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RAGEH OMAAR:
1,400 years ago,

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a man born here
in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia,

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changed the course
of world history.

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JOHN ADAIR:
If you had to rate

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the top people in the history
of the world as leaders,

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the name of Muhammad
would be in the top three.

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AJMAL MASROOR:
Here we have a man
who began a mission.

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He gave light to the world.

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OMAAR:
For one and a half
billion Muslims,

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he is the last and greatest
of that long line of prophets

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who have brought the
word of God to humanity.

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KAREN ARMSTRONG:
He was not just
a spiritual genius,

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but he also had political
gifts of a very high order.

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OMAAR:
He laid the foundations

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for a religion, Islam,
that after his death

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developed
a culture and civilization

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that spread around
the world and inspired

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some of the most
beautiful architecture.

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But today Islam is at
the very heart of the conflict

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that defines our world.

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And Muhammad's name

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is associated with some of the
most appalling acts of terrorism

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the world has ever seen.

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ROBERT SPENCER:
Osama bin Laden and others

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who have committed
acts of Jihad terrorism

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consistently invoke the Qur'an
and Muhammad's example

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to justify what they are doing.

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Obedience to one true God Allah,

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and follow in the footsteps
for the final prophet

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and messenger Muhammad.

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Outside of the Islamic world,

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almost nothing is
known about Muhammad,

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whereas for Muslims
he is the ultimate role model

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and his life is
known in every detail.

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So who was he?

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What was his message?

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And why are so many people,
Muslims and non-Muslims,

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divided over his legacy?

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In this groundbreaking series,

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I will explore the many
complexities of his life story

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about the revelations he is said
to have received from God,

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about his many wives,

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about his relations
with the Jews of Arabia,

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about his use of war and peace

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and about the laws
that he enacted

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when he set up his own state.

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I want to examine his life
and times and understand

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how they still
affect today's world

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and whether they are
a force for good or evil.

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I want to uncover the real
Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam,

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peace be upon him.

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OMAAR:
When Muslims come
on a pilgrimage to Mecca,

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they put on two simple
pieces of white cloth.

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They discard
their everyday clothes

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in favor of
these simple cloths,

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which symbolize purity
and make everyone equal,

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a tradition dating
back to Muhammad's time

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more than 1,400 years ago.

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Just after I was born,

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the very first words
whispered into my ear

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were those of the Shahada,
the simple statement of faith:

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"There is no God but Allah,
Muhammad is God's messenger"--

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words that link me
to this holy place

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and to the founder of Islam.

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Like most Muslims,
the first human name I heard

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was not that of my mother
or father, but of Muhammad.

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I first came to Mecca
over 30 years ago

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as a child of just five years
with my family, on Hajj,

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the Muslim pilgrimage.

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As pilgrims we came
to the Grand Mosque,

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to the Kaaba, the most
familiar symbol of Islam.

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It is the place to
which Muslims face every day,

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wherever they may be, in prayer.

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When Muslims circle the Kaaba,

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they walk in the footsteps
of their Prophet Muhammad,

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in devotion to God.

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People come from the four
corners of the world,

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but what unites everyone here

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is a desire to emulate the life
of the Prophet Muhammad,

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a man as important to Muslims
as Jesus is to Christians,

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a man defines who they are.

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But unlike Jesus, Muhammad
was not the Son of God.

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For him there was
no miraculous birth,

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no healing miracles and no
resurrection after death.

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He was just a man.

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Muhammad was born
1,400 years ago

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in one of the world's
most inhospitable regions.

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It was a stark, harsh
environment of mountain,

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desert and searing heat,
one-third the size of Europe.

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The vast emptiness
of Arabia was sandwiched

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between two of the ancient
world's great powers.

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To the north was
Christian Byzantium,

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the last remnant
of the Roman Empire,

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with its capital
in Constantinople.

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To the east was another
ancient civilization,

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the Sassanids, the remains
of the great Persian Empire.

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In between were hundreds
of Arab tribes and clans,

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constantly competing in a battle
for supremacy and survival.

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There were very few cities.

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One of them was Mecca,
the city were Muhammad was born.

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Muhammad is believed
to have been born

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on a spot close to here
in the year 570.

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His father, Abdullah,
died before he was born

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and his mother,
Aminah, was very poor.

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And what's really
interesting is at the time

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there was no sense of
the coming of a messiah,

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there was no stars in the sky,

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and wise men didn't travel from
afar in order to worship him.

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In fact, at the time,
barely anyone noticed,

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and no one really cared.

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And yet today,

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there isn't anything to mark
where Muhammad was born.

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No shrine, no museum,
not even a plaque on a wall.

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Most Muslims make
a clear distinction

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between the messenger
and the message.

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Muhammad may be
held in high esteem

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but to worship him
is considered shirq,

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a heinous and unforgivable
corruption of Islam.

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So, over the years,

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many sites connected with
Muhammad and his life

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have been removed to ensure
there is no worship

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of anyone other than God.

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The same goes for visual
depictions of Muhammad.

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Unlike in Christian churches
with their myriad images

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of Jesus on the cross
and the Virgin Mary,

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mosques have
no images of Muhammad

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or any other person at all.

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What is very important
in the Islamic tradition

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is to understand
the very essence

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of the Islamic monotheism,

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what we call tawhid in Arabic,
the oneness of God.

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He is beyond everything
and we don't represent God,

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but in order to be quite clear
in this relationship with God,

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we never represent or have an
image of any of the prophets,

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so it's not only the last
prophet, Muhammad,

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it's all the prophets.

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Abraham, Moses, Jesus
are not seen and drawn

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and anything like this in Islam.

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It's out of respect
towards this oneness of God

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and following the messenger,
never worshipping him.

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OMAAR:
In the past, some Ottoman
and Persian miniature paintings

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have depicted Muhammad,

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but his face was always
hidden behind a veil.

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But in the West there is a long
history of depicting Muhammad

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in drawings and paintings.

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Most recently a Danish cartoon

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portrayed him as a terrorist
with a bomb in his turban.

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This led to an explosion

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of anger and protest
right across the Muslim world,

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not just because it was
showing Muhammad's face,

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but also because it was
ridiculing him too.

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Despite the lack
of visual imagery,

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the written sources for
Muhammad's life are extensive.

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The first is the Qur'an itself,
Islam's holy book.

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But there is also a rich
library of stories and sayings

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connected to Muhammad

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preserved and written
down after his death

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and known as the Hadith.

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Muslim scholars had to sift
through thousands of sayings

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and stories about Muhammad
to check their validity.

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AMIRA BENNISON:
Muslim scholars themselves

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were terribly worried
to try and verify

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whether the Hadith they were
collecting were true,

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whether they were false,
whether they were fabricated.

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ROBERT HOYLAND:
The problem that
scholars have with it is, one:

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it's only set down
in writing at a much later time.

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The actual earliest physical
texts that we can hold

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are actually only from the 820s,

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and Muhammad dies
in 632, so that's a long period.

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Obviously yes, of course,

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they've been
transmitted over time,

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but with transmission orally
over time, problems can come in.

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MUHAMMAD ABDEL HALEEM:
The Arabs relied on their
memory throughout history.

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Their history
and their genealogy

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were all retained by memory,

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and Muhammad was
a very important man.

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By the time he died he had
hundreds of thousands of people

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following him or
some opposing him,

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and they all said
and preserved all this,

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and that is a source
which cannot be ignored

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simply because some people say
no, this is just an invention

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or that it was
written later-- it wasn't.

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OMAAR:
While the veracity
of the Hadiths

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is still debated
and argued over,

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there are, remarkably,
accounts of Muhammad's existence

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from non-Muslim sources.

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GERALD HAWTING:
Non-Muslim evidence for
Muhammad is not copious;

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it exists.

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The name Muhammad
is attested in Greek,

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Syriac and Armenian writings

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from, say, the first 30 years
after the death of Muhammad.

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Which 30 years after
Muhammad's death is, I suppose,

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pretty good.

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OMAAR:
The Armenian historian
Sebeos wrote about Muhammad

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just 24 years after his death.

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The particular interest here is
that for the first time

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in Armenian, someone
talks about Muhammad

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and mentions him by name
and says a little bit

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about what he did.

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Sebeos himself was
talking about the events

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around the year 630,

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which was before
Muhammad had actually died.

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OMAAR:
Sebeos gives
a surprisingly accurate account

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of Muhammad's
background and teachings.

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Translating from the Armenian,

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"At that time a certain man
whose name was Muhammad,"

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which is the usual name
for Muhammad in Armenian,

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"a merchant,
as if by the command of God,

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"appeared to them as a preacher.

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"Now Muhammad gave them laws,

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"namely not to eat carrion,

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"not to drink wine,
not to speak falsehood

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and not to engage
in fornication."

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OMAAR:
Sebeos and other
non-Muslim historians

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write about the
existence of Muhammad

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in roughly the same timeframe
as Muslim accounts.

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Together with the
Hadiths and the Qur'an,

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we have a large body
of detailed facts

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about the life of Muhammad.

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We know he was
born into the tribe

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that ruled the
town of Mecca, the Quraysh,

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and that his family was poor.

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His father had died
before he was born

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and left his mother, Aminah,
little to live on.

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When he was just
a few months old,

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she handed him over
to a Bedouin tribe

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living on the
outskirts of the town,

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a tradition among
the Arabs of the time.

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Muhammad had a Bedouin wet nurse
and lived a nomadic life

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for the first four
years of his life.

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Arabia at the time of Muhammad's
birth was a cruel place to live.

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There was no law, no state
and very little peace.

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Tribal loyalty and customs were
the only sources of protection.

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Justice was harsh,
arbitrary and it was swift

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and the punishments were brutal.

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A man, for example, caught
stealing a loaf of bread

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would be killed.

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And it meant that the
daily struggle for survival

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left very little
room for compassion.

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For most people there
was very little chance

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of a better existence.

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Muslims have a special word
to describe this era--

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the Jahiliyyah,
or the age of ignorance.

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This was a society that had its
structures, a belief system,

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but not as we would understand
an organized religion today.

246
00:13:37,217 --> 00:13:38,751
The peoples of
Arabia were polytheistic;

247
00:13:38,785 --> 00:13:41,922
they venerated a
number of different gods.

248
00:13:41,955 --> 00:13:45,458
In general each tribe
had their own patron god

249
00:13:45,492 --> 00:13:47,027
and that was the
case throughout Arabia.

250
00:13:47,060 --> 00:13:50,463
OMAAR:
And Mecca,
Muhammad's birthplace,

251
00:13:50,497 --> 00:13:53,967
is believed to have been
the most important center

252
00:13:54,001 --> 00:13:56,569
of this polytheistic worship.

