Having ordered that the idols should be broken and burned, Muhammad received the homage of his enemies, who now came to enter Islam, including Hind, the wife of Abu Sufyan. Most of the Meccans pledged their allegiance. He forgave them all.
Final Encounters and the Unification of Arabia
After the conquest of Mecca, the Muslims fought further battles, notably in 630 at the Hunayn valley against tribes to the east and southeast of Mecca who were intent on halting the spread of Islam. The battle at Hunayn proved to be a decisive victory for the Muslims. Later in the same year, a rumor reached Medina that the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, alarmed at the growing power of the Muslims, planned to attack them, and was amassing his legions along the Syrian frontier. The Prophet decided to meet them at Tabuk, some 350 miles from Medina, with an army of thirty thousand men, the largest he had ever commanded. After spending some twenty days at Tabuk, the Muslims realized that the rumors had been unfounded. They made alliances with local tribes and began the march back to Medina.
Muhammad was now the most powerful leader in Arabia, most of which he had succeeded in uniting under one faith. People were to be bound now not by blood or tribal kinship but by a shared belief in the one God and His final messenger. In the so-called Year of Deputations (632), most tribes had come to him to profess their acceptance of Islam. These included the Bani Thaqif from Taʿif who, some twelve years earlier, had so disdainfully driven Muhammad from their town. The Prophet also stipulated that Jews and Christians should not be compelled to forgo their religion but would pay a poll tax (jizya) to protect them and maintain their houses of worship.8 When the Christians of Najran came to make a pact with the Prophet, he allowed them to pray in the mosque according to their own ritual and guaranteed the safety of their churches and their property.
The expedition to Tabuk and the coming of the numerous delegations convinced some of Muhammad’s followers that they would no longer be called upon to fight. They prepared to sell their arms and armor. But the Prophet forbade this, saying that his followers would continue to fight for the truth until the coming of the Antichrist, who would wreak great corruption on the earth. The Prophet foretold the Second Coming of Jesus, who would lead this struggle. Beyond making these predictions about the last days, Muhammad also clarified the essentials of the new religion. His companion ʿUmar reported that, one day, while the Prophet was sitting with his followers, a man dressed in pure white came to ask him the meaning of “submission” (islam). The Prophet explained that it comprised five obligations: to testify that there is no god other than the one God and that Muhammad is His messenger; to perform the required prayers; to give what is due in charity; to fast during the month of Ramadan; and, if possible, to make the pilgrimage to Mecca during the Hajj season. These were to become known as the five pillars of Islam. The Prophet later explained that the man, who corroborated his answers, was Gabriel, who had come to teach them their religion.
The Farewell Pilgrimage
In 632 CE the Prophet undertook his final pilgrimage to Mecca. He was joined by multitudes who gathered from all directions, numbering over thirty thousand men and women. From this time on, no polytheists were allowed into the holy precincts. During the pilgrimage, the Prophet instructed his followers about the rites and customs of the Hajj, and then took up a position on the hill of ʿArafat to address them in his farewell sermon. He told them that their blood and property were sacrosanct; that they would surely meet their Lord and be questioned about their works. He reminded them that usury was abolished and that all blood that had been shed in the pagan period was to be left unavenged. He encouraged them by saying that Satan had despaired of leading them astray in large matters, hence they should beware of his influence in smaller things. He reminded them that husbands and wives had rights over each other. Finally, he told them that he had left two things with them that would prevent their going astray: the Quran and his own example.9
Soon after his return to Medina, the Prophet had just finished praying for the dead at the local cemetery when he fell ill with an intense headache. He indicated to his companions that he was nearing his end, his meeting with his Lord. He also declared Abu Bakr to be his inseparable friend, and as his illness increased, he instructed that Abu Bakr should lead the prayer in the mosque. The Prophet prayed his final prayer, seated to the right behind his chosen companion. He returned to the apartment of ʿAʾisha, his youngest wife, and died with his head on her breast. ʿUmar did not believe that the Prophet had died and stood in the mosque to tell people that he was still alive. While he was speaking, Abu Bakr arrived and intervened, telling the people that if they worshipped Muhammad, they should know that Muhammad was dead, but if they worshipped God, He was ever living and does not die. He quoted this verse from the Quran:
Muhammad is no more than
a messenger, and messengers
passed away before him. If he died
or were killed, would you turn
upon your heels? Whoever so turns
can do no harm to God;
but God will reward those
who are grateful.
SURA AL ʿIMRAN, 3:144
In accordance with his own instructions, the Prophet was buried where he died. It was decided within the community that Abu Bakr should succeed him as its leader and he would become the first caliph of the Islamic empire. People flocked from all over Medina to the Prophet’s gravesite to say prayers for him, feeling that a great door—to communications from the beyond—had been closed. Indeed, the revelations had finished, but the miracle of the inimitable Quran remained with them.
General Characteristics of the Quran
The Quran (meaning “recitation”) was revealed to the Prophet by the Archangel Gabriel over a period of twenty-three years (610–632). Its Arabic text has survived unchanged for over fourteen centuries, and it is the primary source of authority in Islam, complemented by the hadith (traditions or sayings of the Prophet). The Quran consists of 114 suras or chapters, which are in turn composed of ayat or “verses” (singular: aya). The suras are traditionally divided into Meccan and Medinan, named after their place of revelation. The earlier suras revealed at Mecca are shorter, proclaiming God’s Oneness, establishing the Prophet’s credentials, addressing issues of social justice, and reminding people of impending judgment, with graphic evocations of heaven and hell. The later suras, revealed after Muhammad’s migration to Medina, are longer, more prosaic, and concern laws and regulations of various aspects of domestic and social life such as marriage, inheritance, and business transactions; the need to establish a united community; connections with the Jews and Christians (the “people of the Book”); and stories of earlier prophets.
In time, the words Muhammad heard, remembered, and recited became a book. It was confirmed as a canonical written text by his third successor, the Caliph ʿUthman, who arranged all the variants into one standardized version. The order of the suras here is not chronological and generally the longer ones are placed earlier, with the shortest ones at the end. The Quran often refers to itself as the book (kitab), but a book that is not identical with its physical version (known as mushaf). The Quran has existed as a written text since the seventh century; excerpts from it are inscribed in stone on the Dome of the Rock, a memorial in Jerusalem, by an early Muslim ruler, the Caliph ʿAbd al-Malik.10 It has been written down by countless generations of Muslims, making calligraphy a major art form in Islamic civilization. The written Quran is prized as a sacred object around the world. In many Muslim households, a copy of the Quran is set out in a prominent place on a special stand (kursi).
The Quran speaks of itself as the final stage of four revealed books, the other three being the Torah, the Gospels, and the Psalms.11 Among the Arabs, those practicing Judaism or Christianity (but not paganism) would have been familiar with its presumption of a single God beyond human knowing. However, in other respects, the new revelation echoed a cosmology that was readily accepted by all—a heaven populated with angels and archangels, a hell strewn with devils, and, in between these, ambiguous creatures called jinn, who are neither angelic nor demonic yet omnipresent and vigilant.
Notwithstanding the rich diversity of its cosmology, the central theme of the Quran is the unity of God, who has no partners, a point stressed again and again, as in this verse:
Among His signs are
night and day, sun and moon.
Do not bow before sun and
