Muhammad

The first Islamic state was established by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in Medina in 622 under the Constitution of Medina. It represented the political unity of the Muslim Ummah (nation). After Muhammad's death, his companions known as the Rightly Guided Caliphs (Rashidun) founded the Rashidun Caliphate (632–661), which began massive expansion and motivated subsequent Islamic states, such as the Umayyad Caliphate (661–750) and Abbasid Caliphate (750–1258).

Muhammad came to the city of Medina following the migration of his followers in what is known as the Hijrah (migration to Medina) in 622. He had been invited to Medina by city leaders to adjudicate disputes between clans from which the city suffered, and was received positively by the city's Jewish and pagan residents as an arbitrator. As a result, he was accepted by popular consensus as the city's political leader, establishing the first Islamic state with his role.

Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah, also known as Taybah and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib, is the capital and administrative centre of Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia. It is one of the oldest and most important places in Islamic history. The second holiest city in Islam, the population as of 2022 is 1,477,023, making it the fourth-most populous city in the country. Around 58.5% of the population are Saudi citizens and 41.5% are foreigners. Located at the core of the Medina Province in the western reaches of the country, the city is distributed over 589 km (227 sq mi), of which 293 km (113 sq mi) constitutes the city's urban area, while the rest is occupied by the Hejaz Mountains, empty valleys, agricultural spaces and older dormant volcanoes.

Medina is generally considered to be the "cradle of Islamic culture and civilization". The city is considered to be the second-holiest of three key cities in Islamic tradition, with Makkah and Jerusalem serving as the holiest and third-holiest cities respectively. Al-Masjid al-Nabawi (lit. 'The Prophet's Mosque') is of exceptional importance in Islam and serves as burial site of the prophet Muhammad, by whom the mosque was built in 622 CE (first year of the Hijrah). Observant Muslims usually visit his tomb, or rawdhah, at least once in their lifetime during a pilgrimage known as Ziyarat, although this is not obligatory. The original name of the city before the advent of Islam was Yathrib (Arabic: يَثْرِب), and it is referred to by this name in Chapter 33 (Al-Aḥzāb, lit. 'The Confederates') of the Quran. It was renamed to Madīnat an-Nabī (lit. 'City of the Prophet' or 'The Prophet's City') after and later to al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (lit. 'The Enlightened City') before being simplified and shortened to its modern name, Madinah (lit. 'The City'), from which the English-language spelling of "Medina" is derived. Saudi road signage uses Madinah and al-Madinah al-Munawwarah interchangeably.

Arab Muslims (Arabic: ﺍﻟْمُسْلِمون ﺍﻟْﻌَﺮَﺏ, romanized: al-Muslimūn al-ʿArab) are the Arabs who adhere to Islam. They are the largest subdivision of the Arab people and the largest ethnic group among Muslims globally, followed by Bengalis and Punjabis. Likewise, they comprise the majority of the population of the Arab world. Currently, around 93% of Arabs are Muslims, while the rest are mainly Arab Christians, as well as Druze and Baháʼís.

Although Arabs account for the largest ethnicity among the world's adherents of Islam, they are a minority in the Muslim world in terms of sheer numbers. Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was an ethnic Arab belonging to the Banu Hashim of the Quraysh, and most of the early Muslims were also Arabs.

An Islamic state has a form of government based on sharia. As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term dawlah islāmiyyah (Arabic: دولة إسلامية) it refers to a modern notion associated with political Islam (Islamism). Notable historical examples include the first Islamic state in Medina, established by the prophet Muhammad, and the Arab caliphates which continued under his successors, such as the Rashidun and Umayyads.

The concept of the modern Islamic state has been articulated and promoted by ideologues such as Rashid Rida, Mullah Omar, Abul A'la Maududi, Ruhollah Khomeini, Israr Ahmed, Sayyid Qutb and Hassan al-Banna. Implementation of Islamic law plays an important role in modern theories of the Islamic state, as it did in classical Islamic political theories. However, most of the modern theories also make use of notions that did not exist before the modern era.