253
00:13:56,603 --> 00:13:59,606
ARMSTRONG:
There was a long
established Arabian paganism

254
00:13:59,639 --> 00:14:01,374
as we'd call it today,

255
00:14:01,408 --> 00:14:04,344
that took virtually
the same form

256
00:14:04,377 --> 00:14:06,846
in most of the city's
unsettled regions.

257
00:14:06,880 --> 00:14:09,582
There would be a sort of square
shrine in the middle,

258
00:14:09,616 --> 00:14:12,719
circumambulation around it

259
00:14:12,752 --> 00:14:14,587
and various gods.

260
00:14:14,621 --> 00:14:19,526
There was Allah, the high God,
and there were goddesses,

261
00:14:19,559 --> 00:14:23,730
but most of the Arabs were not
particularly religious

262
00:14:23,763 --> 00:14:24,998
in that sense.

263
00:14:25,032 --> 00:14:27,300
This was something
more for the settled areas,

264
00:14:27,334 --> 00:14:29,336
the towns the
agricultural settlements.

265
00:14:31,804 --> 00:14:35,142
OMAAR:
Orthodox Muslims believe
the Kaaba was built by God

266
00:14:35,175 --> 00:14:37,344
in the time of Adam,

267
00:14:37,377 --> 00:14:39,779
but there is no archaeological
or historical evidence

268
00:14:39,812 --> 00:14:42,782
to confirm its exact origins.

269
00:14:42,815 --> 00:14:46,253
By the time of Muhammad's birth
it had long been a shrine

270
00:14:46,286 --> 00:14:48,421
drawing people
to the town of Mecca,

271
00:14:48,455 --> 00:14:53,326
the center of pagan cults
for the peoples of Arabia.

272
00:14:53,360 --> 00:14:55,462
SAJJAD RIZVI:
Muslim sources acknowledge

273
00:14:55,495 --> 00:14:57,730
that the Kaaba
is a central temple

274
00:14:57,764 --> 00:15:01,935
for the worship of God which has
existed from time immemorial,

275
00:15:01,969 --> 00:15:04,504
so there's a sense
in which the first founder

276
00:15:04,537 --> 00:15:08,841
of this particular
sanctuary for God was Adam

277
00:15:08,875 --> 00:15:11,611
and then the various
prophets after kept it up

278
00:15:11,644 --> 00:15:14,781
and then it was eroded
away as people moved away

279
00:15:14,814 --> 00:15:17,517
from the worship of the one God,

280
00:15:17,550 --> 00:15:22,589
and then it was rebuilt by
Abraham and his son Ishmael

281
00:15:22,622 --> 00:15:25,258
and then again people forgot
what its reason was.

282
00:15:26,994 --> 00:15:30,297
OMAAR:
There are no non-Muslim sources

283
00:15:30,330 --> 00:15:32,832
which connect Abraham to Mecca,
but by Muhammad's birth,

284
00:15:32,865 --> 00:15:37,304
the Kaaba contained the idols
of over 360 different gods,

285
00:15:37,337 --> 00:15:39,606
each one venerated
in its own right.

286
00:15:39,639 --> 00:15:43,943
There was a special time of
truce declared every year,

287
00:15:43,977 --> 00:15:46,379
when all the hostile
tribes could come to Mecca

288
00:15:46,413 --> 00:15:49,983
to circle the Kaaba
and worship their gods

289
00:15:50,017 --> 00:15:52,185
without fear of conflict.

290
00:15:53,786 --> 00:15:56,823
This regular pilgrimage
brought many people to Mecca

291
00:15:56,856 --> 00:16:00,193
and that meant trade and wealth.

292
00:16:00,227 --> 00:16:01,794
The tribe Muhammad
was born into,

293
00:16:01,828 --> 00:16:04,564
the Quraysh, controlled
the running of the Kaaba

294
00:16:04,597 --> 00:16:06,599
and so were rich and powerful,

295
00:16:06,633 --> 00:16:08,635
although Muhammad's
immediate family

296
00:16:08,668 --> 00:16:11,338
were not part
of the ruling elite.

297
00:16:12,872 --> 00:16:14,607
At the age of five,

298
00:16:14,641 --> 00:16:18,111
Muhammad returned to his mother
Aminah and lived in Mecca.

299
00:16:18,145 --> 00:16:19,946
But she was in poor health.

300
00:16:19,979 --> 00:16:24,517
She decided to visit some
of her family in Yathrib,

301
00:16:24,551 --> 00:16:27,454
a town about
300 kilometers north of Mecca.

302
00:16:27,487 --> 00:16:30,957
But as the camel caravan made
its way through the desert,

303
00:16:30,990 --> 00:16:33,426
Aminah's illness got worse.

304
00:16:33,460 --> 00:16:37,730
The caravan stopped here
in the small oasis of Abwa

305
00:16:37,764 --> 00:16:41,134
in order to drop off
Muhammad and his mother

306
00:16:41,168 --> 00:16:43,170
in the hope that she would
recover her strength.

307
00:16:43,203 --> 00:16:44,404
But it was not to be.

308
00:16:44,437 --> 00:16:47,040
After just a few days
Aminah died.

309
00:16:49,209 --> 00:16:51,044
With both his parents now dead,

310
00:16:51,078 --> 00:16:53,446
Muhammad was all
alone in the world,

311
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:57,184
an orphan at the
tender age of six.

312
00:16:57,217 --> 00:17:00,453
These searing events
would have a profound impact

313
00:17:00,487 --> 00:17:03,823
on his outlook
and his personality.

314
00:17:07,194 --> 00:17:10,097
BARNABY ROGERSON:
Muhammad's virtually
alone at this resting place

315
00:17:10,130 --> 00:17:11,798
watching his mother die,

316
00:17:11,831 --> 00:17:14,134
and it's only when
the next caravan comes

317
00:17:14,167 --> 00:17:15,602
on this well established journey

318
00:17:15,635 --> 00:17:17,737
that he gets
reintegrated into society.

319
00:17:17,770 --> 00:17:21,074
It must have been terrifying and
deeply poignant and disturbing.

320
00:17:24,277 --> 00:17:26,613
OMAAR:
The young Muhammad
was to learn even more

321
00:17:26,646 --> 00:17:28,615
about loss and sorrow.

322
00:17:28,648 --> 00:17:31,218
He was taken in
by his paternal grandfather,

323
00:17:31,251 --> 00:17:34,487
who died just two years later,

324
00:17:34,521 --> 00:17:37,290
before coming under the
protection of his uncle,

325
00:17:37,324 --> 00:17:40,427
Abu Talib, a powerful figure
among the Meccan elite.

326
00:17:40,460 --> 00:17:45,565
Abu Talib was a trader
taking caravans to Syria,

327
00:17:45,598 --> 00:17:49,102
part of a business which from
ancient times connected Arabia

328
00:17:49,136 --> 00:17:50,903
to the populous centers
and civilizations

329
00:17:50,937 --> 00:17:53,973
of the Middle East and beyond.

330
00:17:54,006 --> 00:17:55,942
Mecca was a link in that chain.

331
00:17:55,975 --> 00:17:57,644
ROGERSON:
I imagine trading caravans

332
00:17:57,677 --> 00:17:59,812
picking up the spices
up the Yemen

333
00:17:59,846 --> 00:18:02,749
or silver or the leather,
bringing them to Mecca

334
00:18:02,782 --> 00:18:04,951
and a quite separate group
of traders picking them up

335
00:18:04,984 --> 00:18:08,955
and taking them to Syria, to
Gaza, to Egypt, to Palestine.

336
00:18:08,988 --> 00:18:11,791
And all around the holy
sanctuary you'd have had

337
00:18:11,824 --> 00:18:15,562
the bustle of trading and
of camels being gathered.

338
00:18:15,595 --> 00:18:17,330
OMAAR:
For Muslims, Mecca is seen

339
00:18:17,364 --> 00:18:19,432
as a major trading
center at the time

340
00:18:19,466 --> 00:18:22,135
and a fitting place for the
birth of their prophet.

341
00:18:22,169 --> 00:18:26,906
But some historians dispute
its historical importance.

342
00:18:26,939 --> 00:18:29,342
The Muslim tradition
gives us a portrait of Mecca

343
00:18:29,376 --> 00:18:32,945
as this great trading city,

344
00:18:32,979 --> 00:18:34,781
this great pagan cult center.

345
00:18:34,814 --> 00:18:37,116
And the problem is that

346
00:18:37,150 --> 00:18:41,388
the archaeology and the records
of the time do not back this up.

347
00:18:41,421 --> 00:18:42,822
Mecca, if it existed,

348
00:18:42,855 --> 00:18:44,957
was way off any trading routes

349
00:18:44,991 --> 00:18:50,697
and we have no mention of it
at all before the Islamic era.

350
00:18:50,730 --> 00:18:52,632
HALEEM:
This is easily explained

351
00:18:52,665 --> 00:18:55,835
by the fact that Mecca
was in the middle of the desert

352
00:18:55,868 --> 00:19:00,640
and we know that
these foreigners, historians,

353
00:19:00,673 --> 00:19:05,645
would not cross
such a hostile terrain

354
00:19:05,678 --> 00:19:08,181
as the Arabian desert
to get to Mecca.

355
00:19:08,215 --> 00:19:12,752
They kept to the
sea or to the coast

356
00:19:12,785 --> 00:19:15,555
and if
they haven't talked about it,

357
00:19:15,588 --> 00:19:17,824
this is understandable.

358
00:19:17,857 --> 00:19:20,793
I mean, people here
didn't talk about Timbuktu

359
00:19:20,827 --> 00:19:22,695
in the 18th century or before.

360
00:19:22,729 --> 00:19:24,731
It didn't mean
that it didn't exist.

361
00:19:24,764 --> 00:19:28,635
(camel nuzzing)

362
00:19:28,668 --> 00:19:30,603
OMAAR:
The charge by some historians

363
00:19:30,637 --> 00:19:32,705
is that after Muhammad's death,

364
00:19:32,739 --> 00:19:35,041
Muslim historians
deliberately exaggerated

365
00:19:35,074 --> 00:19:36,909
the importance of Mecca.

366
00:19:36,943 --> 00:19:40,313
This was done, they claim,
in order to show that Muhammad

367
00:19:40,347 --> 00:19:42,482
was born in
a rich and important city

368
00:19:42,515 --> 00:19:44,417
with its own religious history,

369
00:19:44,451 --> 00:19:48,020
independent of any Jewish
and Christian influences.

370
00:19:50,957 --> 00:19:54,026
HAWTING:
I am not saying, of course, that
there was no place called Mecca.

