Who was Prophet Muhammad ﷺ? Today we talk about one of the most significant and influential figures in religious history. We cover topics like Islam before Muhammad ﷺ , the birth of Muhammad ﷺ , the death of Muhammad’s ﷺ mother, the famous plot To assassinate Muhammad ﷺ, the major Battles of Islam and other interesting topics…WELCOME TO RELIGION CAMP🏕️Shoutout to our sponsor: Magic SpoonMagicSpoon: https://magicspoon.com/camp✝️☪️✡️🕉️☦️ Religion Camp Merch: https://religion-camp.com🏕️ Get Today In History Email Here (Free): https://camp.beehiiv.com/🎟️ 🎫 Comedy Tour Tickets Here: https://markgagnonlive.comTimestamps:0:00 Intro1:07 Peace Be Upon Him3:21 Islam Before Muhammad ﷺ + The Most Popular Name 4:37 The Birth of Muhammad ﷺ + The Year of The Elephant9:12 The Death of Muhammad’s ﷺ Mother16:30 Rebuilding The Kaaba17:50 Muhammad’s ﷺ Encounter With Jibrīl + The Prophet's Revelations 29:07 The Night Journey32:04 Jinn Hear Muhammad’s ﷺ Message35:51 Plot To Assassinate Muhammad ﷺ + Constitution of Medina38:36 The Major Battles Of Islam42:50 Muhammad’s ﷺ Final Pilgrimage + The Death of Muhammad ﷺ45:17 The Impact of Muhammad ﷺ47:22 Why There Are No Images of Muhammad ﷺ49:27 The Many Roles of Muhammad ﷺ52:07 Peace Be With You
Chapter 1: Who was Prophet Muhammad ﷺ?
The story of the Prophet Muhammad begins before his birth with a series of prophecies and miracles. Orphaned merchant in the middle of the Arabian desert that basically alters the course of human history. How does this person, with no formal education, no army, no political power, ends up founding one of the great religions of the world, the Prophet Muhammad's mother?
During her pregnancy, extraordinary signs marked the impending birth of a remarkable figure, symbolizing this spiritual illumination that her son would bring into the world, the Cave of Hira. But it was there that one of the most significant turning points in human history unfolded when silence broke into revelation.
So all that to say, this is another attempt at me to dive deeper in my understanding about what it really means to be a Muslim. And there's no better place to dig into than the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the final and greatest of God's prophets on earth. In today's episode, we're going to go through his whole life. What's up, people, and welcome back to Religion Camp.
My name is Mark Gagnon, and this is my tent where every single week on Sundays we explore the most interesting, controversial, fascinating stories from all religions from around the world from all times. Today, like most days, I'm joined by the Greek freak, the legend himself, Christos on the shiny buttons. How are you, sir? Doing good.
Chapter 2: What was the significance of Muhammad's birth?
How are you, Mark?
All right, all right. Um, so today we are exploring, I saw a couple of comments about that on the last episode that made me laugh.
Someone clipped it.
Yeah. I thought that was great. That is great. Oh, every time I ask you how you do it, it's like, ah. Anyway, guys, we have a fascinating topic to dive into today. Now, let me just preface by saying, I did not grow up Muslim. So, a lot of this is new to me. Now, the whole reason that I do this channel and why I'm fascinated by religions is that I myself grew up religious as a Catholic.
But I think that it is fundamental if you have a desire to understand people and cultures and how people interact with each other. I think you must understand the God that they worship. I don't know if it's possible to be like, yo, I completely understand what it means to be a Muslim in the world or even a Muslim in America without understanding who Allah is, right?
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Chapter 3: What were the key events in Muhammad's early life?
Or a Hindu without understanding, you know, Brahma or Islam. a Sikh without, you know, reading the works of the great gurus. So all that to say, this is another attempt at me to dive deeper in my understanding about what it really means to be a Muslim. And there's no better place to dig into than the life of the Prophet. Yes, that prophet, Muhammad. Peace be upon him.
