“Islam in Christ’s Eyes” A study on the origins of Islam and the Christian response by Wissam Youssif Lesson Five- “Muhammad’s Rise to Power- part two” Spring Quarter - 2018

I. Introduction

A. Last week, we began learning some of the secret that gave rise to

Islam as a world wide religion.

B. One of the principles that I discovered was that Islam was the

perfect unifying force for a disunified people at the perfect

moment in history.

C. Do you remember what had been the greatest barrier to Arabic

unity before the emergence of Muhammad and Islam? Tribalism

C.1. Previously, each tribe had it’s own god and it’s own

governance.

C.2. Tribes were always at war with other neighboring tribes.

D. Whether by accident or by direct action, Islam gave the Arabs a

reason to become more loyal to their religion than to their

individual tribe. D.1. When Islam began winning military victories and shared

the war booty among themselves, it became much more

attractive to new member of the religion.

D.2. It was Muhammad’s success as a military leader that drew

men to his beliefs more than his beliefs drew men to

Muhammad.

E. Was Islam an immediate success? No.

E.1. After 13 years of preaching, Muhammad had only 150

followers.

E.2. What action caused this movement to begin to grow?

E.3. When Muhammad ordered his men to begin raiding the

Meccan caravans, he discovered a real funding mechanism

for his movement.

F. Suddenly, Islam changed from just being a religion that was

different because it worshiped only one God to being a political

system with a war policy called “jihad.”

F.1. When the Arabs discovered there was a real possibility to

get rich by joining Islam, more and more people were draw

to it. F.2. Once Muhammad stopped his men from attacking other

Arabs, which ethnic group was his next target for theft and

murder? The Jewish population of Medina

F.3. First, he expelled the smallest Jewish tribe and divided up

all their possessions among his followers.

F.4. Later, he expelled the other two tribes and did the same.

F.5. In fact, the largest tribe had 600 of their men arrested and

forced to dig a trench which was used as a mass grave after

Muhammad ordered all of them to be beheaded and buried.

G. In his early days, Muhammad saw himself as the last of the great

Jewish prophets.

G.1. He quoted from the Bible and used it to support the Quran.

G.2. He saw Jews and Christians as his brothers and sisters in

the same faith tree.

G.3. What caused Muhammad to change his mind about the

Jews?

G.4. It as the criticism from the Jews of Medina. G.5. They were very Biblically literate and could easily point

out Muhammad’s errors where he had changed the clear

teachings of the Bible.

H. What happens when you get criticized by someone? Your whole

attitude towards them changes.

H.1. No where is the more clearly illustrated than when

Muhammad broke ties with the Jews and then began to

bury them.

I. All these actions helped to give rise to the “umma.”

I.1. What was and still is the “umma”? It is the brotherhood of

Islam.

I.2. It was the unification of all Islamic Arabs and non-Arabs

who believed the Muhammad was God’s greatest prophet.

J. Today, we are going to see what cemented the “umma” and

Muhammad as being “God’s Greatest Prophet” among the

Muslims.

K. Questions or comments?

L. Today, let’s examine . . .

II. Muhammad’s Military Success A. During those eight years he lived in Medina, Muhammad began

an impressive list of military victories.

B. In 623 A.D., after the completion of his new home in Medina,

Muhammad sent for the remaining members of his family who

were still living in Mecca.

C. After the death of his first wife, Khadija, Muhammad took a new

wife who was living in Mecca until the new house was ready in

Medina.

C.1. Her name was “Aisha” and she was his favorite.

C.2. Later he added many others as well for a total of 13 wives.

D. Beginning in 624 A.D., Muhammad experienced a series of

battles that would firmly establish him as the ruler of this new

movement called “Islam.”

E. His primary enemy was his old hometown of Mecca and the

caravans that supplied it.

E.1. First, there was “the Battle of Badr” that was described last

week when Muhammad first started his raiding of the

caravans. E.2. How did Muhammad know about trading caravans? He

was raised by his uncle who was an expert trader and

taught Muhammad the tricks of the trade.

F. The Muslims of Medina sent raiding parties against Meccan

trading caravans and were disguised as pilgrims as they

approached.

F.1. The Muslims were able to kill one of the merchants and

captured two others.

F.2. This was actually a scandal in Medina because it occurred

during the month that bloodshed was prohibited among the

Arab tribes.

F.3. The local population was indignant toward Muhammad and

the Muslims for violating the custom.

F.4. At this point, the local population of Medina was not

blindly following Muhammad.

G. How can you justify breaking the rules of society?

G.1. Give them a new rule!

G.2. To ease the tension, eventually a new revelation came from

God to Muhammad that appeared to justify the raid. G.3. It was authorized in Sura 2.217 and stated the Muslims

could engage in these raids during the sacred month of

Rajab when Arabs had customarily been prohibited from

fighting.