371
00:19:54,060 --> 00:19:56,162
There must have been somewhere
called Mecca before Islam.

372
00:19:56,195 --> 00:19:57,964
It's just not
very well attested.

373
00:19:57,997 --> 00:20:03,936
But its importance
for Islam, I would imagine,

374
00:20:03,970 --> 00:20:07,106
is something that is discovered
by the early Muslim community,

375
00:20:07,139 --> 00:20:08,708
as it develops.

376
00:20:08,741 --> 00:20:10,577
By the early Muslim community,

377
00:20:10,610 --> 00:20:14,881
I'm not thinking of the Prophet
and his followers,

378
00:20:14,914 --> 00:20:17,917
but rather Islam
as it begins to develop

379
00:20:17,950 --> 00:20:19,786
following the Arab conquest
of the Middle East.

380
00:20:21,588 --> 00:20:23,923
OMAAR:
Whatever the importance
of Mecca,

381
00:20:23,956 --> 00:20:27,394
Muhammad's involvement
in the caravan trade

382
00:20:27,427 --> 00:20:29,696
was an extraordinary
opportunity.

383
00:20:29,729 --> 00:20:32,532
Not only did it
lift him out of poverty,

384
00:20:32,565 --> 00:20:37,103
but it also brought him into
contact with the outside world.

385
00:20:37,136 --> 00:20:40,773
The pace of travel was slow
through deserts and oasis,

386
00:20:40,807 --> 00:20:42,342
through Arabian towns

387
00:20:42,375 --> 00:20:45,978
and past the ruins
of ancient civilizations

388
00:20:46,012 --> 00:20:50,783
such as Petra, the capital of
the Nabatean Arab civilization

389
00:20:50,817 --> 00:20:52,752
brought to ruin
by a massive earthquake.

390
00:20:55,755 --> 00:20:57,990
In his travels, Muhammad would
have heard stories

391
00:20:58,024 --> 00:21:01,528
about these other peoples
with their alien cultures

392
00:21:01,561 --> 00:21:05,164
and different faiths.

393
00:21:05,197 --> 00:21:07,567
ROGERSON:
When I talk
to extremely pious Muslims,

394
00:21:07,600 --> 00:21:09,969
they don't want
any influences at all,

395
00:21:10,002 --> 00:21:12,138
they just want the Prophet
like a white sheet of paper

396
00:21:12,171 --> 00:21:14,541
to be written on
by the words of God.

397
00:21:14,574 --> 00:21:15,942
One can still allow that image,

398
00:21:15,975 --> 00:21:18,678
but absolute... for me
the caravans are vital.

399
00:21:18,711 --> 00:21:21,681
I mean, experience
of knowing the tribes,

400
00:21:21,714 --> 00:21:23,916
of dealing in marketplaces,

401
00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:25,752
seeing what people
wanted from the world,

402
00:21:25,785 --> 00:21:27,587
seeing the difficulties
of the world,

403
00:21:27,620 --> 00:21:30,790
experiencing the ruins
of great Arabic civilizations,

404
00:21:30,823 --> 00:21:34,361
passing by the ruins of Petra,

405
00:21:34,394 --> 00:21:35,895
looking at the glories
of Damascus.

406
00:21:35,928 --> 00:21:37,897
I mean,
that experience of the world,

407
00:21:37,930 --> 00:21:39,999
he knew about the realities

408
00:21:40,032 --> 00:21:42,201
of what the Arab
world was about.

409
00:21:51,911 --> 00:21:54,013
OMAAR:
According to Muslim tradition,

410
00:21:54,046 --> 00:21:57,116
by the time he was 21,

411
00:21:57,149 --> 00:22:00,219
Muhammad had gained
a reputation for integrity

412
00:22:00,252 --> 00:22:02,822
and was known as
"al-Amin" and "al-Sadiq,"

413
00:22:02,855 --> 00:22:04,123
the Honest and Truthful One.

414
00:22:16,168 --> 00:22:19,506
So what did Muhammad,
a man entering his prime,

415
00:22:19,539 --> 00:22:20,973
actually look like?

416
00:22:21,007 --> 00:22:23,510
Although Muslim
tradition prohibits

417
00:22:23,543 --> 00:22:27,013
any portraits of him, we do have
a detailed written account

418
00:22:27,046 --> 00:22:30,349
from one of the earliest
biographies that describes him

419
00:22:30,383 --> 00:22:32,018
as "a little
above average height.

420
00:22:32,051 --> 00:22:35,187
"He had a sturdy build
with long, muscular limbs

421
00:22:35,221 --> 00:22:36,523
"and tapering fingers.

422
00:22:36,556 --> 00:22:39,125
"His hair was long,
thick and wavy.

423
00:22:39,158 --> 00:22:41,227
"His eyes were large and black

424
00:22:41,260 --> 00:22:43,029
"with a touch of brown.

425
00:22:43,062 --> 00:22:44,196
"His beard was thick.

426
00:22:44,230 --> 00:22:46,633
"He was of fair complexion.

427
00:22:46,666 --> 00:22:47,967
And now ready to get married."

428
00:22:51,303 --> 00:22:53,940
OMAAR:
Muhammad's first
attempt to find a wife

429
00:22:53,973 --> 00:22:56,175
ended in humiliating failure.

430
00:22:56,208 --> 00:22:58,711
When he asked his uncle
for the hand of his daughter,

431
00:22:58,745 --> 00:23:03,416
he was refused because of his
lowly status as an orphan.

432
00:23:03,450 --> 00:23:06,919
But then his luck
changed dramatically.

433
00:23:06,953 --> 00:23:09,789
He was asked by a rich
older woman called Khadija

434
00:23:09,822 --> 00:23:11,558
to do some business
for her in Syria.

435
00:23:11,591 --> 00:23:13,960
When Muhammad
fulfilled his promise

436
00:23:13,993 --> 00:23:16,162
and brought her a good profit,

437
00:23:16,195 --> 00:23:21,468
she did a very unusual thing:
she asked him to marry her.

438
00:23:21,501 --> 00:23:24,136
PRINCESS BADIYA:
His marriage to Syedna
Khadija was most unusual.

439
00:23:24,170 --> 00:23:26,172
She was most unusual,
to start off with,

440
00:23:26,205 --> 00:23:29,075
being, you know, a little
bit older than him

441
00:23:29,108 --> 00:23:31,611
and also being so
successful in her own right

442
00:23:31,644 --> 00:23:33,179
as a business woman,

443
00:23:33,212 --> 00:23:34,814
but I think it could
actually be quite unusual

444
00:23:34,847 --> 00:23:35,948
even by today's times.

445
00:23:35,982 --> 00:23:37,550
I mean many men,

446
00:23:37,584 --> 00:23:40,419
Western men, Muslim/non-Muslim
are intimidated

447
00:23:40,453 --> 00:23:42,021
by successful women,

448
00:23:42,054 --> 00:23:45,157
so I think it shows great
strength of character,

449
00:23:45,191 --> 00:23:48,127
confidence and respect for women
in the Prophet himself,

450
00:23:48,160 --> 00:23:51,097
that he entered into this
marriage back then

451
00:23:51,130 --> 00:23:53,199
and anyone who would do so now

452
00:23:53,232 --> 00:23:55,034
would have to have those
qualities as well.

453
00:23:58,805 --> 00:24:00,907
OMAAR:
Even in today's Islamic world,

454
00:24:00,940 --> 00:24:05,612
it would be unusual for an older
woman to marry a younger man.

455
00:24:05,645 --> 00:24:09,816
But in Muhammad's day it was
almost unheard of.

456
00:24:09,849 --> 00:24:13,753
ARMSTRONG:
In most of Arabia,

457
00:24:13,786 --> 00:24:15,822
women before the coming
of Islam were treated

458
00:24:15,855 --> 00:24:20,026
as little better than animals
and had few human rights,

459
00:24:20,059 --> 00:24:26,599
but city life, merchant life
often gives women opportunities.

460
00:24:26,633 --> 00:24:28,701
They quite often took
an important part

461
00:24:28,735 --> 00:24:30,603
in cottage industries
and trading.

462
00:24:30,637 --> 00:24:34,406
And Khadija seems to have
been one of these women.

463
00:24:34,440 --> 00:24:36,408
She was widowed,

464
00:24:36,442 --> 00:24:40,146
and her husband had probably
left her a sort of a business

465
00:24:40,179 --> 00:24:43,215
and it was a good business,
a powerful business

466
00:24:43,249 --> 00:24:45,417
and she was able to manage it.

467
00:24:45,451 --> 00:24:49,121
OMAAR:
Muhammad's marriage to
Khadija lasted 24 years.

468
00:24:49,155 --> 00:24:52,992
Despite polygamy being the norm,
while Khadija was still alive,

469
00:24:53,025 --> 00:24:55,194
Muhammad never took
another wife.

470
00:24:55,227 --> 00:24:58,330
And by all accounts,
Muhammad never stopped Khadija

471
00:24:58,364 --> 00:25:01,333
from carrying on her business,
an independent status

472
00:25:01,367 --> 00:25:04,170
most Muslim societies
still struggle to offer

473
00:25:04,203 --> 00:25:05,538
to women today.

474
00:25:10,309 --> 00:25:11,878
An older woman marrying
a younger man

475
00:25:11,911 --> 00:25:13,312
is still stigmatized.

476
00:25:13,345 --> 00:25:18,517
The idea of women
in business, in politics

477
00:25:18,551 --> 00:25:21,187
is also difficult
in Muslim societies.

478
00:25:21,220 --> 00:25:25,858
In the case of Khadija,
she is proof

479
00:25:25,892 --> 00:25:29,061
that women
are an equal partner

480
00:25:29,095 --> 00:25:32,498
in creating a Muslim society.

481
00:25:41,708 --> 00:25:46,412
OMAAR:
Muhammad's marriage to Khadija
brought him personal happiness,

482
00:25:46,445 --> 00:25:49,215
but it did not mean that
he was content with his life

483
00:25:49,248 --> 00:25:52,018
or the ways of the
world in which he lived.

484
00:25:52,051 --> 00:25:54,921
ROGERSON:
He, from age 25 to 40,

485
00:25:54,954 --> 00:25:56,989
should have been the prime
of his life.

486
00:25:57,023 --> 00:26:00,760
Got Khadija, wealthy, beautiful
Arab woman who trusted him.

487
00:26:00,793 --> 00:26:03,395
He'd got four
beautiful daughters

488
00:26:03,429 --> 00:26:05,732
and had two sons born of him
which didn't survive.

489
00:26:05,765 --> 00:26:07,600
He'd become a man of respect.

490
00:26:07,634 --> 00:26:09,535
He was from
a respectful clan anyway,

491
00:26:09,568 --> 00:26:12,271
but now he had the
family to back him.

