Original subtitles

RAGEH OMAAR: 1,400 years ago,

a man born here in Mecca, in Saudi Arabia,

changed the course of world history.

JOHN ADAIR: If you had to rate

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

the name of Muhammad would be in the top three.

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

He gave light to the world.

OMAAR: For one and a half billion Muslims,

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

who have brought the word of God to humanity.

KAREN ARMSTRONG: He was not just a spiritual genius,

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

OMAAR: He laid the foundations

for a religion, Islam, that after his death

developed a culture and civilization

that spread around the world and inspired

some of the most beautiful architecture.

But today Islam is at the very heart of the conflict

that defines our world.

And Muhammad's name

is associated with some of the most appalling acts of terrorism

the world has ever seen.

ROBERT SPENCER: Osama bin Laden and others

who have committed acts of Jihad terrorism

consistently invoke the Qur'an and Muhammad's example

to justify what they are doing.

Obedience to one true God Allah,

and follow in the footsteps of the final prophet

and messenger, Muhammad.

Outside of the Islamic world,

almost nothing is known about Muhammad,

whereas for Muslims he is the ultimate role model

and his life is known in every detail.

So who was he?

What was his message?

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

divided over his legacy?

In this groundbreaking series,

I will explore the many complexities of his life story

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

about his many wives,

about his relations with the Jews of Arabia,

about his use of war and peace

and about the laws that he enacted

when he set up his own state.

I want to examine his life and times and understand

how they still affect today's world

and whether they are a force for good or evil.

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

peace be upon him.

RAGEH OMAAR: Muhammad was born in Mecca in the year 570

into the ruling tribe of the city, the Quraysh.

According to Muslim tradition, at the age of 40,

Muhammad received a revelation from God,

the first of many that would later become the Qur'an,

the sacred text of Islam.

He preached a new message that Allah was the one God,

that he, Muhammad, was his messenger,

and that all human beings

would account for their behavior on the day of judgment.

He slowly built up a small band of followers,

from his family, friends,

and the marginalized sections of Meccan society.

But it was not a message that was always welcome.

Right from the start,

Muhammad's new message brought him into conflict

with the rulers of Mecca, his own tribe, the Quraysh,

who saw him as a direct threat

to their control of the city.

By the time of Muhammad's birth, the Kaaba had long been a shrine

drawing people to the town of Mecca,

the center of pagan cults for the people of Arabia.

For 13 years, Muhammad and his small band of followers

endured increasingly brutal persecution

at the hands of the Quraysh

until they were forced to leave Mecca,

and begin a new life in the city of Medina.

Muhammad's newfound power at the head

of Medina's Jewish and pagan tribes

threatened the Quraysh's status as Arabia's pre-eminent tribe.

Several times they tried to crush Muhammad

and his followers by force.

In the final battle, it's alleged

that one of Medina's Jewish tribes switched allegiances,

and in retaliation, all the Jewish men of that tribe

were massacred on charge of treason.

It was one of the most controversial incidents

in Muhammad's life.

With the ending of the siege of Medina,

Muhammad had overcome the most powerful Arab army

ever assembled against him and once again he had humiliated

his Quraysh opponents.

He had seen off all local opposition to his rule,

and what's more he had ensured the survival

of the Muslim community here in Medina.

He was by now arguably the most powerful man in all of Arabia.

The revelations Muhammad received

would go on to form the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an.

They came to him throughout his life,

and every time they occurred, it was a terrifying

and exhausting experience.

He frequently had to struggle to make sense of them.

Some came as words, others as visions

that needed intense concentration

to understand their meaning.

ARMSTRONG: He would always say that, "Never once did I receive a revelation

without feeling that my soul had been torn from my body."

He'd go pale and he'd sweat even on a cold day.

It's an effort to speak the word of God.

BARNABY ROGERSON: For me, the Prophet has got

that sort of terrifying, brief access to divine power

and he's using that consciousness

that sort of flooded into his body and creating the words.