G.4. This was another occasion where the Quran was used to

change cultural norms to justify violent Islamic actions.

H. The local outrage was finally forgotten after a number of minor

raids were successful when Muhammad led a force of over 300

men against a Quraysh caravan returning from Syria.

H.1. By the way, the word “Quraysh”, that is the name of one of

the tribes from Mecca.

H.2. Do you know who the most famous member was from that

tribe? Muhammad himself. This was his family he was

fighting.

H.3. Outnumbered three to one, the Muslims won a surprising

victory.

H.4. Tradition says that the angel Gabriel himself led the angels

in combat alongside the forces of Muhammad. H.5. 70 Meccans were killed and this demonstrated to the

Muslims that God was on their side.

I. In 625 A.D., there was the Battle of Uhud and Muhammad

actually suffered a major defeat.

I.1. At this point, Mecca was still determined to put an end to

Muhammad.

I.2. Near Medina, 3000 Meccan infantry and cavalry took on

the forces of Muhammad numbering about 1000.

I.3. 70 Muslims were killed in the battle but the forces of

Mecca failed to follow up on their victory and did not put

an end to Muhammad or his Muslim army.

J. In 627, the Battle of the Ditch occurred in Medina.

J.1. This time, the Quraysh clan from Mecca mustered an army

of 10,000 which was an impressive number for that time.

J.2. A Persian convert named Salman al-Farisi advised

Muhammad to dig a ditch around the three exposed sides of

the city as a defense against the charge of the Meccan

calvary.

J.3. Trench warfare was big during WWI. J.3.a) What’s the purpose of a trench?

J.3.b) It impedes your enemies advance and it gives you a

safe defensive place.

J.3.c) This was the purpose of Muhammad’s ditch as well.

J.4. The Meccans had never seen this type of defensive scheme

and were at a loss to know how to attack it.

J.5. Many of the Meccans were on horseback.

J.6. Horses and ditches are like oil and water in battle.

J.7. Neither Muslims nor the Meccans were accustomed to long

sieges and eventually the Meccan forces withdrew after a

couple of weeks because they couldn’t deal with the ditch.

J.8. This marked the final large scale attempt of the Meccan

forces to subdue Muhammad.

K. In 628, Muhammad led 1,600 men from Medina on an attempted

pilgrimage to the Ka’ba in Mecca.

K.1. If you were a citizen of Mecca at this point and you see

Muhammad arrived with 1600 of his men, what would you

assume? It’s war time . . .again. K.2. However, the prophet claimed that he and his men had

come on a peaceful hajj, a pilgrimage to worship at the

Ka’ba.

K.3. Therefore, the Treaty of Hudaybiyya was signed that

prevented bloodshed.

K.4. However, there was a problem.

K.5. Even though the Ka’ba had been established by God and

worship there was first performed by Abraham and his son

Ishmael, Muslims wished to purify the shrine from its later

pagan elements related to idol worship.

K.6. At that point, it still contained 360 idols.

K.7. While the Muslims weren’t allowed to enter the city at this

time, Mecca and Muhammad signed the treaty according to

Sura 48.27 in the Quran.

K.8. It established a ten year truce and said that next year the

Quraysh tribe would temporarily leave the city of Mecca

and allow Muhammad and the Muslim pilgrims to enter to

keep the peace. K.9. The next year in 629 A.D., Muhammad and his followers

finally entered his old home town with minimal fighting.

K.10. Muhammad brought 10,000 men and took control of the

city of Mecca.

L. Ten years after he was exiled from the city, Muhammad finally

returned to Mecca as its conqueror.

L.1. This was the jewel in his military crown and he won it

without a drop of blood being spilled.

L.2. Less than a decade after his humiliating departure as a

ridiculed and despised preacher, he returned to the city as

its undisputed master and Arabia’s most powerful leader.

M. His first order of business was to pray at the Ka’ba.

N. What would you guess was his second order of business?

N.1. After the prayer, came the punishment.

N.2. Even though he was able to enter the city without

bloodshed, once inside, he spilled a lot it.

O. Muhammad issued death warrants for every person who opposed

him in Mecca before his exile including two dancing girls who

had mockingly sung a song satirizing him. O.1. If you ever wonder why Muslims are so offended by

anyone who mocks Muhammad today, it all has it’s origin

in it’s original prophet.

O.2. Muhammad would not tolerate mocking.

P. Do you remember the name “Salman Rushdie”?

P.1. He is a native of India who was born into the Islamic faith.

P.2. Rushdie wrote a book called “The Satanic Verses” which

described some verses that Muhammad had intended to

have put into the Quran.

P.3. These verses described three goddesses from Mecca that

were worshiped as divine beings and Muhammad was

tempted to include them to placate the Meccans.

