What is "muhammad"

Mohammed \Mohammed\ (m[=o]*h[a^]m"m[e^]d) n. ['The praised one'.] [Also spelled Mahomed, Mahomet, Muhammad (the Arabic form), Mahmoud, Mehemet, etc.] The prophet who founded Islam (570-632). Syn: Muhammad, Mahomet, Mahmoud. [WordNet

1. 5] Mohammed (or Mahomet (ma*hom"et)) was born at Mecca, Arabia, about 570: died at Medina, Arabia, June 8, 63

2. He was the founder of Mohammedanism, or Islam ('surrender,' namely, to God). He was the posthumous son of Abdallah by his wife Amina, of the family of Hashim, the noblest among the Koreish, and was brought up in the desert among the Banu Saad by a Bedouin woman named Halim

   1. At the age of six he lost his mother, and at eight his grandfather, when he was cared for by his uncle Abu-Tali

   2. When about twelve years old (582) he accompanied a caravan to Syria, and may on this occasion have come for the first time in contact with Jews and Christians. A few years later he took part in the "sacrilegious war" (so called because carried on during the sacred months, when fighting was forbidden) which raged between the Koreish and the Banu Hawazin 580-590. He attended sundry preachings and recitations at Okatz, which may have awakened his poetical and rhetorical powers and his religious feelings; and for some time was occupied as a shepherd, to which he later refers as being in accordance with his career as a prophet, even as it was with that of Moses and David. When twenty-five years old he entered the service of the widow Khadijah, and made a second journey to Syria, on which he again had an opportunity to come in frequent contact with Jews and Christians, and to acquire some knowledge of their religious teachings. He soon married Khadijah, who was fifteen years his senior. Of the six children which she bore him, Fatima became the most famous. In 605 he attained some influence in Mecca by settling a dispute about the rebuilding of the Kaaba. The impressions which he had gathered from his contact with Judaism and Christianity, and from Arabic lore, began now strongly to engage his mind. He frequently retired to solitary places, especially to the cave of Mount Hira, north of Mecca. He passed at that time (he was then about forty years old) through great mental struggles, and repeatedly meditated suicide. It must have been during these lonely contemplations that the yearnings for a messenger from God for his people, and the thought that he himself might be destined for this mission, were born in his ardent mind. During one of his reveries, in the month of Ramadan, 610, he beheld in sleep the angel Gabriel, who ordered him to read from a scroll which he held before him the words which begin the 96th sura (chapter) of the Koran. After the lapse of some time, a second vision came, and then the revelations began to follow one another frequently. His own belief in his mission as apostle and prophet of God was now firmly established. The first convert was his wife Khadijah, then followed his cousin and adopted son Ali, his other adopted son Zeid, and Abu-Bekr, afterward his father-in-law and first successor (calif). Gradually about 60 adherents rallied about him. But after three years' preaching the mass of the Meccans rose against him, so that part of his followers had to resort to Abyssinia for safety in 614. This is termed the first hejira. Mohammed in the meanwhile continued his meetings in the house of one of his disciples, Arqaan, in front of the Kaaba, which later became known as the "House of Islam." At one time he offered the Koreish a compromise, admitting their gods into his system as intercessors with the Supreme Being, but, becoming conscience-stricken, took back his words. The conversion of Hamza and Omar and 39 others in 615-616 strengthened his cause. The Koreish excommunicated Mohammed and his followers, who were forced to live in retirement. In 620, at the pilgrimage, he won over to his teachings a small party from Medina. In Medina, whither a teacher was deputed, the new religion spread rapidly. To this period belongs the vision or dream of the miraculous ride, on the winged horse Borak, to Jerusalem, where he was received by the prophets, and thence ascended to heaven. In 622 more than 70 persons from Medina bound themselves to stand by Mohammed. The Meccans proposed to kill him, and he fled on the 20th of June, 622, to Medina. This is known as the hejira ('the flight'), and marks the beginning of the Mohammedan era. This event formed a turning-point in the activity of Mohammed. He was thus far a religious preacher and persuader; he became in his Medinian period a legislator and warrior. He built there in 623 the first mosque, and married Ayesha. In 624 the first battle for the faith took place between Mohammed and the Meccans in the plain of Bedr, in which the latter were defeated. At this time, also, Mohammed began bitterly to inveigh against the Jews, who did not recognize his claims to be the "greater prophet" promised by Moses. He changed the attitude of prayer (kibla) from the direction of Jerusalem to that of the Kaaba in Mecca, appointed Friday as the day for public worship, and instituted the fast of Ramadan and the tithe or poor-rate. The Jewish tribe of the Banu Kainuka, settled at Medina, was driven out; while of another Jewish tribe, the Banu Kuraiza, all the men, 700 in number, were massacred. In 625 Mohammed and his followers were defeated by the Meccans in the battle of Ohud. The following years were filled out with expeditions. One tribe after another submitted to Mohammed, until in 631 something like a definite Mohammedan empire was established. In 632 the prophet made his last pilgrimage to Mecca, known as the "farewell pilgrimage," or the pilgrimage of the "announcement" or of "Islam." In the same year he died while planning an expedition against the frontier of the Byzantine empire. Mohammed was a little above the middle height, of a commanding figure, and is described as being of a modest, tender, and generous disposition. His manner of life was very simple and frugal. He mended his own clothes, and his common diet was barley-bread and water. But he enjoyed perfumes and the charms of women. His character appears composed of the strongest inconsistencies. He could be tender, kind, and liberal, but on occasions indulged in cruel and perfidious assassinations. With regard to his prophetic claims, it is as difficult to assume that he was sincere throughout, or self-deceived, as that he was throughout an impostor. In his doctrines there is practically nothing original. The legends of the Koran are chiefly drawn from the Old Testament and the rabbinical literature, which Mohammed must have learned from a Jew near Mecca, though he presents them as original revelations by the angel Gabriel, See Koran.

