Islamic History
Episode 1
The whole thing began when Muhammad (PBUH) started to preach to the people of Mecca, a major city in the Arab peninsula, to deliver the message of Allah that there was no God but Allah the creator of the universe and all people should worship only Allah according to the instructions of Islam as the previous religions had been altered.
At this time, the people of the Arab peninsula were worshipping idols in the form of statues. After Muhammad had preached publicly for more than a decade, the opposition to him reached such a high pitch that, fearful for their safety, he sent some of his adherents to Ethiopia, where the Christian ruler extended protection to them.
But in Mecca the persecution worsened. Muhammad's followers were harassed, abused, and even tortured. At last, therefore, Muhammad sent seventy of his followers off to the northern town of Yathrib, which was later to be, renamed Medina ("The City").
Later, in the early fall of 622, he learned of a plot to murder him and, with his closest friend, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, set off to join the emigrants. Muhammad and Abu Bakr went on to Medina, where they were welcomed by a gathering of Medinans as well as the Meccans who had gone ahead earlier. This was the Hijrah from which the Muslim era is dated.
The modern map of the Arabian Peninsula showing the locations of old Mecca and Medina.
Muhammad was well acquainted with the situation in Medina. Earlier, before the Hijrah, the city had sent envoys to Mecca asking Muhammad to mediate a dispute between two powerful tribes. What the envoys saw and heard impressed them and they invited Muhammad to settle in Medina.
After the Hijrah, Muhammad's exceptional qualities so impressed the Medinans that the rival tribes and their allies temporarily closed ranks.
The emigration of Muhammad (PBUH) to Medina had turned the enemies of Mecca more hostile, and they constantly kept on thinking how they could overthrow him, and put an end to Islam.
They sent a letter asking Abdullah Ibn Ubbay, who had been the leading chief in Medina, to either kill or expel Muhammad (PBUH) out of Medina otherwise they would attack Medina. Abdullah did not comply with the commands of Mecca's leaders and gave Muhammad (PBUH) a fair opportunity to preach to people about the new religion, Islam.
The Quraish, the leading tribe of Mecca which were respected all over Arabia and most tribes recognized their leadership, had, consequently, worked up all the tribes under their influence into hostility against Islam, so that up to the sixth year of the Hijra, the tribes of Yemen and other distant places could not visit Muhammad (PBUH) in Medina.
That was another form of hostility aiming at confining Islam to Medina so that Muhammad could not gain more followers. The Quraish did not stop at that as they had informed 'Abdullah Ibn Ubbay, they were making preparations for an attack on Medina for the extermination of the Muslims.
Muhammad (PBUH) thought of two plans, the first was to close the trade route from Mecca to Syria for the Quraish, the life blood of their power and pride, and thus bring them round to negotiate peace. The second measure that the Prophet (PBUH) contemplated was to make alliances with the tribes around Medina to maintain peace with the Muslims. Peace failed and Muslims fought their first large scale battle against Quraish in a battle named "Badr".
By Rania El Saadawy