492
00:26:12,304 --> 00:26:14,941
And in a funny way he'd risen
to the top of his society

493
00:26:14,974 --> 00:26:18,344
and had become sort of
sickened at what that meant,

494
00:26:18,377 --> 00:26:22,481
with the sort of violence
of clan society

495
00:26:22,514 --> 00:26:25,584
and the way that wealth
could buy you anything.

496
00:26:25,618 --> 00:26:28,755
OMAAR:
The fact was that
Muhammad was not happy.

497
00:26:28,788 --> 00:26:33,359
He himself had experienced the
extremes of Arab tribal society,

498
00:26:33,392 --> 00:26:36,663
and the iniquities of tribal
life disturbed him

499
00:26:36,696 --> 00:26:37,864
and made him uneasy.

500
00:26:37,897 --> 00:26:40,132
By all accounts,

501
00:26:40,166 --> 00:26:42,702
he'd reached a moment
of personal crisis.

502
00:26:42,735 --> 00:26:47,606
ABDUR-RAHEEM GREEN:
He was really upset

503
00:26:47,640 --> 00:26:50,810
by the bad treatment
of the poor and the weak

504
00:26:50,843 --> 00:26:53,713
and the downtrodden
people in the society.

505
00:26:53,746 --> 00:26:59,886
There's definitely this great
ontological anxiety he had

506
00:26:59,919 --> 00:27:01,788
about, you know,
the big questions:

507
00:27:01,821 --> 00:27:03,122
Why are we here?

508
00:27:03,155 --> 00:27:04,356
What's the purpose of life?

509
00:27:04,390 --> 00:27:07,459
How do we make sense
of the world around us?

510
00:27:07,493 --> 00:27:09,528
MASROOR:
I believe he was
looking for a connection,

511
00:27:09,561 --> 00:27:12,732
just like Abraham was
looking when he was young,

512
00:27:12,765 --> 00:27:15,601
just like Moses was looking when
he was wandering the valleys,

513
00:27:15,634 --> 00:27:18,270
just like all the other prophets

514
00:27:18,304 --> 00:27:19,772
of the Old and
New Testament were looking.

515
00:27:19,806 --> 00:27:21,540
JOHN ESPOSITO:
Probably at the heart of it also

516
00:27:21,573 --> 00:27:23,910
is the most rooted issue

517
00:27:23,943 --> 00:27:25,812
for many who begin
to question their society

518
00:27:25,845 --> 00:27:29,381
and even question, if you will,
the morality of the society

519
00:27:29,415 --> 00:27:31,918
and the religious values
they were raised with,

520
00:27:31,951 --> 00:27:33,920
which get down
to the nature of God.

521
00:27:35,221 --> 00:27:37,489
OMAAR:
According to Muslim tradition,

522
00:27:37,523 --> 00:27:39,525
at this time,
Muhammad had begun to make

523
00:27:39,558 --> 00:27:41,961
regular spiritual retreats.

524
00:27:41,994 --> 00:27:45,297
Throughout the year he would
take Khadija and his family

525
00:27:45,331 --> 00:27:47,767
up into the mountains
above Mecca

526
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:50,402
to seek peace and quiet,
and pray.

527
00:27:50,436 --> 00:27:52,471
What was Muhammad after?

528
00:27:52,504 --> 00:27:56,342
What was he seeking
and what was he doing?

529
00:27:56,375 --> 00:27:58,177
He was certainly troubled,

530
00:27:58,210 --> 00:28:01,347
and he was seeking some
kind of spiritual truth.

531
00:28:03,015 --> 00:28:06,853
Muhammad's spiritual retreats
were becoming more intense

532
00:28:06,886 --> 00:28:09,288
and ever more frequent
and they were devoted

533
00:28:09,321 --> 00:28:13,726
to really intense personal
reflection and meditation.

534
00:28:13,760 --> 00:28:16,328
And he chose this spot,
Jabal Nur,

535
00:28:16,362 --> 00:28:19,698
which is a hill far up
and a really challenging climb

536
00:28:19,732 --> 00:28:21,700
up from the city down below.

537
00:28:21,734 --> 00:28:24,336
And he would climb all the way
to the very top to a cave,

538
00:28:24,370 --> 00:28:28,140
known as r'Hira, and it was
there that he would spend hours,

539
00:28:28,174 --> 00:28:31,143
in fact whole days and nights

540
00:28:31,177 --> 00:28:35,748
in ever more intense
and fervent meditation.

541
00:28:38,350 --> 00:28:41,653
Until one day,
in the year 610,

542
00:28:41,687 --> 00:28:45,391
something happened that would
transform not just his life,

543
00:28:45,424 --> 00:28:47,794
but the entire
history of the world.

544
00:28:53,732 --> 00:28:56,002
According to Muslim tradition,

545
00:28:56,035 --> 00:29:00,572
Muhammad was meditating as usual
and he fell asleep.

546
00:29:00,606 --> 00:29:04,343
But then suddenly
he awoke in abject terror.

547
00:29:04,376 --> 00:29:07,279
His body was shaking
uncontrollably.

548
00:29:07,313 --> 00:29:10,649
He later described the
experience as if an angel

549
00:29:10,682 --> 00:29:14,053
had him in such a tight,
suffocating embrace,

550
00:29:14,086 --> 00:29:17,756
that he felt that his life was
being squeezed out of him.

551
00:29:21,693 --> 00:29:24,897
As he lay there,
completely shattered,

552
00:29:24,931 --> 00:29:30,269
Muhammad heard one voice and it
commanded him with one word:

553
00:29:30,302 --> 00:29:33,272
"Iqra! Read!"

554
00:29:33,305 --> 00:29:35,607
But Muhammad replied: "I can't.

555
00:29:35,641 --> 00:29:38,144
I'm not one of those who read."

556
00:29:38,177 --> 00:29:43,249
The voice returned
for a second time: "Read."

557
00:29:43,282 --> 00:29:47,319
Muhammad replied: "I'm not
one of those who read."

558
00:29:47,353 --> 00:29:51,790
Then the voice returned
for a third time: "Read."

559
00:29:51,824 --> 00:29:55,594
And on this third command
Muhammad replied:

560
00:29:55,627 --> 00:29:57,563
"What shall I read?"

561
00:29:58,630 --> 00:30:01,033
MAN (chanting):

562
00:30:25,824 --> 00:30:31,463
ARMSTRONG:
He was able to hear
the divine message.

563
00:30:31,497 --> 00:30:34,466
And it's quite clear
that revelation--

564
00:30:34,500 --> 00:30:38,004
some of the prophets of Israel
had this experience too--

565
00:30:38,037 --> 00:30:40,739
is devastating.

566
00:30:40,772 --> 00:30:43,742
Not a nice peaceful experience,

567
00:30:43,775 --> 00:30:47,313
but something that
racks them in every limb.

568
00:30:47,346 --> 00:30:50,849
Prophet Jeremiah
cried aloud, "Ah God, God,

569
00:30:50,883 --> 00:30:52,551
"I can't speak, I'm a child.

570
00:30:52,584 --> 00:30:56,155
Your revelation hurts me
in every limb."

571
00:30:56,188 --> 00:31:01,293
Isaiah, when he saw his vision
of God in the temple, said,

572
00:31:01,327 --> 00:31:02,361
"I'm dead.

573
00:31:02,394 --> 00:31:04,130
I have looked
on the Lord of Hosts."

574
00:31:04,163 --> 00:31:06,065
This is a lethal power

575
00:31:06,098 --> 00:31:09,735
because the impact of what's
coming through is shattering.

576
00:31:09,768 --> 00:31:14,473
Your world goes,
the world as it was before goes.

577
00:31:14,506 --> 00:31:18,177
ROGERSON:
You have an essence
of the divine power

578
00:31:18,210 --> 00:31:20,913
which you have to articulate--

579
00:31:20,947 --> 00:31:23,950
that's the role of prophets--
into the language of your time,

580
00:31:23,983 --> 00:31:26,285
into the metaphors of your time
so that people around you

581
00:31:26,318 --> 00:31:29,755
can understand this completely
unworldly experience you have.

582
00:31:29,788 --> 00:31:32,992
And for me the prophet has got

583
00:31:33,025 --> 00:31:36,762
that sort of terrifying
brief access to divine power

584
00:31:36,795 --> 00:31:40,866
and he's using that
consciousness that sort of

585
00:31:40,899 --> 00:31:44,136
flooded into his body
and creating the words.

586
00:31:48,007 --> 00:31:51,843
OMAAR:
This is the defining
moment in Muhammad's life.

587
00:31:51,877 --> 00:31:54,713
And today for the
one and a half billion people

588
00:31:54,746 --> 00:31:57,083
all around the
world who follow him,

589
00:31:57,116 --> 00:31:59,685
completely accepting
his revelation

590
00:31:59,718 --> 00:32:02,088
defines what it means
to be a Muslim.

591
00:32:02,121 --> 00:32:03,555
And yet,

592
00:32:03,589 --> 00:32:06,125
at the time of the first
revelation at the Cave of Hira,

593
00:32:06,158 --> 00:32:09,595
Muhammad's reaction
was very different.

594
00:32:11,697 --> 00:32:13,599
OMAAR:
Muhammad ran
to his beloved wife,

595
00:32:13,632 --> 00:32:17,503
"Khadija, oh, Khadija," he said,
"cover me, cover me.

596
00:32:17,536 --> 00:32:18,737
"What has happened to me?

597
00:32:18,770 --> 00:32:20,706
I fear for myself."

598
00:32:20,739 --> 00:32:23,875
Khadija took her cloak and
covered his exhausted body,

599
00:32:23,909 --> 00:32:25,877
and then with all of his doubts,

600
00:32:25,911 --> 00:32:30,282
she was the one who reassured
him about his experience.

601
00:32:31,817 --> 00:32:33,685
Khadija's words
not only calmed Muhammad,

602
00:32:33,719 --> 00:32:36,655
but they also helped him
reconcile himself

603
00:32:36,688 --> 00:32:38,324
with what had happened.

604
00:32:38,357 --> 00:32:42,694
The seeker had finally found
what he was looking for.

605
00:32:45,231 --> 00:32:47,833
But then nothing.

606
00:32:53,505 --> 00:32:56,308
Muhammad's first
blinding revelation

607
00:32:56,342 --> 00:32:58,677
was followed by a long silence

608
00:32:58,710 --> 00:33:00,746
that threw him
into complete crisis.

609
00:33:00,779 --> 00:33:03,249
Had he been deluded after all?

610
00:33:03,282 --> 00:33:06,785
Was the revelation just
meaningless hysteria?