TOM HOLLAND: Muhammad is born into an age where it is taken for granted

that the veil which obscures the dimension of the heavenly,

the dimension of the angelic, can be penetrated

by men of peculiar vision or holiness,

and this is taken for granted by Christian, by Jewish,

by Zoastrian holy men.

And it is why people are able to accept his assurance

that he is receiving revelations from God.

It is why they are able to accept it.

OMAAR: This kind of spiritual experience

is not normally associated with Islam.

One Muslim group though, the Sufis,

claim to try to replicate Muhammad's mystical experience

of God through intense prayer,

the chanting of God's name, and singing verses from the Qur'an.

(translator) When prophet Muhammad was saying his prayers

while he was mediating and communicating with God,

he used to hear the divine instructions and then act.

That's why in Sufism and in Islam,

we also try and come close to God.

Through our rituals,

we try to be one with him.

Prophet Muhammad is an example of this.

Whatever he did during his prayers,

or during his daily life,

is there for us to take example.

OMAAR: The Sufis have developed

their own elaborate rituals and techniques,

and here in Turkey they even dance.

Although there is no evidence to suggest that

Muhammad followed these rituals, the Sufis see him

as an inspiration for their spiritual experience.

(praying)

SAJJAD RIZVI: The Prophet as a perfect human-- that's very much a part of

both theological and Sufi traditions in Islam.

His perfection lies in the fact

that it is only through him that one can know God.

(chanting)

OMAAR: At the center of the ceremony is the practice of Zhikr,

or the repeated lyrical chanting of God's name,

to bring people closer to God.

The chanting is followed

by a particularly Turkish Sufi practice

to induce a trance-like condition through dance.

(singing and chanting)

ZIAUDDIN SARDAR: Every religion generates

its own diversity of spiritual practices.

Islam is no exception.

We have number of different spiritual traditions

of which Sufism is but one.

Now the Prophet prayed, he meditated, he contemplated,

but he also said, "Pray, but tie your camel."

That means praying itself is not good enough,

you have to do good,

you have to create a healthy, better society at the same time.

Anybody who follows this spiritual tradition

and does good-- and the emphasis on doing good

is very, very important--

is in fact following on the way of Muhammad.

OMAAR: But Muhammad's spiritual experiences were firmly rooted

in the practical necessities of life.

He was not someone who retired from the world,

but worked continually to reform Arabian society.

Instead of simply waiting for paradise

at the end of the world,

Muhammad tried to create his own ideal society

in his own lifetime.

By 627 A.D., Muhammad had become a powerful ruler in Medina,

but by all accounts in his personal habits

and way of life, he remained modest.

He continued to live next to his small mosque

that served both as a place of worship

and as center for his work.

Everyone was free to enter and speak with him--

Jews, Christians, non-believers, even slaves.

SARDAR: If you read the accounts,

it is clear that he is a very charismatic figure.

He is a person that numerous people came for advice,

constantly came for advice,

But it was not just that he was dispensing sage advice,

he was always listening to people.

He comes out as a very humane and warm person.

I think Muhammad does come across

in many different contexts as being quite gentle,

quite reluctant to find fault.

He seemed a very fair individual.

OMAAR: Muslim sources talk of his simple taste in clothes

and his dislike of gold or silk or other luxuries.

He did not care for possessions and gave much away

in charity or as gifts.

ADAIR: I haven't personally detected any sign

that Muhammad was guided by power.

I think his integrity remained intact.

He was scrupulous over any corruption or financial issues.

I think he stood out as a kind of exemplary human being

who could combine that moral vision

with the requirements of being

a leader of a growing organization.

ROGERSON: He is a searcher--

a searcher for truth and understanding

throughout his life.

And he's a man who used the magic of his own language.

He used the genius of the Arab people,

infused it with something worldwide,

to make something that humankind could understand.

OMAAR: Muhammad received revelations throughout his life,

but between Mecca and Medina,

their content changed significantly.