From 613 to 619 CE, the Islamic prophet Muhammad gathered in his hometown of Mecca a small following of those who embraced his message of Islam and thus became Muslims. The first person who professed Islam was his wife, Khadija bint Khuwaylid. The identity of the second male Muslim, after Muhammad himself, is disputed largely along sectarian lines, as Shia and some Sunni sources identify him as the first Shia imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, a child at the time, who grew up in the household of his cousin, Muhammad. Other sources report that the first male convert was Abu Bakr, who later succeeded Muhammad as the first Sunni caliph, or Muhammad's foster son, Zayd ibn Haritha. While it is difficult to establish the chronological order of early conversions, the identities of early Muslims are known with some certainty.

Muslims (Arabic: المسلمون, romanized: al-Muslimūn, lit. 'submitters [to God]') are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraham (or Allah) as it was revealed to Muhammad, the last Islamic prophet. Alongside the Quran, Muslims also believe in previous revelations, such as the Tawrat (Torah), the Zabur (Psalms), and the Injeel (Gospel). These earlier revelations are associated with Judaism and Christianity, which are regarded by Muslims as earlier versions of Islam. The majority of Muslims also follow the teachings and practices attributed to Muhammad (sunnah) as recorded in traditional accounts (hadith).

With an estimated population of almost 2 billion followers, Muslims comprise around 26% of the world's total population. In descending order, the percentage of people who identify as Muslims on each continental landmass stands at: 45% of Africa, 25% of Asia and Oceania collectively, 6% of Europe, and 1% of the Americas. Additionally, in subdivided geographical regions, the figure stands at: 91% of the Middle East–North Africa, 90% of Central Asia, 65% of the Caucasus, 42% of Southeast Asia, 32% of South Asia, and 42% of sub-Saharan Africa.

A surah (/ˈsʊərə/; Arabic: سُورَة, romanized: sūrah; pl. سُوَر, suwar) is an Arabic word meaning "chapter" in the Quran. There are 114 surah in the Quran, each divided into verses (Arabic: آيات, romanized: āyāt, lit. 'signs'). The surah are of unequal length; the shortest surah ("al-Kawthar") has only three verses, while the longest (al-Baqarah) contains 286 verses. The Quran consists of one short introductory chapter (Q1), eight very long chapters, making up one-third of the Quran (Q2‒9); 19 mid-length chapters, making up another one-third (Q10‒28); and 86 short and very short ones of the last one-third (Q29‒114).

Of the 114 surah in the Quran, 86 are classified as Meccan (Arabic: مكي, romanized: makkī), as according to Islamic tradition they were revealed before Muhammad's migration to Medina (hijrah), while 28 are Medinan (Arabic: مدني, romanized: madanī), as they were revealed after. This classification is only approximate in regard to the location of revelation; any surah revealed after the migration is termed Medinan and any revealed before it is termed Meccan, regardless of where the surah was revealed. However, some Meccan surah contain Medinan verses (verses revealed after the migration) and vice versa. Whether a surah is Medinan or Meccan depends on if the beginning of the surah was revealed before or after the migration.

Moses (Arabic: موسى ابن عمران Mūsā ibn ʿImrān, lit. 'Moses, son of Amram') is a prominent prophet and messenger of God and is the most frequently mentioned individual in the Quran, with his name being mentioned 136 times and his life being narrated and recounted more than that of any other prophet. Apart from the Quran, Moses is also described and praised in the Hadith literature as well. He is one of the most important prophets and messengers within Islam.

