclusive: Acknowledges other prophets but believes himself to be the
final, truthful and last man
(3) Jumma, Gumma – day of congregation as Friday instead of Saturday or Sunday
(a) Muslims will be the first in line because they will be the first to prayer during
the week
(b) Later message but more important because it is the conclusive and decisive
message
c) Challenge to the Meccan Oligarchy
Polytheistic culture; worship of different gods
Livelihood and religion: Muhammad borrows the credibility of Christianity and Judaism
i) The oasis of Mecca on the Hejaz corridor
Important place governed by merchant oligarchy
Mecca also became a place of religious worship
Merchants would pay to have their respective gods housed in that area (economic
angle)
Became not only an important trading post but also a spiritual sanctuary
ii) Also gained prominence as center for pilgrimage
(1) Key source of revenue for the Quraysh
(2) See above
(3) Kabba was a central piece for them
(4) For the Quraysh this was more than just religion; much of their income came from
the fees they collected
(5) Muhammad challenged this type of worship and thus the revenue that this tribe
was making
(a) He was a member of the Quraysh
(b) It was so extensive that it was divided into two groups

II) The Challenge of Muhammad’s Message

a) Impact of Personal Experience (570-632)
i) “Quraysh of the Outside” vs. “Quraysh of the Inside”
(1) Inside were elites
(2) Outside were the peripheral; less esteemed (Muhammad)
(a) This is clear in his attitude towards the rich merchants
(b) He saw himself as someone who was outside of that group and as a champion
of the poor, orphans, widows etc. (he was an orphan)
(c) On the side of those who had been cast aside
ii) Marriage to Khadija
(1) Khadija was a prominent merchant woman at the time in Mecca
(2) Rich widow and prominent entrepreneur: Muhammad was her employee
(3) She was the one who proposed marriage to Muhammad
 (a) She admired him for his honesty, intelligence, hard-working
(b) He told her first most likely about the visions
(4) Because of her stature and position in Meccan society she was a big protector of
Muhammad because she was so powerful – he made many enemies
iii) Experience as a merchant
(1) Gave him exposure to people of different religions
(2) Skilled negotiator and mediator
(3) Was he invited to Medina or was he trying to flee Mecca?
(a) People of Medina accepted him because of his reputation as a man who was
fair and could settle disputes among rival groups
(b) Medina had a lot of strife and conflict at the time and they needed someone
like him to help them
(4) Was a worldly man, invested in the world (had a family, a merchant, etc) but still
felt a tremendous emptiness
(5) He believed that true faith should allow a community to overcome inequalities
that divide different groups
b) Muhammad’s Egalitarian Ethos
i) One prominent challenge to social inequality concerned women
(1) Troubled by the conditions of women at the time
(2) Women in pre-Islamic Arabia
(a) Women in many ways had more rights in pre-Islamic Arabia than in other
cultures like Greek, Persian and Roman societies
(b) Had legal right to inherit property
(c) Right to divorce husbands on their own initiative
(d) Right to engage in their own business interests
(e) Inequality: Religion – sharp divide between men and women
ii) Muhammad’s inclusion of gender equality in faith
(1) “All people are equal, as equal as the teeth of a comb. There is no claim of merit
of an Arab over a non-Arab, or of a white over a black person, or of a male over a
female. Only God-fearing people merit a preference with God” (“Teeth of a
comb” hadith)
(a) Shows his inclusion of women
(b) “You have rights over your wives and they have rights over you” – “If they
defile your bed, God allows you to put them in separate rooms and beat them
but not with severity”
(i) In all other cultures the punishment for this was stoning, drowning, death
etc.
(ii) Muhammad and Aisha: During a precarious time with the early followers
they were being pursued by a Meccan army, Muhammad instructs one of
his men to take Aisha and get her to safety
They were alone in the dessert for a week or two just them and when they
returned there were rumors about what happened and what they may have
done in the desert
Muhammad confronts Aisha and she says: “What an insult for you to ask
something like that to me” – Never brought it up again and he trusted her
(2) New rights for women introduced by Muhammad
 (a) Outlawed female infanticide
(b) Allowed divorcees and widows to remarry, have custody over their children
(c) Secured inheritance rights for widows
(d) If male legal guardian of a girl you cant do it unless you consent
(e) Dowry: in-law give new bride a dowry but it would go to the father and
brothers etc but he said no this has to go to the woman/wife
iii) Prominent Role of A’isha as “Mother of the Faithful”
(1) Received many more revelations in her presence
(2) Died in A’isha’s arms
(3) Historically, she became one of the prominent leaders after Muhammad’s death
“mother of the faithful” had her own followers and own army
(a) Similar to Mary Magdalene: suggestion that A’isha had a similar role
(b) Group of Muslims after Muhammad died that followed A’isha
(i) Later battle between Ali, Muhammad’s son-in-law, and A’isha where Ali
won – after this she loses her prominence and they moved back to
patriarchy
iv) Later Restrictions placed on Women
Shar’ia Law
Muhammad himself did not stand as a patriarchal person
(1) Leila Ahmed’s Women and Gender in Islam
(a) Argues how and where from some of these patriarchal ideals
(b) Hebrew peoples: bringing with them segregation of worship. Burka, shabor,
hajib: came from Persian converts
(i) Very controversial
c) Flight to Medina—the Hijra in 622
Flight to Medina
Khadija protected him, then Kalib protected him, they died and then he had to flee
i) Persecution of Muhammad and his followers
(1) Transition when his role changes
(2) Muslims could practice their faith in public and safety
(3) Allowed Muhammad to be a secular and religious leader
(a) Makes decisions about battle, law, etc.
(4) Publicly declares his leadership status to Medina
(a) This is a singular aspect of Muhammad – all other religious leaders we’ve
talked about were solely religious leaders and not secular leaders
(b) He was a sheik of the Umma he created
(c) Sets of responsibilities for both his secular and religious roles
ii) Political authority and religious authority coalesced
iii) Relationship with the Jews of Medina
(1) Enlisted their trust and support
(2) The Banu Qurayza clan of Arab Jews
(3) Qibla changed from Jerusalem to Mecca