611
00:33:06,818 --> 00:33:10,889
Had Muhammad the Seeker been
abandoned by God?

612
00:33:10,922 --> 00:33:13,125
He was absolutely in despair.

613
00:33:13,159 --> 00:33:15,394
I mean one of the sources says
he was so despairing

614
00:33:15,427 --> 00:33:18,530
he almost flung himself
off the top of the mountain.

615
00:33:18,564 --> 00:33:22,334
OMAAR:
Days of silence
became weeks, then months.

616
00:33:22,368 --> 00:33:24,970
All the while,
Muhammad lived in turmoil,

617
00:33:25,003 --> 00:33:27,373
doubting what he had
experienced, doubting himself.

618
00:33:27,406 --> 00:33:31,077
Then one morning,
after several months,

619
00:33:31,110 --> 00:33:34,546
the long silence ended and
the revelations began again.

620
00:34:06,678 --> 00:34:08,247
OMAAR:
Muhammad now began to understand

621
00:34:08,280 --> 00:34:10,449
that he had
a special responsibility.

622
00:34:10,482 --> 00:34:12,318
He had a message.

623
00:34:12,351 --> 00:34:14,153
Like the other
prophets before him,

624
00:34:14,186 --> 00:34:16,955
he believed God
had given him a vision.

625
00:34:16,988 --> 00:34:19,858
His duty was to
share this message,

626
00:34:19,891 --> 00:34:22,361
to pass it on to
the people around him,

627
00:34:22,394 --> 00:34:24,896
to help them change
their lives for the better.

628
00:34:32,538 --> 00:34:36,142
Muhammad's Revelations would
become the sacred text of Islam

629
00:34:36,175 --> 00:34:38,677
and what is now
known as the Qur'an,

630
00:34:38,710 --> 00:34:40,912
literally "the recitation."

631
00:34:46,185 --> 00:34:48,787
The Orthodox Muslim position is
that it is God himself

632
00:34:48,820 --> 00:34:51,323
who is the author of the Qur'an

633
00:34:51,357 --> 00:34:55,394
and Muhammad was just the person
to whom it was first revealed.

634
00:34:59,931 --> 00:35:02,534
The Qur'an is considered
by most Muslims

635
00:35:02,568 --> 00:35:04,136
to be God's miracle.

636
00:35:04,170 --> 00:35:07,273
Throughout Muhammad's life
he steadfastly denied

637
00:35:07,306 --> 00:35:10,041
he had any miraculous powers.

638
00:35:10,075 --> 00:35:13,579
He insisted no extraordinary
signs and wonders

639
00:35:13,612 --> 00:35:17,849
were associated with him,
except for the words.

640
00:35:17,883 --> 00:35:19,585
He was just a man.

641
00:35:19,618 --> 00:35:23,155
The Qur'an, the message, was
the only miracle that mattered.

642
00:35:23,189 --> 00:35:25,157
The spiritual power
of the message

643
00:35:25,191 --> 00:35:27,693
is in the words themselves.

644
00:35:27,726 --> 00:35:33,799
(prayer recited from Qur'an)

645
00:35:51,883 --> 00:35:55,954
OMAAR:
Almost all Muslims believe

646
00:35:55,987 --> 00:35:58,657
that Muhammad was
unable to read or write.

647
00:35:58,690 --> 00:36:02,328
His illiteracy has become
essential to their faith.

648
00:36:02,361 --> 00:36:04,896
It is important because
some critics of Islam

649
00:36:04,930 --> 00:36:07,866
have often claimed that
Muhammad, in his travels,

650
00:36:07,899 --> 00:36:10,502
must have read Christian
and Jewish scriptures,

651
00:36:10,536 --> 00:36:13,171
and so borrowed
religious ideas from them

652
00:36:13,205 --> 00:36:16,375
which he then rehashed
as his own message.

653
00:36:16,408 --> 00:36:19,245
But if he could not read
or write, then he was,

654
00:36:19,278 --> 00:36:22,748
the Muslim argument goes, pure
and free of any such influences,

655
00:36:22,781 --> 00:36:26,418
and the revelations
that form the basis

656
00:36:26,452 --> 00:36:29,755
of the new religion of Islam
came direct from God.

657
00:36:29,788 --> 00:36:32,291
HOLLAND:
It is very important
for Muslims to believe

658
00:36:32,324 --> 00:36:35,827
that the Qur'an is the
unmediated word of God,

659
00:36:35,861 --> 00:36:37,863
that Muhammad did not obtain it

660
00:36:37,896 --> 00:36:41,099
from Christian
or Jewish or Samaritans.

661
00:36:41,132 --> 00:36:45,937
That is why, despite the Qur'an
actually saying the opposite,

662
00:36:45,971 --> 00:36:49,107
tradition says
that he was illiterate.

663
00:36:49,140 --> 00:36:50,976
That is also why he is put
in the middle of a desert,

664
00:36:51,009 --> 00:36:52,978
because in the
middle of a desert

665
00:36:53,011 --> 00:36:56,114
he is hundreds and
hundreds of miles away

666
00:36:56,147 --> 00:36:58,350
from the melting pot
of the Near East, the place

667
00:36:58,384 --> 00:36:59,851
where all these extraordinary
religious traditions

668
00:36:59,885 --> 00:37:02,421
are bubbling and welling up.

669
00:37:02,454 --> 00:37:04,222
ZIAUDDIN SARDAR:
To present the argument

670
00:37:04,256 --> 00:37:06,358
that the Qur'an
is influenced by Judaism

671
00:37:06,392 --> 00:37:09,027
and Christianity
is quite absurd.

672
00:37:09,060 --> 00:37:11,497
I mean,
clearly Islam sees itself

673
00:37:11,530 --> 00:37:14,366
as a continuation
of the monotheistic tradition.

674
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:16,502
We are a continuation
of Judaism and Christianity,

675
00:37:16,535 --> 00:37:18,837
so of course we are
influenced by these religions.

676
00:37:18,870 --> 00:37:23,108
GREEN:
The Qur'an clearly says
that the Prophet Muhammad

677
00:37:23,141 --> 00:37:24,876
could not write
with his right hand.

678
00:37:24,910 --> 00:37:26,712
It is very clearly
mentioned in the Qur'an.

679
00:37:26,745 --> 00:37:31,550
And although the term Umi
doesn't mean illiterate,

680
00:37:31,583 --> 00:37:33,852
it means not versed,
it means not learned,

681
00:37:33,885 --> 00:37:37,556
it means a person who has not
studied and learned scripture,

682
00:37:37,589 --> 00:37:39,725
but it has the
implication of also being

683
00:37:39,758 --> 00:37:42,861
of being someone
who is illiterate.

684
00:37:42,894 --> 00:37:46,732
But the point also is
that when the angel Gabriel

685
00:37:46,765 --> 00:37:51,236
comes to the Prophet Muhammad in
the cave and tells him "Read,"

686
00:37:51,269 --> 00:37:53,171
the Prophet says,
"I can't read."

687
00:37:55,974 --> 00:37:58,243
OMAAR:
The Qur'an
is as sacred to Muslims

688
00:37:58,276 --> 00:38:00,446
as the person of Jesus
is to Christians.

689
00:38:00,479 --> 00:38:01,647
Whereas for Christians,

690
00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,149
Jesus is the word
of God, the logos,

691
00:38:04,182 --> 00:38:06,718
and for him to remain
divine and pure

692
00:38:06,752 --> 00:38:09,921
his conception has to be
unsullied by man,

693
00:38:09,955 --> 00:38:13,459
for Muslims it is the Qur'an
that is the word of God

694
00:38:13,492 --> 00:38:15,961
and so for it to remain divine,

695
00:38:15,994 --> 00:38:19,130
it has to be untarnished
by any human interference too.

696
00:38:23,735 --> 00:38:28,173
So dishonoring the Qur'an is
profoundly shocking to Muslims

697
00:38:28,206 --> 00:38:30,709
as it's an attack
not only on Muhammad

698
00:38:30,742 --> 00:38:33,278
but also on God himself.

699
00:38:33,311 --> 00:38:35,881
In recent years there
have been numerous instances

700
00:38:35,914 --> 00:38:39,117
where the Qur'an has been
burnt or desecrated,

701
00:38:39,150 --> 00:38:42,488
sometimes to humiliate Muslim
prisoners in Guantanamo Bay,

702
00:38:42,521 --> 00:38:45,524
sometimes as a reaction
to a terrorist attack.

703
00:38:49,995 --> 00:38:54,966
Initially Muhammad took his
message to those closest to him.

704
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:57,235
The first convert
was his wife Khadija,

705
00:38:57,268 --> 00:39:00,672
followed by family members
like his teenage cousin Ali,

706
00:39:00,706 --> 00:39:03,241
who would eventually
marry Muhammad's daughter,

707
00:39:03,274 --> 00:39:05,477
and then there
were good friends,

708
00:39:05,511 --> 00:39:07,879
like the prominent local
businessman Abu Bakr,

709
00:39:07,913 --> 00:39:09,848
who would eventually
succeed Muhammad

710
00:39:09,881 --> 00:39:12,217
as the first Caliph of Islam.

711
00:39:12,250 --> 00:39:16,455
RIZVI:
It's often said
that the earliest Muslims

712
00:39:16,488 --> 00:39:21,527
were a mixture of young men
from aristocratic families,

713
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:23,895
as well as those who were very
much in the margins of society.

714
00:39:23,929 --> 00:39:30,836
So there's the idea that Islam
was a revolutionary message,

715
00:39:30,869 --> 00:39:34,506
revolutionary in the sense that
it actually wanted to overturn

716
00:39:34,540 --> 00:39:37,876
the social order, the cosmic
order of society at the time.

717
00:39:37,909 --> 00:39:39,645
OMAAR:
The process of conversion

718
00:39:39,678 --> 00:39:42,548
was as straightforward
as it is today.

719
00:39:42,581 --> 00:39:45,350
All it requires is
the simple statement of faith

720
00:39:45,383 --> 00:39:47,118
in front of two witnesses.

721
00:39:47,152 --> 00:39:53,358
The key requirement is that
conversion must be the exercise

722
00:39:53,391 --> 00:39:56,962
of free and informed
personal choice.

723
00:39:56,995 --> 00:39:59,364
In fact, one of the most
important people

724
00:39:59,397 --> 00:40:02,734
in Muhammad's life, Abu Talib,
who was his uncle

725
00:40:02,768 --> 00:40:04,302
and the head of his clan,

726
00:40:04,335 --> 00:40:07,205
who protected him throughout
all his troubles in Mecca,

727
00:40:07,238 --> 00:40:10,842
never converted despite
Muhammad's best efforts

728
00:40:10,876 --> 00:40:12,611
to persuade him;

729
00:40:12,644 --> 00:40:14,312
and there was nothing
he could do about it.