Whereas in Mecca,

the revelations dealt with inward principles

of spirituality and faith,

here in Medina the revelations would be far more practical.

They provided a blueprint for how one should live life

on a day-to-day basis as a Muslim--

from the social to the political.

A blueprint that many Muslims try to follow today.

BENNISON: Whilst in Mecca he is very much a religious preacher,

he talks much more about issues such as

the end of time, you know, it's about morality,

about justice and these kind of things,

but once he moves to Medina, he is the functioning leader

of a community.

He therefore has to get much more involved

in the day-to-day running of a community;

how people interact with each other;

how people manage inheritance;

how people greet each other even.

OMAAR: The revelations could be quite explicit--

all Muslims should pay a tax to support the sick and needy.

Or they could be general guidelines

about how to treat others to promote justice

and human dignity.

Muhammad used these principles in deciding matters

brought to him as the ruler of Medina.

Over time, a moral code was revealed to Muhammad

based on ideas of social justice for all.

In the Qur'an, it was called Sharia,

or "the way to know God."

TARIQ RAMADAN: We have three verses

where the concept is revealed in one way or another,

in one form or another.

And, in fact, what was understood

by the Prophet and his companions

is that what they were trying to implement

was, in fact, this way towards God.

So this is why we have a problem of defining the word

because the scholars afterward defined Sharia as God's law.

But because they were jurists--

so for them Sharia is all about law.

But what he was doing is just promoting,

you know, brotherhood, justice, equality, freedom.

This is Sharia, in fact.

OMAAR: What is known today as Sharia law,

the sacred law of Islam, is very different.

It only came into existence two centuries after Muhammad's death

when Muslim legal experts devised a legal code

to help run the ever-expanding Islamic empire.

They used a mixture of Qur'anic teachings and examples

from Muhammad's life.

Many Muslims now regard that version of Sharia

as the unalterable law of God.

The underlying principles of Islamic law appear in the Qur'an

and there are some detailed regulations

related to very specific areas such as inheritance,

which you do find in the Qur'an,

but the Sharia itself is a human edifice

constructed over time.

It's mans attempt to understand God's will and implement it.

But there are divergent views within the Sharia,

there are contradictory rulings,

and so it's certainly not a code

sent down directly from God.

It's something much more flexible and fluid

and adaptive to circumstance.

OMAAR: In Medina, Muhammad made many radical changes

to the customs of his tribal past.

He abolished the brutal tradition of blood feuds.

Women acquired a share in inheritance and secured rights

to own property.

But the Qur'an also ordered more traditional penalties

such as the amputation of limbs for stealing,

although there is no evidence Muhammad ever did this.

Many of these punishments still form part of Sharia law today.

DAVID WOOD: There was the practice of female infanticide

in 7th century Arabia.

So if you had a daughter,

and you didn't want to take care of a daughter

for 13 or 15 years until someone's going to marry her,

you toss her out into the desert and she would die.

Muhammad put an end to that.

Muhammad put an emphasis on helping orphans and widows--

we would look at that and say,

"Great, that's a great teaching."

But certainly we find many teachings that we would consider

barbaric by today's standards.

Stoning of adulterers and adulteresses,

chopping off body parts for those who steal things.

These are certain things I would

regard as backwards.

RAMADAN: Today, because we are facing the West

because we are having a very narrow understanding,

we come with something that Sharia is,

how we are going to implement very narrow understanding

of what a marriage is, of what punishment are.

I think that this is not the way

and this is why I am saying today,

if I am speaking about Sharia,

I live in the West, and in the West we have laws

where you and me, we are equal before law.

This is my Sharia.

This is where we have to come with a better,

a deeper understanding of the very essence of Sharia.

OMAAR: Some Muslim states, such as Saudi Arabia and Iran,

base their entire legal system

on Sharia law with punishments that many regard as medieval

in their brutality.

So calls by Muslim extremists

to introduce Sharia law in Europe and in Britain

have led to street protests and the rise of political parties

campaigning against what they see

as the spread of Islamic influence.

