IN this two-part series, we shall be focusing on the life story of Muhammad , a great black prophet and the origins and accomplishments of Islam in Arabia, Africa and Europe.
Muhammad was born in Mecca.
His father was Abdullah the son of Abdul Muttalib.
Muhammad and his forebears belonged to the Qureysh tribe which, like many Meccan tribes, could trace their roots to Abraham, through his first son Ishmael.
The Arabians were black people but a large proportion of them had fallen victim to Alexander’s miscegenation scheme and had become people of mixed race.
Muhammad was not of mixed race and he often bragged of his blackness of skin and the purity of his bloodline.
For instance, Muhammad would say, “I am of the tribe of Qureysh, of pure blood.”
He would also say, “Allah created man of black clay in His image” and also, “We get our colour from Allah.”
The blackness of Muhammad is the most obvious aspect of the Quran and Islam’s most devoted of followers have been black Muslims since the very beginning.
Because of the racial hierarchy that was invented by the white man, the mixed race Arabs have sought to hide the fact that Muhammad was black by simply saying, “Unlike the Christians, Muslims do not make images of their prophets.”
Muhammad’s parents passed away when he was very young.
He was legally adopted first by his grandfather Abdul Mutttalib, and after his grandfather’s death, by his uncle, Abu Talib.
His mother figure was from an Ethiopian family which lived in Mecca.
This is where Muhammad was raised and most of his childhood friends were Ethiopians.
These Ethiopians spoke much about their Negus (King) who was a Christian and how they could trace their kingdom back to King Solomon.
Muhammad had Ethiopian guardians and mainly depended on his uncle Abu Talib for tribal protection. Muhammad would see his uncle if he needed anything and as a young man, he began joining his uncle on caravan trips to Syria.
Syria at this time was under Rome (Byzantine).
Abu Talib was a merchant (trader) as were many Arabians.
This is owed to the strategic location of Arabia which is between Africa, Asia and India.
After a few trips, Muhammad himself became a merchant and started making trips to Syria with trading goods.
Many of the traders in Arabia were Sabaeans, who were wealthy people and kinsmen of the Solomonic kings of Ethiopia.
In the Quran, Muhammad wrote a chapter (surah) called Saba (Sheba).
In it, he refers to the Sabaeans as ‘House of David’, ‘Sons of Solomon’ and also ‘Bondmen of Allah (Angels)’.
The Sabaeans were not Christians by religion and had maintained the Israelite tradition of their forefathers.
Muhammad was thus exposed to many cultures from a young age.
On one occasion, Muhammad was hired and sent with trading goods to Syria by a wealthy widow named ‘Khadijah’.
Muhammad acquired the trust of this widow who was 15 years older than him.
He earned the trust of the rich lady by transacting her business in an honest and dependable manner.
The two would eventually get married and Muhammad only took other wives after Khadijah’s death.
Khadijah was a wise woman and together they spent 26 years and had children before she passed on.
Most Arabs had become pagan worshippers and idolaters.
Although an illiterate, Muhammad was said to be a thinking man and would usually question the authenticity of most of the religions.
Eventually, Muhammad became what is known as a Hunafa (Hanif) which means, ‘those who turn away (from idol worship)’.
There was no organised community of Hunafa, but they were the agnostics of their day, each seeking truth by the light of his own inner consciousness.
The Hunafa sought to return to the practice of their forefather Abraham.
According to Meccan tradition, the ka‘bah was an altar which was built by Abraham for the worship of the One God, Allah.
It is a large square rock which is still known as the ‘House of Allah’.
The Bible does speak of Abraham building altars of rock in some of the lands he travelled. The building of altars was continued by Jacob (Israel) who named the stone altar ‘bethel’ which also means ‘House of El’.
The stone altar is called the ‘House of Allah/ El’ because it is a symbol of the pineal gland, which is the gland responsible for human spirituality.
It was Jacob who called it penuel (pineal) which literally meant the ‘face of God’.
This symbol was eventually represented as a conical tower and was used as a sign for Israel for a long time.
The Muslims too would eventually make use of the conical tower and thus it can be found on top of all Muslim mosques today.
The kafia hats that are worn by many Muslims are also derived from this conical symbol.
The square ka‘bah like the pyramids, may thus have been an early representation of the pineal gland.
In Muhammad’s time, the ka‘bah was being misused by the pagan and idol worshippers.
Muhammad was a quiet and thinking man, very reserved and a man of wisdom.
He grew to the age of maturity before becoming the prophet we know today.
His righteousness and honesty before his awakening is recorded in the name Al Amin (the trusted one), which is the surname he was given by the Meccans after justly resolving numerous issues in their community.
Muhammad would retire with his family into the desert for meditation one month of every year.
He chose the month of great heat which is called Ramadan and his place of retreat was a desert hill in Hira, which was not far from Mecca.
When he was 40 years old, Muhammad went on one such meditation retreat and at the end of the month he had his first vision.
It was at night and Muhammad fell into a trance.
Islamic sources say that, in the trance, a voice asked Muhammad several times to ‘read’ while Muhammad explained several times that he was an illiterate and so could not read.
“Muhammad, you are Allah’s messenger and I am Gabriel,” the voice said.
Muhammad raised his eyes and saw the angel who was speaking to him.
After a long time, the angel left and this is how Muhammad received enlightenment and began prophesying.
These words that Muhammad received in a state of trance are held sacred by Muslims and because the angel who visited him on Mount Hira insisted that he should read even though he was illiterate.
The writings of Muhammad were seen as a miracle and were eventually compiled into a sacred book known as Al Quran (The Reading).
Muhammad was somewhat disturbed after his vision.
As a Hunafa, he had not imagined mankind could have such direct communication with spirits and had beforehand distrusted such things.
He went to his wife Khadijah and she could notice the positive changes in him.
She assured him that because of his righteousness, Allah would not allow for an evil spirit to possess him.
It is important for black people to note that the two great religions of world namely Christianity and Islam are based on the lives of two heroic black people in the names of Yahshua and Muhammad respectively.