730
00:40:17,583 --> 00:40:19,417
The most direct, the most
unequivocal statement

731
00:40:19,451 --> 00:40:23,054
in the Qur'an is, "There is
no compulsion in religion."

732
00:40:23,088 --> 00:40:25,857
No ifs, ands or buts.

733
00:40:25,891 --> 00:40:28,660
That is the essence.

734
00:40:28,694 --> 00:40:33,765
Unless you make a free choice,
a free willing choice for faith,

735
00:40:33,799 --> 00:40:37,469
you cannot be held accountable
for your actions thereafter.

736
00:40:37,503 --> 00:40:41,272
That's the essence
of what Islam is about.

737
00:40:43,875 --> 00:40:45,243
MICHAEL NAZIR-ALI:
The Qur'an itself
is quite clear.

738
00:40:45,276 --> 00:40:47,613
La Ikraha Fiddin is often quoted

739
00:40:47,646 --> 00:40:49,915
as an example
from the Qur'an itself,

740
00:40:49,948 --> 00:40:53,752
"There should be no compulsion
in religious matters."

741
00:40:53,785 --> 00:40:58,289
And the Prophet said, even
vis-à-vis the pagan Arabs...

742
00:40:58,323 --> 00:41:00,859
(speaking Arabic)

743
00:41:00,892 --> 00:41:05,063
"To you your religion
and to me mine."

744
00:41:05,096 --> 00:41:08,333
And that seems a very good way
of promoting tolerance.

745
00:41:08,366 --> 00:41:11,202
But of course throughout history

746
00:41:11,236 --> 00:41:14,105
we have seen that that kind of
attitude has not been respected.

747
00:41:26,718 --> 00:41:29,354
OMAAR:
The divine revelation
that Muhammad was preaching

748
00:41:29,387 --> 00:41:33,024
would later become
known as "Islam,"

749
00:41:33,058 --> 00:41:35,160
which literally means
"surrender."

750
00:41:36,862 --> 00:41:41,332
So a believer, a Muslim,
is one who surrenders to God.

751
00:41:44,502 --> 00:41:48,273
The origin of the word is
from Salaam, meaning "peace."

752
00:41:54,746 --> 00:41:58,884
At first when Muhammad began his
mission to the people of Mecca,

753
00:41:58,917 --> 00:42:02,520
he kept referring back
to the Abrahamic message

754
00:42:02,554 --> 00:42:05,824
of the Christian
and Jewish prophets,

755
00:42:05,857 --> 00:42:08,093
that he was only preaching
what they had preached:

756
00:42:08,126 --> 00:42:10,028
the message of the one true God.

757
00:42:10,061 --> 00:42:13,899
And he repeatedly
warns against oppression

758
00:42:13,932 --> 00:42:17,703
and the injustices
of Meccan society.

759
00:42:20,438 --> 00:42:23,541
ESPOSITO:
He becomes,
and is, in many ways,

760
00:42:23,575 --> 00:42:26,645
the heart of what a prophet is.

761
00:42:26,678 --> 00:42:29,414
A prophet is one who, yes,

762
00:42:29,447 --> 00:42:30,448
brings and declares
God's message,

763
00:42:30,481 --> 00:42:33,719
but a prophet
at heart is a warner,

764
00:42:33,752 --> 00:42:36,254
because he is a reformer.

765
00:42:36,287 --> 00:42:38,957
The reformer is warning
the society and saying,

766
00:42:38,990 --> 00:42:43,094
this is a society that has
departed from the straight path.

767
00:42:45,931 --> 00:42:49,434
OMAAR:
Muhammad's message was
not always welcome.

768
00:42:49,467 --> 00:42:51,302
The rulers of Mecca,
the Quraysh,

769
00:42:51,336 --> 00:42:54,039
disliked what he preached
about equality for all.

770
00:42:54,072 --> 00:42:58,610
The more he preached, the more
incensed the Quraysh became.

771
00:42:58,644 --> 00:43:01,913
So they tried to make him change
his mind by offering him money,

772
00:43:01,947 --> 00:43:04,716
power, anything that he wanted.

773
00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:12,724
To all their proposals,
Muhammad gave the same answer:

774
00:43:12,758 --> 00:43:14,826
"I haven't come here
to accumulate wealth,

775
00:43:14,860 --> 00:43:17,462
"or to be your leader
or to be your king.

776
00:43:17,495 --> 00:43:20,065
"I've only come here
for one purpose and that is

777
00:43:20,098 --> 00:43:23,835
"to be the Messenger of God
and to convey his word.

778
00:43:23,869 --> 00:43:26,672
"And, if you accept,
it will be beneficial for you.

779
00:43:26,705 --> 00:43:30,642
But if you don't, I'll simply
wait and await God's judgment."

780
00:43:30,676 --> 00:43:33,344
Now, clearly for
the Meccan authorities,

781
00:43:33,378 --> 00:43:36,014
gentle persuasion was
not going to work.

782
00:43:36,047 --> 00:43:38,149
They were going to have
to try something else,

783
00:43:38,183 --> 00:43:40,652
something a little bit
more aggressive.

784
00:43:46,925 --> 00:43:50,996
Gentle persuasion was now
replaced by violent persecution.

785
00:43:51,029 --> 00:43:54,032
Muhammad's followers,
especially those with no clan

786
00:43:54,065 --> 00:43:57,836
or tribal protection, such
as slaves, women and orphans,

787
00:43:57,869 --> 00:44:01,206
were now
subjected to brute force.

788
00:44:01,239 --> 00:44:03,241
According to Muslim tradition,

789
00:44:03,274 --> 00:44:04,710
some were thrown
on burning coals,

790
00:44:04,743 --> 00:44:07,278
others cruelly
beaten and tortured,

791
00:44:07,312 --> 00:44:10,048
and some women were
even stabbed to death.

792
00:44:13,518 --> 00:44:15,754
ARMSTRONG:
Now, this is because

793
00:44:15,787 --> 00:44:21,126
Muhammad is challenging
the Quraysh where it hurts,

794
00:44:21,159 --> 00:44:23,228
in their purse,

795
00:44:23,261 --> 00:44:27,598
because the old cult
is very much bound up

796
00:44:27,632 --> 00:44:30,401
with the whole
business of Mecca.

797
00:44:30,435 --> 00:44:32,003
People come to the Kaaba

798
00:44:32,037 --> 00:44:34,205
and they come
to worship in the Kaaba

799
00:44:34,239 --> 00:44:37,442
and this will be
really bad for trade.

800
00:44:37,475 --> 00:44:39,477
They are very, very angry.

801
00:44:39,510 --> 00:44:41,847
They feel it is
a profound threat.

802
00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:44,549
OMAAR:
Muhammad and his
small band of followers

803
00:44:44,582 --> 00:44:47,152
faced a very
difficult situation.

804
00:44:47,185 --> 00:44:49,888
They were attacked in public,
both verbally and physically.

805
00:44:49,921 --> 00:44:51,122
And in private,

806
00:44:51,156 --> 00:44:52,991
they had nowhere they
could meet and pray.

807
00:44:53,024 --> 00:44:55,861
A million miles away
from the freedom of worship

808
00:44:55,894 --> 00:44:57,662
that Muslims enjoy today.

809
00:45:00,365 --> 00:45:02,734
This five-story mosque
and Islamic center

810
00:45:02,768 --> 00:45:05,737
is being built here
in Northwest London,

811
00:45:05,771 --> 00:45:08,439
and similar things are being
done almost everywhere

812
00:45:08,473 --> 00:45:10,942
where Muslims live in the West.

813
00:45:10,976 --> 00:45:14,880
Although we take this kind of
opportunity for granted today,

814
00:45:14,913 --> 00:45:17,949
the Prophet faced a completely
different experience

815
00:45:17,983 --> 00:45:21,652
when he first tried to gather
his own Muslim community

816
00:45:21,686 --> 00:45:25,256
amongst his own people in Mecca.

817
00:45:27,558 --> 00:45:30,595
What's amazing standing
here with you now

818
00:45:30,628 --> 00:45:35,000
is that the building of this
community center is so different

819
00:45:35,033 --> 00:45:38,203
from the experiences that
the Prophet had establishing

820
00:45:38,236 --> 00:45:40,671
his own first community,
where he didn't have

821
00:45:40,705 --> 00:45:42,073
any of the
opportunity or freedom.

822
00:45:42,107 --> 00:45:43,208
Well, yes.

823
00:45:43,241 --> 00:45:45,310
I mean, those were
the very difficult times,

824
00:45:45,343 --> 00:45:48,546
obviously Islam started.

825
00:45:48,579 --> 00:45:50,015
They had to work very hard.

826
00:45:50,048 --> 00:45:52,617
They were not allowed to pray,

827
00:45:52,650 --> 00:45:54,419
not allowed to do
anything that they had to do,

828
00:45:54,452 --> 00:45:56,788
and even if they are going
for praying they had to endure

829
00:45:56,822 --> 00:45:58,589
a lot of problems.

830
00:45:58,623 --> 00:45:59,825
Humiliation.

831
00:45:59,858 --> 00:46:01,392
Humiliation.

832
00:46:01,426 --> 00:46:03,361
But nowadays things are
different masha'Allah.

833
00:46:07,232 --> 00:46:09,100
OMAAR:
Instead of trying to resist

834
00:46:09,134 --> 00:46:11,736
the Quraysh's
persecution with force,

835
00:46:11,769 --> 00:46:13,704
the Prophet looked
for another way

836
00:46:13,738 --> 00:46:15,240
to safeguard his followers.

837
00:46:15,273 --> 00:46:17,042
In many ways,
a far more radical step.

838
00:46:17,075 --> 00:46:19,744
He got them to leave Mecca,

839
00:46:19,777 --> 00:46:22,647
to abandon their
homes and seek refuge

840
00:46:22,680 --> 00:46:24,649
on the other side of the Red Sea

841
00:46:24,682 --> 00:46:26,717
in the African kingdom of Aksum,

842
00:46:26,751 --> 00:46:30,922
ruled by King Negus,
a Christian.

843
00:46:32,690 --> 00:46:34,792
(men singing)

844
00:46:34,826 --> 00:46:38,463
In 615 A.D., a group of Muslims

845
00:46:38,496 --> 00:46:42,200
secretly left Mecca
with their families

846
00:46:42,233 --> 00:46:46,938
and settled in a refugee camp in
what is now modern-day Ethiopia.

847
00:46:46,972 --> 00:46:50,108
The Quraysh were
incensed by this exodus.