P.4. Supposedly, Satan told Muhammad to put them in but the

angel Gabriel told him to keep them out.

P.5. Rushdie said that it was actually Gabriel who told

Muhammad to include them.

P.6. When the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran heard it, he put out a

“fatwa” calling for the execution of Salman Rushdie because Khomeini said that Rushdie’s book blasphemed the

Quran.

P.7. The fatwa was issued on Valentine’s Day in 1989.

P.8. The book sparked violence around the world and

bookstores were firebombed if they carried it.

P.9. Riots ensued where many people were injured and some

were killed.

P.10. To this day, Iran sends Rushdie a Valentine’s Day card

letting him know the fatwa calling for his execution still

stands.

P.11. Muslims have a long memory when you mock Muhammad.

Q. Do you remember the terrorist attack in France several years ago

against the French magazine “Charlie Hebdo?”

Q.1. That magazine makes fun of all kinds of political leaders

and they choose Muhammad to be the butt their jokes in

one issue.

Q.2. Do you remember what happened as a result?

Q.3. Twelve employees at the offices of the magazine were

murdered by Muslim terrorists for mocking the prophet. R. Let’s go back to Mecca where Muhammad had entered the city

under a peace treaty but didn’t keep the peace for long.

S. Muhammad also had one of his previous secretaries executed.

S.1. Why? While living in Medina, Muhammad’s secretary had

begun to suspect that he was just making up the Quran

revelations rather than hearing the voice of the angel

Gabriel.

S.2. Therefore, she left Islam and fled to Mecca fearing for her

life.

S.3. Once she was found in Mecca by the Muslims, Muhammad

ordered her execution as well.

S.4. The conquering prophet killed anyone who spoke against

him or the religion of peace.

T. After Muhammad established control over Mecca, he returned to

Medina.

U. It was during this time that there was a steady stream of tribal

leaders who came to Muhammad to profess subservience.

U.1. Why do you think these tribal leaders voluntarily began

coming to Muhammad? U.2. Many of them were not true converts to Islam but rather

took the way of least resistence.

U.3. Better to bow the head than to have the neck beheaded.

V. In his last major military campaign, Muhammad attacked a

confederation of Arabic tribes that were doubled the size of the

Islamic army.

V.1. This was called the “Battle of Hunayn.”

V.2. And once Muhammad was victorious.

W. One by one, the tribes of Arabia began surrendering to

Muhammad and they accepted Islam as their new religion.

X. Therefore, Arabia became uniformly Islamic and Muhammad

became the first ruler of all of the Arabian Peninsula and

established the “umma” or the brotherhood of Islam.

Y. Questions or comments about Muhammad and his military

victories?

Z. Now, let’s examine the final years and . . .

III. The Death of Muhammad

A. In 632, history records the farewell pilgrimage to Mecca and the

death of Muhammad. A.1. He led followers in Medina on a “hajj” pilgrimage to

Mecca because it was the holy place where the Ka’ba

housed the Black Stone.

A.2. To this day, it is the center of the Islamic faith.

A.3. All Muslims bow and pray towards the Ka’ba which is

inside the Great Mosque inside the city of Mecca.

B. At this time, Muhammad received Sura 5.4-5, the final portion of

the Quran to be revealed.

C. In his farewell sermon, Muhammad advised his followers not to

follow certain pre-Islamic customs.

C.1. He said a white man has no superiority over a black man or

vice versa.

C.2. He abolished old blood feuds and disputes based on the

former tribal system.

D. A few months after his return from Mecca to Medina,

Muhammad fell ill.

D.1. He developed a high fever and excruciating headaches.

D.2. On June 8, 632, he died in the arms of Aisha, his favorite

wife at the age of 62. E. He was buried in Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (the Mosque of the

Prophet) back in Medina-which is the first mosque built in Islam.

F. From all that, the seeds were planted that would one day become

a religion of one and half billion followers on planet earth.

G. Questions or comments about the death of Muhammad.

IV. A Summary of Muhammad’s Rise to Power

A. How did happen? How did Muhammad go from meager caravan

trader to the leader of the religion of Islam?

B. What were some of the keys to his success?

C. Muhammad proved to be a successful politician and military

leader.

C.1. One of his most significant accomplishments was the

building of the Islamic army.

C.2. He was able to unify the tribes of Arabia for the first time

and they became a significant fighting force.

C.3. Arabs were united into one nation for the first time and

established the “umma” the brotherhood of Islam that

would eventually unite Arabs and non-Arabs as well.

D. However, what was the cost? D.1. Muhammad was involved with an event of violence on the

average of every six weeks for nine years and that does not

include assassinations of political enemies, Muslims

forcing themselves on women and executions of prisoners.

D.2. Without violence, murder and theft as a funding

mechanism, it does not appear that Islam would have ever

become a worldwide religion.

