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Around the time of Muhammad's birth in Makkah in 570 ACE, both of his parents died so he was raised by his uncle from the respected tribe of Quraysh. Known as Al-Amin "The Truthful and the Trustworthy" because of his profoundly religious nature, Muhammad often meditated in the cave of Hira near the summit of the Mount of Light, Jabal al-Nur. He married a forty year old righteous widow, Khadijah when he was twenty-five years old. At the age of forty, he received his first revelation through the Archangel Gabriel (Jibrail) while meditating on Jabal al-Nur (Mount Hira). This revelation, which became known as the Quran, continued for the next twenty-three years. Muhammad suffered such bitter persecution when he began to recite the revealed words regarding Allah and a Day of Judgment that he emigrated to Madinah with his small group of followers in 622 ACE. The date of this pivotal journey (Hijra) marks the beginning of the Muslim calendar. After he made a farewell pilgrimage to the Kaaba in Makkah in 630 ACE, the Prophet Muhammad returned to Madinah where he died on June 8, 632 ACE.
Within ten years, Islam was established throughout the whole Arabian Peninsula. Over the next hundred years, Islam spread as far as Spain and China. Muslims believed that Muhammad was the latest and truest messenger prophet in a chain of successor prophets through whom Allah brought forth revelations to humanity. Archangel Gabriel (Jibrail, Jibraaiyl)) was the Archangel who communicated with all the Prophets over the ages. Muhammad believed that the message he received from Archangel Gabriel sura by sura was the same one which Allah had sent down to the earliest humans. The suras of the Quran contained a description of the Way of Life which Allah had established for people to follow while they lived here on earth. By agreeing to follow this Way of Life, people would essentially be submitting themselves to Allah. The name of this Way of Life was simply "submission". In Arabic the word that best denoted submission was Islam.
In Islam, the Quran and the living example of the Prophet satisfied both mind
and heart and formed the foundation of a Way of Life where the spheres of law,
economics and politics surrendered to the central creed of the oneness and
uniqueness of Allah.
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