848
00:46:50,141 --> 00:46:53,011
They immediately sent
a delegation to Negus,

849
00:46:53,044 --> 00:46:55,313
the king of Abyssinia,
in order to persuade him

850
00:46:55,346 --> 00:46:57,148
to send the exiles back home.

851
00:46:59,117 --> 00:47:02,020
Negus, the king, summoned
the leader of the Muslims

852
00:47:02,053 --> 00:47:04,422
in order to explain.

853
00:47:04,455 --> 00:47:06,591
After telling the king
that Muhammad was in fact

854
00:47:06,624 --> 00:47:08,693
the Prophet of the one true God,

855
00:47:08,726 --> 00:47:12,063
he famously began to recite
a verse from the Qur'an.

856
00:47:14,499 --> 00:47:15,800
OMAAR:
The verses he read

857
00:47:15,833 --> 00:47:17,903
described the
virgin birth of Jesus

858
00:47:17,936 --> 00:47:21,606
and described him to
be a prophet of God.

859
00:47:21,639 --> 00:47:23,841
The words worked their miracle.

860
00:47:23,875 --> 00:47:25,877
And Negus,
the king of Abyssinia,

861
00:47:25,911 --> 00:47:28,246
was moved to tears

862
00:47:28,279 --> 00:47:30,748
and allowed the Muslims to stay.

863
00:47:34,852 --> 00:47:37,855
Back in Mecca, the Quraysh began
to turn the heat up on Muhammad

864
00:47:37,889 --> 00:47:39,457
and his remaining followers.

865
00:47:39,490 --> 00:47:43,494
They instituted a city-wide ban,
which basically prevented anyone

866
00:47:43,528 --> 00:47:47,598
from having anything to do with
Muhammad and his entire clan.

867
00:47:47,632 --> 00:47:49,100
They weren't allowed
to intermarry,

868
00:47:49,134 --> 00:47:50,801
they weren't allowed to trade,

869
00:47:50,835 --> 00:47:54,906
they weren't even allowed to buy
food from the local markets.

870
00:47:54,940 --> 00:47:57,875
In Mecca, Muhammad and his
followers were now

871
00:47:57,909 --> 00:47:59,945
public enemy number one.

872
00:48:02,813 --> 00:48:07,018
There was now immense
pressure on Muhammad

873
00:48:07,052 --> 00:48:09,054
and his remaining followers
to compromise their message

874
00:48:09,087 --> 00:48:14,092
of believing in one God only
and to give in to the Quraysh

875
00:48:14,125 --> 00:48:16,627
or to at least accept
some of the other gods

876
00:48:16,661 --> 00:48:18,029
worshipped by them.

877
00:48:21,166 --> 00:48:23,101
It was at this moment

878
00:48:23,134 --> 00:48:25,670
that an event is
supposed to have taken place

879
00:48:25,703 --> 00:48:28,706
that would lead to
a fundamental clash of values,

880
00:48:28,739 --> 00:48:31,909
an event that still defines
Islam's relationship

881
00:48:31,943 --> 00:48:34,045
with the rest of the world.

882
00:48:36,847 --> 00:48:41,052
Most Muslims deny that this
event ever actually happened.

883
00:48:41,086 --> 00:48:43,121
But it has been
used by Islam's enemies

884
00:48:43,154 --> 00:48:47,092
to condemn both Muhammad
and the Qur'an as bogus.

885
00:48:50,128 --> 00:48:53,464
There are many different
accounts of this story,

886
00:48:53,498 --> 00:48:55,466
but the main version goes
something like this.

887
00:48:55,500 --> 00:48:57,335
One day Muhammad was sitting
somewhere in the Kaaba

888
00:48:57,368 --> 00:48:59,137
when he received
a new revelation,

889
00:48:59,170 --> 00:49:02,373
one which suggested that he
could strike a compromise deal

890
00:49:02,407 --> 00:49:04,409
with the Quraysh
that would allow them

891
00:49:04,442 --> 00:49:07,512
to continue to worship
their old gods.

892
00:49:07,545 --> 00:49:10,281
Well, when the Quraysh heard
this, they were overjoyed;

893
00:49:10,315 --> 00:49:13,784
at last they thought
Muhammad was coming back

894
00:49:13,818 --> 00:49:15,920
to their way of thinking.

895
00:49:15,953 --> 00:49:17,922
But now comes the
key part of the story,

896
00:49:17,955 --> 00:49:21,726
which is that Muhammad is then
supposed to have received

897
00:49:21,759 --> 00:49:24,329
another revelation that told him

898
00:49:24,362 --> 00:49:27,032
his apparent acceptance
of the old gods

899
00:49:27,065 --> 00:49:29,900
had actually been
inspired by Satan--

900
00:49:29,934 --> 00:49:32,670
hence, why these verses
were later called

901
00:49:32,703 --> 00:49:35,640
"The Satanic Verses."

902
00:49:35,673 --> 00:49:38,876
If true, it seems to suggest
that Muhammad was able

903
00:49:38,909 --> 00:49:41,412
to alter the divine
word of God at will,

904
00:49:41,446 --> 00:49:43,214
and that in consequence,

905
00:49:43,248 --> 00:49:46,151
both Muhammad and
the Qur'an were fake.

906
00:49:49,687 --> 00:49:51,389
SPENCER:
Now of course Muslims say

907
00:49:51,422 --> 00:49:53,258
this incident did not happen

908
00:49:53,291 --> 00:49:55,860
and was manufactured
by haters of Islam.

909
00:49:55,893 --> 00:49:59,697
It then becomes very hard
for them to explain, however,

910
00:49:59,730 --> 00:50:02,067
how it got into Islamic sources
that are relatively early

911
00:50:02,100 --> 00:50:04,235
or are, like some a'shari,

912
00:50:04,269 --> 00:50:07,605
based on earlier Islamic
sources that are lost.

913
00:50:07,638 --> 00:50:11,276
One wonders how it is
that somebody like that

914
00:50:11,309 --> 00:50:13,411
who is a pious Muslim

915
00:50:13,444 --> 00:50:15,513
would have or could have
picked up such a thing

916
00:50:15,546 --> 00:50:18,983
if it had originated
from the enemies of Islam.

917
00:50:19,016 --> 00:50:21,586
There are three different
and conflicting versions

918
00:50:21,619 --> 00:50:24,722
of this story in the Muslim
histories of Muhammad's life

919
00:50:24,755 --> 00:50:26,891
compiled after his death.

920
00:50:26,924 --> 00:50:29,594
There is no direct
reference to it in the Qur'an

921
00:50:29,627 --> 00:50:32,530
and neither is it
mentioned in the earliest

922
00:50:32,563 --> 00:50:35,833
and most reliable account
of his life by Ibn Ishaq.

923
00:50:35,866 --> 00:50:38,469
Neither is there any mention
of it in the great Hadith

924
00:50:38,503 --> 00:50:40,238
of the ninth century.

925
00:50:40,271 --> 00:50:42,973
Muslims do not generally
reject traditions

926
00:50:43,007 --> 00:50:45,110
because they are
critical of Muhammad

927
00:50:45,143 --> 00:50:47,745
but because they cannot
be properly verified.

928
00:50:52,117 --> 00:50:55,120
In 1989 a storm
of violent protest

929
00:50:55,153 --> 00:50:57,822
erupted across
the Islamic world,

930
00:50:57,855 --> 00:50:59,890
when a novel written
by Salman Rushdie

931
00:50:59,924 --> 00:51:01,459
was published in the UK.

932
00:51:01,492 --> 00:51:03,328
The book, The Satanic Verses,

933
00:51:03,361 --> 00:51:05,830
is a fictional account
of this incident

934
00:51:05,863 --> 00:51:08,399
and, Muslims claim,

935
00:51:08,433 --> 00:51:11,369
depicts Muhammad as an impostor
with purely political ambitions

936
00:51:11,402 --> 00:51:13,604
and the Qur'an
as the work of the devil.

937
00:51:13,638 --> 00:51:17,142
All over the world, Muslim
public opinion was outraged.

938
00:51:19,944 --> 00:51:23,681
Well the event
of 14th of January 1989

939
00:51:23,714 --> 00:51:28,786
is the day when I can
very clearly remember

940
00:51:28,819 --> 00:51:31,989
there were over a thousand
people, minimum,

941
00:51:32,022 --> 00:51:38,229
and just to show that we do
disapprove this material,

942
00:51:38,263 --> 00:51:41,232
we will publicly burn this book.

943
00:51:41,266 --> 00:51:43,901
And that is what we
did on that day.

944
00:51:43,934 --> 00:51:46,571
OMAAR:
The burning of the book
was just the start.

945
00:51:46,604 --> 00:51:48,839
Violent demonstrations
and riots broke out

946
00:51:48,873 --> 00:51:51,276
all over the Muslim world.

947
00:51:51,309 --> 00:51:54,712
Attempts by the Muslim community
to have the book banned

948
00:51:54,745 --> 00:51:56,781
were opposed by many

949
00:51:56,814 --> 00:51:58,449
in the name of
freedom of speech.

950
00:51:58,483 --> 00:52:01,118
This issue was
then taken over

951
00:52:01,152 --> 00:52:03,421
by Ayatollah Khomeini,

952
00:52:03,454 --> 00:52:05,823
the then leader of the
Islamic Republic of Iran,

953
00:52:05,856 --> 00:52:08,493
who declared a fatwa,
or religious order,

954
00:52:08,526 --> 00:52:13,063
against Rushdie, calling
for his death by any means.

955
00:52:13,097 --> 00:52:14,832
The Fatwa has never been lifted

956
00:52:14,865 --> 00:52:17,435
and although Rushdie
survived unharmed,

957
00:52:17,468 --> 00:52:19,036
numerous people
connected with the book

958
00:52:19,069 --> 00:52:20,905
have been attacked
and even killed.

959
00:52:25,310 --> 00:52:29,880
A single contentious event
in Muhammad's life--

960
00:52:29,914 --> 00:52:32,283
and one most Muslim scholars
believe never took place--

961
00:52:32,317 --> 00:52:34,852
was being used
to define Muhammad,

962
00:52:34,885 --> 00:52:36,454
who he was
and what he stood for,

963
00:52:36,487 --> 00:52:39,324
and, most importantly,
what it meant

964
00:52:39,357 --> 00:52:41,859
to be a Muslim in today's world.

965
00:52:45,496 --> 00:52:48,666
What this whole issue did
was that it highlighted

966
00:52:48,699 --> 00:52:52,603
a fundamental difference of
views between those in the West

967
00:52:52,637 --> 00:52:54,772
who believed that they
had a right to say

968
00:52:54,805 --> 00:52:56,374
what they wanted to say,

969
00:52:56,407 --> 00:52:58,843
and those Muslims who believed
that they had a right

970
00:52:58,876 --> 00:53:01,879
not to be insulted.