So I'm also going to say this. I'm not going to say peace be upon him for the whole time, okay? I just can't. Just for the interest of flow and expedience, I'm just going to give it one big piece up top. You know how I feel.
Plus, there was a whole episode where you did it every single time, so you're compensating.
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it feels try hard. So I'm just going to give a big one, big old piece. All right, shout out to the Prophet. Shout out to the Muslims out there watching. And yeah, from henceforth, it will be either just the Prophet or Muhammad. So this is a fascinating human being. Right.
I mean, basically all I knew prior to this was that you have this illiterate orphaned merchant in the middle of the Arabian desert that basically
alters the course of human history i think what what you know if you're secular if you're muslim christian everyone agrees on that fact and that is crazy to me that is fascinating it's been this question i've been thinking about like you know how does this person with no formal education no army no political power ends up founding one of the great religions of the world It's fascinating, truly.
So let's begin at the end of the seventh century. Okay, Christianity has been kind of pumping, to be honest with you. All right, Christianity has been going buck wild, undisturbed expansion, you could say. And it's been kind of spreading across Asia and, you know, Asian minor, the Near East, North Africa, and all over Europe. And Christians had kind of taken on the Roman Empire in one.
So now the Roman state is a Christian nation. And yeah, there's no cultural power that's really comparing to what the Christians are rocking with. That was until it was challenged by one of the most potent religious, political, and cultural forces known to history, Islam. And it all started with one man, the Prophet Muhammad.
who was, according to Muslim belief, the final and greatest of God's prophets on Earth. So you've probably never seen an image of him, and you've almost certainly met someone who's been named after him. As today, Muhammad is actually the most popular name given on the planet, basically.
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Chapter 4: What happened during the Night Journey?
Christianity and Judaism were actually present and interacted with some Arab tribes. There was also a looming expectation, a religious anticipation that some great prophet would soon arise to restore true monotheism to the land. And this is where we are introduced to Amina bint Wab. This is the prophet Muhammad's mother.
Islamic tradition recounts that during her pregnancy, extraordinary signs marked the impending birth of a remarkable figure. One of the most well-known stories tells of a light radiating from Amina's womb. This light was so intense that it illuminated the household and nearby surroundings, symbolizing this... spiritual illumination that her son would bring into the world.
And Amina herself reportedly experienced these, you know, sort of auspicious dreams, as did many people that she knew. These dreams, you know, often featured stars and these like radiant figures, almost like these angelic beings and other symbols of great significance.
And the glowing lights and, you know, the dreams were interpreted by the community as confirmation that some type of divine plan may be unfolding. So 570 CE or AD, Prophet Muhammad was born. And this is the year of the elephant, an event recorded multiple early sources and celebrated within Islamic tradition.
This year was named after this extraordinary episode when Abraha, the Christian ruler of Yemen, led an army that included elephants to attack Mecca and destroy Abraha. the Kaaba, which if you don't know what the Kaaba is, we have a video on it where I go through the entire history of the Kaaba that I would recommend you check out.
But at this point, the Kaaba was basically, you know, you could say being desecrated and used as a polytheistic worshiping site, you know, that many different pagans in the region were utilizing, which Muhammad would later come in to restore. So back to Abraha, he basically sends this attack to Mecca, and this turned out to be A massive mistake.
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Chapter 5: What was the plot against Muhammad ﷺ?
According to the tradition, the attack was miraculously repelled by divine intervention. Flocks of birds known as Ababil appeared pelting the invading army with stones and forcing their retreat. Mecca was under this divine protection and people were convinced that special things were right about to happen. So...
Muhammad may be the most popular name given today, but it certainly was not at the time that he was born. It meant, quote, the praised one, a rare name that was not chosen by his father who had already passed, but instead by his grandfather. When asked why he chose it, he basically just said, so he may be praised in the heavens and on earth.
Much like many other religious leaders, great expectations were placed on his very young shoulders. So at six years old, Muhammad lost a parent for the second time. Aminah's death came suddenly during a journey to the Yathrib, later Medina, which would be significant later on in the story. And this is where she had taken a young Muhammad to visit his maternal relatives.