III) The Forging of the Umma

Muhammad had to personally deal with fight and battle – when people exaggerate the violence
of Muhammad they forget the historical context
Separate the historical and religious messages
He was violent because he had to be at the time
a) A New Inter-tribal Community of Faith—The Umma
i) Marriage politics
(1) Muhammad’s own skilled leadership
ii) Founding of Islam centered less on doctrine than on community
b) The Five Pillars—the tenets of a community
i) The Kalima or Creed
(1) “La ilaha il’Allah, Muhammad rasul Allah”
(2) Meaning of the term Islam and Muslim
ii) The Prayer—Five times a day
(1) Muezzin and Imam
iii) Almsgiving
(1) Zakat (mandatory religious tax) vs. sadaqa (charity beyond requirement)
iv) Period of Fasting (Ramadan)
(1) “Every good work a man does is for himself, save fasting”
v) Pilgrimage (Hajj)
(1) Solidify ties between Muslims in Medina and their families in Mecca
(2) Reinforce equality and unity in the umma
c) Muhammad’s Last Sermon
i) “All blood shed in the pagan period is to be left unavenged”
ii) “There is no compulsion in religion”
iii) Dual meaning of Jihad
(1) Western idea: terrorism, martyrdom, Holy War
(2) Means: Struggle – could be physical struggle, struggle to defend the faith; or a
spiritual struggle
(3) When it appears in the Quran it is referring to spiritual struggle
(4) Religion of Peace is distorted to be more violent
iv) Ethical definition of a martyr
v) Questions regarding so-called “link” between Islam and violence/terrorism
(1) Does Islam explicitly promote violence?
(2) Important to acknowledge historical context of Islam’s founding
(3) Why the Qur’an may be susceptible to misinterpretation and exploitation
(a) Vulnerable because of Muhammad’s role as a leader both religious and
secular
(b) Has been distorted before to be an excuse for violence