Prophet Muhammad

Muhammad (c. 570 CE to 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, military, and political leader, and the founder of Islam. According to Islam, he was the final prophet of God, divinely inspired to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets in Islam. Muslims believe he is the Seal of the Prophets, and that, together with the Quran, his teachings and example form the basis of Islamic religious belief.

According to the traditional account, Muhammad was born in Mecca into the aristocratic Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh. He was the son of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. His father died around the time he was born, and his mother died when he was six, leaving him an orphan. He was then raised by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and by his paternal uncle, Abu Talib. In later years, he would periodically withdraw for several nights of prayer to a mountain cave called Hira.

When he was about 40, around 610 CE, Muhammad reported being visited by Gabriel in that cave and receiving his first revelation from God. In 613, he began preaching these revelations publicly. His message proclaimed that “God is One,” that complete submission, or Islam, to God is the right way of life, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, like other prophets in Islam. The revelations he reported receiving until his death form the verses of the Quran, which Muslims regard as the verbatim word of God and his final revelation.

His first followers were few, and for 13 years they experienced persecution by Meccan polytheists. In 615, he sent some followers to Abyssinia to escape that pressure. In 622, he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina, then known as Yathrib. This event, the Hijrah, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, he gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on Mecca. The conquest was largely uncontested and took the city with minimal casualties.

In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam. Beyond the Quran, his teachings and practices are preserved in transmitted reports known as hadith, and in his biography, or sīrah. These sources are used in Islamic law. Outside Islam, Muhammad has also received praise in Sikhism as an inspirational figure, in the Druze faith as one of the seven main prophets, and in the Baháʼí Faith as a Manifestation of God.

For readers of quotations, Muhammad’s words are often approached as direct moral instruction, rooted in faith but expressed in plain human terms. A saying such as, “When you are angry, stay silent. Whatever is begun in anger, ends in shame,” carries the force of restraint, self-command, and practical wisdom. It is the kind of counsel that needs no ornament: brief, memorable, and tied to the daily work of conduct.