971
00:53:01,912 --> 00:53:04,482
ZIA:
It was a defining moment.

972
00:53:04,515 --> 00:53:06,717
It was the first time
that the British Muslims

973
00:53:06,751 --> 00:53:10,187
came out as a community
to assert themselves,

974
00:53:10,221 --> 00:53:13,624
but it was also a defining
moment internationally.

975
00:53:13,658 --> 00:53:18,463
On one hand, they
rejected what Rushdie wrote,

976
00:53:18,496 --> 00:53:20,431
they were united
in condemning the book.

977
00:53:20,465 --> 00:53:22,633
But on the other hand
they were also united

978
00:53:22,667 --> 00:53:24,269
in condemning the fatwa.

979
00:53:24,302 --> 00:53:28,306
They realized what
is going on in the West

980
00:53:28,339 --> 00:53:31,476
is not acceptable to them,

981
00:53:31,509 --> 00:53:33,644
but they also
realized at the same time

982
00:53:33,678 --> 00:53:35,613
that certain mechanisms
in traditional Islam

983
00:53:35,646 --> 00:53:37,982
were also not
acceptable to them.

984
00:53:38,015 --> 00:53:40,285
OMAAR:
This incident led the
Muslim community in Britain

985
00:53:40,318 --> 00:53:43,421
to feel that they were part

986
00:53:43,454 --> 00:53:46,023
of a larger international
Islamic community

987
00:53:46,056 --> 00:53:48,559
with Muhammad at its heart.

988
00:53:48,593 --> 00:53:50,428
It would also mark
the start of a clash

989
00:53:50,461 --> 00:53:53,698
between the liberal values so
central to Western identity

990
00:53:53,731 --> 00:53:56,267
and the more traditional
and conservative views

991
00:53:56,301 --> 00:53:58,869
in the British Muslim community.

992
00:53:58,903 --> 00:54:00,438
And at the heart of this clash

993
00:54:00,471 --> 00:54:03,274
was the character
of Muhammad himself

994
00:54:03,308 --> 00:54:07,111
and conflicting opinions as to
whether he was a force for good

995
00:54:07,144 --> 00:54:09,246
or evil in the world.

996
00:54:12,317 --> 00:54:15,019
Whatever the truth
of this event,

997
00:54:15,052 --> 00:54:16,887
in Mecca, Muhammad was locked

998
00:54:16,921 --> 00:54:18,889
into a desperate
battle of ideas

999
00:54:18,923 --> 00:54:21,559
between his new message
of the One God,

1000
00:54:21,592 --> 00:54:24,462
and the old tribal
values of the Quraysh.

1001
00:54:32,937 --> 00:54:36,073
The Quraysh had by now imposed
even tougher sanctions

1002
00:54:36,106 --> 00:54:38,643
on Muhammad and his followers.

1003
00:54:38,676 --> 00:54:41,512
From now on no one was allowed
to do any business with them.

1004
00:54:41,546 --> 00:54:43,481
They were not
allowed to intermarry,

1005
00:54:43,514 --> 00:54:46,717
trade or even buy food.

1006
00:54:48,886 --> 00:54:52,790
But in contrast
to some Muslims now,

1007
00:54:52,823 --> 00:54:54,692
even when faced with
this extreme provocation,

1008
00:54:54,725 --> 00:54:56,994
Muhammad and his
followers resisted

1009
00:54:57,027 --> 00:55:00,998
without resorting
to any violence.

1010
00:55:01,031 --> 00:55:03,834
RIZVI:
In the earliest
period you could argue

1011
00:55:03,868 --> 00:55:06,804
that a violent confrontation
wasn't even feasible.

1012
00:55:06,837 --> 00:55:09,440
You know, we were
talking about tens of people,

1013
00:55:09,474 --> 00:55:11,642
maybe then
hundreds of people,

1014
00:55:11,676 --> 00:55:14,178
but certainly not
more than, say, 200 or so.

1015
00:55:14,211 --> 00:55:16,381
And so if there
was a confrontation,

1016
00:55:16,414 --> 00:55:18,783
it would have been a massacre

1017
00:55:18,816 --> 00:55:21,752
and we certainly wouldn't know
such a thing as Islam now.

1018
00:55:21,786 --> 00:55:25,089
OMAAR:
Muhammad's stoic
nonviolent resistance

1019
00:55:25,122 --> 00:55:27,392
began to pay off.

1020
00:55:27,425 --> 00:55:30,395
The people of Mecca
started to react

1021
00:55:30,428 --> 00:55:32,697
against the extreme
measures imposed on people

1022
00:55:32,730 --> 00:55:35,232
who had once been
their clan relatives.

1023
00:55:38,002 --> 00:55:40,571
A huge amount of social
pressure began to be exerted

1024
00:55:40,605 --> 00:55:42,573
on the Quraysh leadership,

1025
00:55:42,607 --> 00:55:45,242
and within two years
after they imposed the ban,

1026
00:55:45,275 --> 00:55:46,777
they had to rescind it.

1027
00:55:46,811 --> 00:55:48,245
But this was by no means

1028
00:55:48,278 --> 00:55:50,214
the end of Muhammad's troubles.

1029
00:55:50,247 --> 00:55:54,218
What Muslims call his year of
sorrows was about to begin.

1030
00:55:57,622 --> 00:56:01,025
A few months after
the ban had been lifted,

1031
00:56:01,058 --> 00:56:04,261
Muhammad's wife and the constant
rock of his life, Khadija, died.

1032
00:56:04,294 --> 00:56:07,432
Muhammad was devastated.

1033
00:56:07,465 --> 00:56:10,435
She had been his beloved wife,
his closest companion

1034
00:56:10,468 --> 00:56:13,871
and advisor for 25 years.

1035
00:56:13,904 --> 00:56:16,073
She had been the
first to recognize him

1036
00:56:16,106 --> 00:56:17,575
as the Prophet of God

1037
00:56:17,608 --> 00:56:19,644
and had been the first
person he had turned to

1038
00:56:19,677 --> 00:56:21,779
when confronted
by the terrifying

1039
00:56:21,812 --> 00:56:24,715
and bewildering
experience of revelation.

1040
00:56:27,852 --> 00:56:30,020
She must have been astonishing

1041
00:56:30,054 --> 00:56:35,893
in that she was the first person
to accept the revelations.

1042
00:56:35,926 --> 00:56:40,230
I mean, you could almost say
that she was the first Muslim

1043
00:56:40,264 --> 00:56:42,667
because she believed
in the revelations

1044
00:56:42,700 --> 00:56:44,769
before the Prophet himself

1045
00:56:44,802 --> 00:56:49,206
and so she had that
instinctive ability to recognize

1046
00:56:49,239 --> 00:56:52,209
authenticity and genius.

1047
00:56:52,242 --> 00:56:56,246
We see her in the sources
as a very maternal figure,

1048
00:56:56,280 --> 00:56:59,984
and this is something the
Prophet had lost himself.

1049
00:57:00,017 --> 00:57:02,620
He had lost his own mother.

1050
00:57:02,653 --> 00:57:04,789
I mean, he really loved Khadija.

1051
00:57:04,822 --> 00:57:09,293
You know, Western critics
often sneer

1052
00:57:09,326 --> 00:57:11,161
at the Prophet's sort
of opportunistic marriage

1053
00:57:11,195 --> 00:57:12,597
to the wealthy widow.

1054
00:57:12,630 --> 00:57:14,565
That's not borne out
in the sources.

1055
00:57:14,599 --> 00:57:17,434
He loved her all his life.

1056
00:57:17,468 --> 00:57:19,870
His later wives used
to hate the mention of her

1057
00:57:19,904 --> 00:57:22,072
because they knew that none of
them could compete with her

1058
00:57:22,106 --> 00:57:23,107
in his heart.

1059
00:57:25,476 --> 00:57:27,044
OMAAR:
Then a few months later,

1060
00:57:27,077 --> 00:57:29,614
Muhammad was hit by
another devastating loss,

1061
00:57:29,647 --> 00:57:33,017
the death of his
uncle, Abu Talib,

1062
00:57:33,050 --> 00:57:35,152
the man who had protected him
from the worst attempts

1063
00:57:35,185 --> 00:57:37,454
of the Quraysh to crush him.

1064
00:57:37,488 --> 00:57:40,257
The leadership of Muhammad's
clan now fell into the hands

1065
00:57:40,290 --> 00:57:42,392
of his most violent opponents.

1066
00:57:42,426 --> 00:57:46,230
Attacks against him increased.

1067
00:57:46,263 --> 00:57:49,199
His enemies now gave
him a stark warning:

1068
00:57:49,233 --> 00:57:52,169
stop spreading your message or
your life could be in danger.

1069
00:57:52,202 --> 00:57:53,838
Muhammad and his
small band of followers

1070
00:57:53,871 --> 00:57:56,741
were now at their
most vulnerable.

1071
00:57:56,774 --> 00:57:58,375
Half of them had
fled to Ethiopia.

1072
00:57:58,408 --> 00:58:01,378
The rest were almost
in hiding in Mecca.

1073
00:58:01,411 --> 00:58:03,948
His enemies were
now openly making plans

1074
00:58:03,981 --> 00:58:07,451
to crush his
embryonic Islamic movement

1075
00:58:07,484 --> 00:58:10,087
and even to kill him.

1076
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:12,489
The next step he would
take would be critical.

1077
00:58:12,523 --> 00:58:14,091
It would shape
not only his future,

1078
00:58:14,124 --> 00:58:15,993
but the history of the world.

1079
00:58:17,394 --> 00:58:20,097
In the next episode,

1080
00:58:20,130 --> 00:58:21,999
Muhammad's persecution
by the Quraysh intensifies

1081
00:58:22,032 --> 00:58:24,769
and he's forced to leave
his hometown of Mecca.

1082
00:58:24,802 --> 00:58:26,503
It also brings him into conflict

1083
00:58:26,537 --> 00:58:28,405
with some of the
Jewish tribes of Arabia,

1084
00:58:28,438 --> 00:58:30,474
leading to one of the most
controversial events

1085
00:58:30,507 --> 00:58:32,242
of his life,

1086
00:58:32,276 --> 00:58:36,280
a massacre whose consequences
still reverberate today.

1087
00:58:36,313 --> 00:58:40,851
I think it seared itself into
the Muslim historical memory,

1088
00:58:40,885 --> 00:58:43,153
and to that extent
it has had an impact

1089
00:58:43,187 --> 00:58:45,455
that we feel down to this day.