10 Interesting Facts About Prophet Muhammad

رسول اللہ (ص) سے متعلق چند دلچسپ حقائق

Prophet Muhammad (570-632 CE), the founding father of Islam, is the man whose faith is followed by the fifth portion of humanity today so, even if a person has anything against him, he just can’t deny the important position Muhammad holds in the history of our species. Therefore, here are ten interesting and amusing facts about the Arabian Prophet that will make even a Muslim guy cry out loud, "I didn’t know that!" So, here are some interesting facts about Prophet Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم).

His wives:

The Prophet had many wives. This is a well-known fact. Islam allows polygamy and Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) had special permission to have matrimonial relations with more than four women simultaneously, something which is strictly forbidden for other Muslims. He is commonly believed to have eleven wives, two dying before his eyes and nine surviving their husband’s departure. But history tells us that Allah's Apostle married more than eleven ladies though these others left him soon after. There were women as well whom Muhammad had proposed for marriage but they declined the generous offer. Once the Messenger married a woman but when she passed some unfair remarks over the death of his son Ibrahim, the Messenger divorced her. He offered marriage to Ali’s sister Umme Hani who refused.

His battles:

The Prophet fought multiple battles against his enemies but he also participated in a few of them where he indulged in hand-to-hand combat and slayed his opponents. It is wrong to believe that he always used to sit in his camp as a general, controlling his soldiers and ordering them to march forward or fall back. His biographers write that there were eight/nine expeditions in which the Messenger personally got involved.

His social life:

Before preaching Islam, Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) joined a small welfare organization known as Half al-Fudul or the “Oath (taken) by Fadls”. This league was founded after the Fijar Wars (Sinful Wars) that were fought during those months that were and still are sacred for Arabs. The Apostle was a teenager back then. After the people had settled down, some goodhearted and peace-loving guys decided to finally put an end to all the warfare and try helping people who get hurt because of constant fighting among different Arab tribes. So they took a pledge – while most of them were named Fadl – and the Messenger was also one of the members of the group. Even after becoming a great statesman himself he used to say how proud he would be if someone asked him to join such an organization again.

His pilgrimages:

It is wrong to believe that Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) performed only a single hajj during his lifetime. He performed only a single hajj after the hijrah (Migration). Ibn Ishaq has mentioned one hajj before the move to Medina. According to one narration, he performed two pilgrimages while he used to live in Mecca.

His infancy:

The Prophet was born in the family of Quraysh but was raised by a woman from S'ad tribe. It was customary for children from great families to get raised in a village by peasants. So Muhammad’s family gave him to a midwife called Halimah from the clan of S’ad who nursed the child for four years.

His relatives:

Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) had an uncle named Hamzah who was nursed by the same bondwoman as the Messenger. Thuwaybah, the freed slave of the Messenger’s uncle Abu Lahab, breastfed both the Muslim Prophet and his uncle. They were age companions. Hamzah’s older brother Abbas was also an age companion to the Apostle of Arabia.

His financial position:

By the end of his life, the Apostle had conquered the entire southern part of Arabian Peninsula and was ruling the wealthy provinces of Oman and Qatar. But he died a poor man and had no but little money left with him. Though this point may be disputed because he was a landowner by the time he died as he had gardens like Fadak at his disposal but reports shows that he used to spend the income of his privately-owned lands and the khums (fifth portion) he got as war booty, on the poor. So, when he passed away, he was not rich.

His enemies:

Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) was attacked on various occasions with different means each time. His life was in constant threat from his heathen and Jewish enemies. For the very first time, the pagans gathered in 622 CE and discussed which would be the best way to eliminate the Prophet. They were afraid his tribesmen might want to avenge him so they thought why not pick a young guy from each of their tribes and then Muhammad’s relatives would shrink away from revenge. But the Prophet escaped with his coreligionists to Medina where Jews tried to throw a stone over his head when he was sitting in their quarters seeking financial aid. Again, a Bedouin tried to kill him with his own sword but Muslims tell how a mere look into Muhammad’s sparkling eyes weakened the man and he dropped the sword. Yet again some Muslims tried to frighten the Apostle’s ride to make it throw him down. But the hypocrites were recognized instantly and their names were told to a companion named Hudhaiyfah. The Messenger was once poisoned by a Jewish woman at Khaybar whose husband died battling Muslims. The Prophet sensed something wasn’t right and refrained from dining at her table. The Muslim Prophet, at the age of 63, died of high fever.

His name:

Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) banned the usage of his kunyah Abu Qasim for any person named “Muhammad”. Kunyah means the nickname you get with respect to the name of your son. His first child was Qasim so people began calling him Abu Qasim. But he never allowed anyone named “Muhammad” to use that particular term. Though there were some exceptions like Ali and Talhah got special permissions to name their sons Muhammad with Abu Qasim as their kunyahs.

His politics:

The Islamic Prophet made first foreign enemies with the Byzantines who had killed one of his envoys. But his first foreign allies were Christians as well. That was Nijashi (Negus), the Christian emperor of the Abyssinian Negroes. Muslims first migrated to Abyssinia to seek political support and shelter. Muhammad (صلی اللہ علیہ والہ وسلم) also had his ties in Egypt where he granted full immunity to the St. Catherine Monastery. The document he wrote was preserved by Abu Yusuf Yaqub b. Ibrahim (a jurist who lived by the end of the eighth century CE) in his book al-Khiraj.

May God bless our dear Prophet and enable us to better understand his biography!