The Prophet Muhammad, founder of Islam, received his first revelation at 40. Learn more about his life.

The Prophet Muhammad (b. ca. 570 C.E., Mecca; d. June 8, 632 C.E., Medina) was a member of the powerful Quraysh (Koresh) tribe, custodians of the Ka’ba, the sacred shrine at Mecca. In fact, at the time of Muhammad’s birth, his grandfather was the head of the tribe. But Muhammad’s father, who was relatively poor despite his powerful connections, died while on a trading trip, leaving his widow and child very little property.

As an infant Muhammad was sent to a wet nurse from a Bedouin tribe, as was common for the children of noble families. Although a child normally spent only two years with a wet nurse, Muhammad’s nurse asked to keep him for a longer period, and Muhammed’s mother agreed. Thus, until he was about five, the future prophet was raised away from the vice and corruption that characterized the city of Mecca at that time.

After Muhammad’s mother died, when he was about six, his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, assumed responsibility for him. But when Abd al-Muttalib also died about two years later, Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib became his new guardian.

At the age of about twelve, Muhammad accompanied Abu Talib on a trading trip to Syria, which may have given him the opportunity to observe directly the effects of monotheism in various societies, and to contrast the materialism of his compatriots with the discipline that seemed to derive from the monotheistic religious faith of the Christians and Jews.

When Muhammad was fifteen, he became a shepherd, in order to earn his own living. This occupation provided a solitude that encouraged his already notable tendency toward serenity, contemplation, and spiritual questioning. Already he had begun to recoil from the worship of idols, for it seemed illogical to him that men should worship material things.

In order to improve Muhammad’s economic situation, Abu Talib arranged for him to become a sort of junior partner to a wealthy widow named Khadija, who needed a trustworthy man to run her business for her. Muhammad was such an honest and effective partner that Khadija grew to admire and respect him. Eventually, though Khadija was forty and Muhammad only twenty-five, they married. All the evidence indicates that theirs was a loving and happy marriage. Khadija bore him seven children. The four daughters survived into adulthood, but the three sons died in infancy.

During his trading trips to the north, Muhammad learned more about Christianity and Judaism. He had never been comfortable with idolatrous practices, and the idea of monotheism held a powerful attraction for him. Always thoughtful and meditative, as an adult he developed the habit of withdrawing periodically to a mountain cave outside of Mecca. There in 610 C.E., when he was about forty, Muhammad received his first revelation. The substance of this revelation was that Allah had chosen him as His prophet, or messenger, and that his task was to convey to all of mankind the same message that had been taught by Allah’s previous prophets. The revelation came in the form of verses of what was to become the Qu’ran (Koran), spoken to him by the angel Gabriel. Over the next thirteen years Muhammad continued to receive verses of the Qu’ran in the form of such revelations.

At first Muhammad was deeply troubled by his experience, but his wife Khadija and several of his relatives and close friends were convinced that the revelation was authentic. Thus his first converts were his close friends and family. They set about discreetly to invite others to join the new religion, knowing the religious authorities in Mecca would inevitably be hostile to the new faith.

In 613 a new revelation commanded Muhammad to speak publicly about the new religion. The Qurayshites felt threatened by the new religion, particularly since much of the Qurayshites’ power and wealth derived from their control over the sacred Ka’ba and their monopoly of the priestly functions of the current religion.

Because Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib was the head of an important Qurayshite tribe, his protection prevented other Qurayshites from directly harming Muhammad. But the followers of the new religion of Islam were cruelly persecuted, and Muhammad himself was publicly mocked and berated. Nevertheless, a number of powerful and wealthy men in Mecca began to convert to Islam, greatly enhancing Muhammad’s prestige in the city.

In 620, Muhammed’s beloved wife Khadija and his protector, Abu Talib, died within a month of each other. After Abu Talib’s death the Quraysh increased their persecution of Muhammad’s followers. During the pilgrimage season that year, when visitors came to worship the hundreds of idols in the Ka’ba, Muhammad managed to convert a dozen tribal chieftains from Medina, a city about 260 miles (approx. 174 km) north of Mecca. After Mecca, Medina was the second most important trading center in Arabia. When these leaders returned home, they converted the majority of their tribesmen to Islam. By the next year, many Muslims had emigrated to join the growing Islamic community at Medina. Only Muhammad and a few of his followers remained in Mecca.

The Quraysh clans hatched a plot to assassinate Muhammad, who, learning of their plans, escaped and fled to Medina on July 16, 622. Enraged at the escape of their enemy, the Meccans retaliated harshly against those Muslims who had not yet escaped the city.

A few weeks later, Muhammad reached Medina, where he was welcomed as the leader of the Islamic community. His wise administration of the community and his enlightened treatment of non-Muslims further enhanced his reputation and won even more converts to the new faith.

In 624, when a troop of 313 Muslims from Medina had set out to attack a rich caravan, they were met at Badr, south of Medina, by a thousand Meccan troops sent to protect the caravan. Supposedly Allah revealed to Muhammad that he would defeat the Meccans, and he interpreted the Muslims’ decisive victory against so superior a force as a validation of his role as Allah’s prophet. As a result of their ignominious defeat in this battle, Muhammad’s Quraysh enemies lost prestige among the Arab tribes, while Muhammad and his growing community of believers gained respect among those who had hitherto dismissed them as insignificant and weak.
Although the Muslims were defeated in 625 by the Meccans in another engagement, that defeat was not decisive, and with an unexpected show of force following a retreat to Medina, Muhammad tricked the Meccans into withdrawing to Mecca rather than attacking Medina as they had originally intended.
Throughout these years Muhammad continued to receive revelations, prescribing fasting during the month of Ramadan and the payment of Zakat (mandatory alms) by all Muslims with a certain minimum net worth. The revelations also commanded Muslims to face the Ka’ba in Mecca to pray, rather than facing toward Jerusalem as they had at first. The revelations of these years also enjoined all Muslims to make a pilgrimage to Mecca during their lifetime.

In 628 Muhammad forced the Meccans to sign the Treat of Hudaybiyah, which acknowledged his political authority and made certain concessions to Muslims. But this was a limited truce, not a final settlement of the hostilities between the Meccans and the Muslims.

In 630, after allies of the Meccans violated the treaty of Hudaybiyah, Muhammad entered Mecca with 10,000 men, whom he had discreetly assembled outside the city in order to take the Meccans by surprise. The leaders in Mecca yielded to Muhammad with virtually no resistance, and thus the city was captured with almost no loss of life. Muhammad purified the Ka’ba and removed the more than three hundred idols that were kept there. He declared the Ka’ba to be the sacred place of the Muslims.

Throughout the remainder of his life, Muhammad continued to establish alliances with the various nomadic tribes of the peninsula, and by the time of his death most of Arabia was united, both politically and spiritually, under the banner of Islam. Soon the new faith would be carried to Iraq and Syria, and then to other parts of the world.