Chapter 6: What were the major battles of Islam?
On the return journey, somewhere in the barren flatlands of Abwa, she fell ill and passed away. First, he was taken in by his grandfather, Abd al-Muttali, who was already an old man by then. He held the boy in high regard, so much so that young Muhammad was given access to the place of honor under the Kaaba's shade, a spot typically only reserved for elders.
But tragedy continued to plague Muhammad's early life. Two years later, his grandfather, too, passed away. Now, in the care of his uncle, Abu Talib, who was actually a gifted poet and a very kind man, but not wealthy in any capacity, Muhammad would grow up in pretty modest means. No fine robes or gold or servants or any of that stuff. He tended sheep in the hills of Mecca.
It's interesting how the divine often brings with pastoral settings, even with other, you know, Abrahamic prophets from Abraham himself to Moses, David, and also in Islam with the Prophet Muhammad, this image of, you know, the shepherd is sort of, it's inseparable from the divine. I mean, Christ is, you know, the shepherd of men that tends to his flock.
It's just interesting that, you know, across all these different Abrahamic religions, the idea of the shepherd was, you know, so pervasive. I wonder if just in the region that, you know, that these ideas were kind of percolating, if that was the most common job or if that was just something that people, you know, if it was useful for the metaphor. I don't know.
That's an interesting thing that, you know, I'm thinking about. So he's in the hills of Mecca, you know, tending to his his flock. And those hills eventually become, you know, in a metaphorical sense, a teacher for Muhammad in a lot of different ways. I mean, long walks and silence gives him all sorts of time to kind of think. And it was there that he built this sort of calm and calm.
considerate temperament that would later help him, as we'll see. And away from the bustle of the Koresh market and its rising material ideas, he seemed to develop a quiet but sort of wise and almost soft-spoken character. His temperament was gentle but firm, observant but not withdrawn necessarily. And most importantly, he listened far more than he ever spoke.
This wisdom earned him the nickname Al-Amin, the trustworthy, not for grand gestures, but because he simply never lied. In a society of complex alliances and rivalries and status games, he just had a simplicity about him that was almost unsettling to some people and earned him this respect from others. Even Gandhi described Muhammad's rigid simplicity as the reason for Islam's success.
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Chapter 7: What was the impact of Muhammad ﷺ on the world?
and not necessarily the sword, as many people have claimed. What's up, guys? We're gonna take a quick break because I have great news. Religion Camp has merch, that's right. We have amazing t-shirts like this one you see here and this one.
We got hats, all sorts of very interesting designs, not only for Christianity, the one I was raised in, but for all religions, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Judaism, Mormonism. I actually don't know if we have a Mormonism shirt, but maybe we can work on that if we got him, you know? Latter-day Saints trying to cop. Anyway, you can catch it all here at this link.
Chapter 8: Why are there no images of Muhammad ﷺ?
We'll also have it in the description as well as the comments. Get that right now. And peace be with you. What's up, guys? We're going to take a break really quick because you are a grown child. Yes, you're a giant man child and you just love stuffing your face and all the sugary cereals that you ate when you were a kid.
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Magic Spoon on Amazon or at your nearest grocery store. Or you can go to magicspoon.com slash camp C-A-M-P for $5 off. Now let's get back to the show, you fatty. This reputation he earned was sealed by a dispute he resolved regarding the Kaaba. When it fell into disrepair after flooding, the tribes of Mecca came together to try to rebuild it.
But then came the question, who would have the honor of placing the sacred black stone back into its place? And this argument grows heated. People get pissed off. People, they're yelling at each other. Hands goes to swords and now they're holding swords to each other. And it seems like they're going to kill each other. There's going to be absolute mayhem and violence at the Kaaba.
Then someone suggests, let's wait for the next man to walk through the gates of the sanctuary and let's just let him decide. And that man was none other than the Prophet Muhammad. And given his reputation as al-Amin, the trustworthy, the tribes agreed to trust him. So Muhammad, in his sage wisdom, takes a cloak, spreads it on the ground. and places the black stone at the center.
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