1610s, Mohammed, Arabic masc. proper name, literally "the Praiseworthy," name of the prophet of Islam (c.570-632). The earliest forms of his name in English were Mahum, Mahimet (c.1200); originally also used confusedly for "an idol." Wyclif has Macamethe (c.1380), and Makomete also turns up in 14c. documents. Mahomet was common until 19c.; see Mohammed.

Muḥammad (; c. 570 CE – 8 June 632 CE) is the central figure of Islam and widely regarded as its founder by non-Muslims. He is known to Muslims as the "Holy Prophet", almost all of whom consider him to be the last prophet sent by God to mankindThe Ahmadiyya Muslim Community considers Muhammad to be the "Seal of the Prophets" (Khātam an-Nabiyyīn) and the last law-bearing Prophet but not the last Prophet. See:

There are also smaller sects which believe Muhammad to be not the last Prophet:

• The Nation of Islam considers Elijah Muhammad to be a prophet (source: African American Religious Leaders – p. 76, Jim Haskins, Kathleen Benson – 2008).
• United Submitters International consider Rashad Khalifa to be a prophet. (Source: Daniel Pipes, Miniatures: Views of Islamic and Middle Eastern Politics, p. 98 (2004)) to restore Islam, believed by Muslims to be the unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He united Arabia into a single Muslim polity and ensured that his teachings, practices, and the Quran, formed the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Born approximately 570CE in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad was orphaned at an early age; he was raised under the care of his paternal uncle Abu Talib. Periodically, he would retreat to a cave named Hira in the mountains for several nights of seclusion and prayer; later, at age 40, he reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave,

• where he stated he received his first revelation from God. Three years later Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that " God is One", that complete "surrender" (lit. islām) to him is the only way ( dīn) acceptable to God, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, similar to the other prophets in Islam.

Muhammad gained few early followers, and met hostility from some Meccan tribes. To escape persecution, Muhammad sent some followers to Abyssinia before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent conflict with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The attack went largely uncontested and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. He destroyed 360 pagan idols at the Kaaba. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. Before his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. See:

• Holt (1977a), p. 57
• Lapidus (2002), pp. 31–32

The revelations (each known as Ayah, lit. "Sign [of God]"), which Muhammad reported receiving until his death, form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the "Word of God" and around which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings and practices ( sunnah), found in the Hadith and sira literature, are also upheld by Muslims and used as sources of Islamic law (see Sharia).

Sūrat Muḥammad ( " Muhammad") is the 47th sura of the Qur'an with 38 ayat. The title is derived from the direct mentioning of the Islamic prophet Muhammad in 47:2. It also has the name of Al-Qital, which translates to fighting due to the context of the sura. This sura pertains to a specific conflict that arose from people prohibiting the acceptance and spread of Islam. It refers to the battle of Badr, where an army was being gathered to attack Medina. The battle of Badr took place during Ramadan, in year 2 of the Islamic calendar.

Muhammad is an Islamic prophet and a religious and political leader who preached and established Islam.

Muhammad (various spellings) may also refer to:

• Muhammad (name), listing people with the given name or surname Muhammad (various spellings)

Muhammad (ISBN 1-56584-752-0) is a secular biography of the Islamic prophet written by prominent French non-Muslim Islamic scholar Maxime Rodinson in 1961. It focuses on materialist conditions of emergence of Islam.

In Egypt, in 1998, censorship controversies forced the American University in Cairo to stop publishing the book.

Muhammad is the primary transliteration of the Arabic given name, , from the triconsonantal root of Ḥ-M-D; Praise and becomes conjugated to Muhammad, which means "The Most Praised One". It is the name of the Islamic prophet. Throughout the Muslim world, it is popular to name a male child after him. This name and its variant transliterations are among the most popular names in the world.

Muhammad of Tabaristan ( Persian: محمد) was the ruler of the Bavand dynasty from 1249 to 1271. He was the son and successor of Ardashir II of Tabaristan.