According to the Quran, Moses was born to an Israelite family. In his childhood, he is put in a basket which flows towards the Nile, and is eventually discovered by Pharaoh's (Fir'awn) wife (not named in the Quran but called Asiya in Hadith), who takes Moses as her adopted son. After reaching adulthood, Moses then resides in Midian, before departing for Egypt again to threaten the Pharaoh. During his prophethood, Moses is said to have performed many miracles, and is also reported to have personally talked to God, who bestows the title 'Speaker of God' (Kalīm Allāh) upon Moses. The prophet's most famous miracle is dividing the Red Sea, with a miraculous staff provided by God. After Pharaoh's death, Moses and his followers travel towards the Promised Land and the prophet dies within sight of the land. Moses is reported to have met Muhammad in the seven heavens following his ascension from Jerusalem during the Night Journey (’Isrā’ Miʿrāj). During the journey, Moses is said by Muslims to have repeatedly sent Muhammad back, and request a reduction in the number of required daily prayers, originally believed to be fifty, until only the five obligatory prayers remained.

In Islam, Jesus (Arabic: عِيسَىٰ ٱبْنُ مَرْيَمَ‎, romanized: ʿĪsā ibn Maryam, lit. 'Jesus, son of Mary'), referred to by the Arabic rendering of his name Isa, is believed to be the penultimate prophet and messenger of God (Allāh) and the Messiah. He was the last of the messengers sent to the Israelites (Banī Isra'īl), and carried a revelation called the Injīl (Evangel or Gospel). In the Quran, Jesus is described as the Messiah (Arabic: المسيح, romanized: al-Masīḥ), born of a virgin, performing miracles, accompanied by his disciples, and rejected by the Jewish establishment; in contrast to the traditional Christian narrative, however, he is stated neither to have been crucified, nor executed, nor to have been resurrected. Rather, it is stated that it appeared to the Jews as if they had executed him and that they therefore say they killed Jesus, who had in truth ascended into Heaven. The Quran places Jesus among the greatest prophets and mentions him with various titles. The prophethood of Jesus is preceded by that of Yaḥyā ibn Zakariyyā (John the Baptist) and succeeded by Muhammad, the latter coming of whom Jesus is reported in the Quran to have foretold under the name Ahmad.

Most Christians view Jesus as God incarnate, the Son of God in human flesh, but the Quran denies the divinity of Jesus and his status as Son of God in several verses, and also says that Jesus did not claim to be personally God nor the Son of God. Islam teaches that Jesus' original message was altered (taḥrīf) after his being raised alive. The monotheism (tawḥīd) of Jesus is emphasized in the Quran. Like all prophets in Islam, Jesus is also called a Muslim (lit. submitter [to God]), as he preached that his followers should adopt the 'straight path' (Ṣirāṭ al-Mustaqīm). Jesus is attributed with a vast number of miracles in Islamic tradition.

In Islam, Muhammad (Arabic: مُحَمَّد) is venerated as the Seal of the Prophets who transmitted the eternal word of God (Qur'ān) from the angel Gabriel (Jibrīl) to humans and jinn. Muslims believe that the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad by God, and that Muhammad was sent to guide people to Islam, which is believed not to be a separate religion, but the unaltered original faith of mankind (fiṭrah), and believed to have been shared by previous prophets including Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The religious, social, and political tenets that Muhammad established with the Quran became the foundation of Islam and the Muslim world.

According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad was sent to the Arabic community to deliver them from their immorality. Receiving his first revelation at age 40 in a cave called Hira in Mecca, he started to preach the oneness of God in order to stamp out idolatry of pre-Islamic Arabia. This led to opposition by the Meccans, with Abu Lahab and Abu Jahl as the most famous enemies of Muhammad in Islamic tradition. This led to persecution of Muhammad and his Muslim followers who fled to Medina, an event known as the Hijrah, until Muhammad returned to fight the idolaters of Mecca, culminating in the semi-legendary Battle of Badr, conceived in Islamic tradition not only to be a battle between the Muslims and pre-Islamic polytheists, but also between the angels on Muhammad's side against the jinn and false deities siding with the Meccans. After victory, Muhammad is believed to have cleansed Arabia from polytheism and advised his followers to renounce idolatry for the sake of the unity of God.