Muhammad ran home shaking from the cave,
wrapped himself in blankets, terrified.
Khadija comforted him, believed him,
became the first Muslim at his side.
The revelations continued for twenty-three years,
verse by verse, surah by surah,
collected after his death into the Quran,
the recitation, Allah's word, no error.
The core message: tawhid, the oneness of God.
Allah alone, no partners, no daughters,
no trinity, no incarnation,
the absolute one of all waters.
The five pillars would crystallize:
shahada — the profession of faith.
salat — five daily prayers toward Mecca.
zakat — charity for the poor, the aggrieved.
sawm — fasting during Ramadan.
hajj — pilgrimage to Mecca once in life.
Simple, clear, demanding, but doable,
a structure for the whole of one's strife.
For thirteen years in Mecca, Muhammad preached
and was persecuted by the Quraysh,
whose economic and religious order
depended on the pagan pilgrimage flesh.
His early converts were slaves, women, poor,
outsiders, those without tribal protection.
His uncle Abu Talib protected him
through clan obligation, not conviction.
When Abu Talib died, and Khadija died
the same year, 619, the "Year of Sorrow,"
Muhammad's situation grew desperate.
Persecution intensified. Would there be a morrow?
In 622, he and his followers
made the Hijra, the migration, to Medina,
where tribes had invited him to arbitrate
their feuds and be their prophet-leader subpoena.
The Hijra is year one of the Islamic calendar.
The community in Medina, the ummah,
became the first Muslim polity,
Muhammad as both prophet and ruler summa.
The Jewish tribes of Medina initially
were expected by Muhammad to recognize him
as a prophet in the Abrahamic line.
When they refused, the qibla changed from the rim
of Jerusalem to Mecca. The fast was
changed from Yom Kippur to Ramadan.
The split with Judaism became permanent.
Islam was now its own religion, untouched ran.
War with the Quraysh broke out. The Battle of Badr
in 624 was the first great victory.
Three hundred Muslims defeated one thousand Quraysh.
It was taken as divine sanction for their story.
The Battle of Uhud in 625 was a defeat.
Muhammad was wounded, thought dead briefly.
The community was shaken. New revelations
addressed the setback and steadied them chiefly.
The Battle of the Trench in 627 was
a siege of Medina by the Quraysh,
repelled by the strategy of digging a trench,
a Persian tactic from a convert's wish.
After the siege, the Jewish tribe Banu Qurayza
was accused of conspiring with the enemies.
The men were killed, the women and children enslaved.
This is one of the darkest episodes in history's arenas.
In 628, the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
was negotiated with the Quraysh.
It seemed unfavorable to the Muslims,
but Muhammad accepted, and his ash
followers grumbled. Within two years
the treaty was broken by Quraysh allies.
Muhammad marched on Mecca with ten thousand
and the city surrendered without heavy plies.
Muhammad entered the Kaaba, destroyed the idols,
proclaimed only one God, forgave most enemies.
It was the triumph of his mission.
Mecca was now the center of the new community.
In 632, Muhammad made the Farewell Pilgrimage,
delivered the Farewell Sermon at Arafat,
and died shortly after in Medina
in the arms of Aisha, his beloved mate.
The community was devastated. Abu Bakr,
his oldest friend and father-in-law,
addressed the crowd: "If you worshipped Muhammad,
know that he is dead. If you worship Allah, he lives raw."
Abu Bakr was elected the first caliph,
the successor, the Rightly Guided.
He crushed the Ridda wars, tribes rebelling,
and held the ummah together, undivided.
Then came Umar, second caliph, who
launched the great Arab conquests outward.
Within twelve years of Muhammad's death,
Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt fell toward
the new empire. The Sassanid Empire
collapsed completely. The Byzantine Empire
lost its richest provinces. The map was redrawn.
A new civilization rose from the fire.
Umar was assassinated. Uthman was third caliph,
who codified the Quran in its current form,
collected all variants, destroyed the others,
standardized the text without reform.
Uthman was assassinated too. Ali,
Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law, became fourth.
But the first fitna, civil war, broke out.
The community was dividing without forth.
Ali was assassinated. Muawiya of the Umayyad clan
seized the caliphate, moved capital to Damascus.
The Rashidun era ended. The Umayyad dynasty
began its ninety-year rule over fate's ramparts.
Those who had favored Ali became
the Shia, "the party of Ali,"
holding that the caliphate should have stayed
in the Prophet's family, loyally.
Those who accepted the status quo became
the Sunni, "followers of the sunnah,"
the tradition, the mainstream majority.
The split between them would be enduring, the fissure not undone.
Stand.