E. On the positive side, Muhammad established a new order for

society through the Constitution of Medina that gave the people

the rule of law and was carried into new Islamic areas in the

future.

F. What is syncretism?

F.1. Syncretism is the combination of different forms of belief

or practice.

F.2. Sometimes when missionaries established new

congregations in new countries, the natives will mix their

new religion of Christianity with some of their old ancestral

religion.

F.3. This is syncretism. G. Is the religion of Islam an original belief system or it a religion of

syncretism?

G.1. Islam is a classic example of syncretism. Why?

G.2. Everything about Islam, except jihad, came from Judaism,

Christianity and the tribal religions of Arabia.

G.3. However, the ideas were not just borrowed, but changed to

show that Muhammad was the greatest prophet of God.

G.4. The Hadith, the collection of stories and teachings about

Muhammad’s life are designed to support this notion as

well.

V. Conclusion

A. Muhammad initially devised the concept of jihad to be the means

to entice his local followers to raid Meccan caravans,

instantaneously transforming a common tribal practice of raiding

into a supreme religious duty and the primary vehicle for the

spread of Islam throughout the ages.

A.1. Muhammad would have never made it without mayhem.

A.2. His theocracy was funded by thievery. B. As Muhammad established this community of believers in all the

territories it conquered, this belief system became a weapon for

expansion even after his death.

C. Success tends to give military leaders a messiah complex and

Muhammad believed he was God’s greatest deliverer and the

successor to Moses from Deuteronomy 18:15 as told to him by

Waraqua Bin Nawfal, an Arabic Christian who was truly

misguided.

D. Muhammad derived his authority directly from Allah and acted at

one and the same time as head of the state and head of the church

giving him ultimate power over all aspects of Islam.

E. The prophet’s thin veneer of a religious aura was the perfect

cover for Islam’s aggressive expansion through murder and theft

and there was no other leader within the movement to keep

Muhammad in check.

F. There was no one to question his methods or motives.

G. However, America is based on the three branches of government:

the executive, legislative and judicial branches.

G.1. What is that system called? G.2. This is the system called “checks and balances.”

G.3. In Islam, there were no checks and there was no balance.

G.4. Muhammad was judge, jury and executioner.

G.5. His word was absolute and unchallenged but if you did,

you died.

H. He spent the last ten years of his life fighting to unify Arabia

under his reign.

I. Had it not been for his death on June 8, 632, he would have most

probably expanded his rule well beyond the Arabian Peninsula.

J. Even so, within a decade of Muhammad’s death a vast empire,

stretching from Iran to Egypt and from Yemen to northern Syria,

had come into being under the banner of Islam in one of the most

remarkable examples of empire building in world history.

K. In my estimation, the key that unlocked Islam from being simply

an Arabic belief system to being a world wide religion is related

to the “umma.”

K.1. What created the “umma”?

K.2. Muhammad preached the equality of all believers in the

religion of Islam. K.3. His message broke down the previous barriers of tribes and

tongues.

K.4. The “umma”, the brotherhood of Islam, was now a divinely

ordained order that bound together something far stronger

than family blood and far wider than the Arabian Peninsula:

it was the great equalizer and the great unifier between

Arabs and non-Arabs, free men and freed men.

K.5. Without the “umma” Islam would never spread beyond the

region of Arabia.

L. Did you know that only 20% of Islam today is comprised of

Arabs? Wikipedia

L.1. 62% of the Islamic population is found in Asia.

L.2. Indonesia has the largest Islamic population in the world

with 203, 000,000 Muslims followed by Pakistan which has

174,000,000.

L.3. Did you know this?

M. How did an Arabic religion become a worldwide religion with so

many different ethic groups? M.1. None of that would have been possible without the

“umma.”

M.2. The brotherhood of Islam is what turned it into a world

wide religion.

N. Muhammad summarized it in his farewell address, “O people,

your Lord is one and your ancestor is also one. You are all

descended from Adam and Adam was born of the earth. The

noblest of you all in the sight of Allah is the most devout. Allah is

knowing and all wise.”

N.1. In Islam, paganism and idolatry were virtually destroyed in

Arabia.

N.2. In Islam, Allah is one and His Messenger is one and the

two are fundamentally indivisible and therefore all

humanity should believe in the one and only true religion to

be organized in one universal community living by its laws.

N.3. This is the “umma” of Islam.

N.4. Those who accepted it, were enriched by it.

N.5. No wonder Muhammad’s final words were “. . .fight all

men until they say ‘There is no God but Allah.” O. Those who rejected these primary belief of Islam were destroyed

and this “Great Commission” of Muhammad continues to this

day.

VI. Next week we will examine “The Five Pillars of Islam” and “The

Six Pillars of Faith.”

VII. Questions or comments?