NONIE DARWISH: This is the problem,

that in the 21st century we still have nations

who are beheading people,

who are cutting the limbs of people,

cutting the hands and feet.

There are women today being stoned to death

by the government for sexual violations.

Not for murder, it's not for a crime

of taking someone else's life,

and it's an inhumane way of killing.

(crowd shouting)

RAMADAN: All these people who are stoning the people

and are just starting with punishments

say this is Sharia.

I say no, that's not Sharia, this is a way you are

instrumentalizing religion for your own sake.

I have one question-- how have you been elected?

Are you elected?

Are you representing the people?

Let me start with the first question,

because you have no legitimacy, no way for you to implement this

in the name of Islam if you are not legitimate.

And many of the people who are doing it starting with this

are not really elected and they are not chosen by the people.

So their own status is important.

And then there is a second question.

What about social justice?

What about equal rights?

What about education?

Are you going to punish people without educating them?

Is this Islam?

No, Islam is starting with education.

And as for the punishment, is another story.

Don't start with punishment,

start with dignity and rights, not with punishment

because punishment is the way you instrumentalize religion

just to make yourself being legitimate while you are not.

(crowd shouting)

Like all law, Sharia law, at least in theory,

is supposed to be a changing, evolving institution.

But what we have under the rubric of Sharia law today

is actually frozen in history.

It is the interpretations of jurists

undertaken during the 8th and 9th century.

That is what we call Sharia law.

That's why wherever Sharia law is implemented

it recreates the conditions of the 8th and 9th century.

What the Muslims need to do

is to reformulate Sharia law, and this reformulation

has to be continuous and constant.

Because the word Sharia itself means

"the way to the watering hole".

Why do you go to the watering hole?

To drink water.

It is something that we need to drink all the time.

That means it has to be refreshed,

rethought and reformulated from epoch to epoch.

(bird screeching)

OMAAR: It was now 627 A.D.

Muhammad had a secure power base in Medina.

Although he had frustrated all the efforts of his enemies,

the Quraysh, to destroy him, they were still powerful

and in control of Mecca.

If Muhammad was to succeed in bringing his message

to all the people of Arabia,

he had to find a solution to break this stalemate.

One of the key lessons from the battles for Muhammad

was that he was going to find it very difficult

to overcome the Meccans militarily.

He had to try to undermine them politically.

What he needed was to strike alliances

with the other tribes across Arabia.

And one of the key ways of doing this was through marriage.

For Muhammad's critics, his polygamous marriages

have always been a problem.

But at that time in Arabia, polygamy was the norm;

and it wasn't until after the death of his first wife

that Muhammad had several wives at the same time.

Some accounts say nine, others 11 or 13.

Some were widows.

Some were women captured after battles

who, by marrying him, were granted their freedom.

One was even a Christian Coptic slave presented to him

by the Byzantine ruler of Egypt.

But his most controversial marriage

was to the daughter of his closest companion,

a young girl called Aisha.

According to some sources,

Aisha is supposed to have been betrothed at age six or seven,

then formally married at nine.

Other accounts make her older-- nearly 16 or 17.

It's this lack of clarity that has left Muhammad

open to serious condemnation from many critics.

SERGE TRIFKOVIC: If you are a 53-year-old man,

and you take a nine-year-old girl into your bed

and consummate the marriage,

it is not all right.

Not only from the standpoint of 21st century morality

of the Western world,

but of what one might say natural morality

of most societies most of the time.

RAMADAN: My position on this is that she was older,

she was between 16 and 18

and not six and nine.

So these are scholars of today... but not today,

in fact, last century,

trying to get a sense that might be we are repeating this

but this is not really true

it is not something which is in the Qur'an,

it's in the prophetic traditions and we have to check about this.

And I would say that age here is problematic in itself.

OMAAR: Muhammad's marriage to Aisha lasted till his death,

and she later became a prominent political leader

in her own right.

Muslim historians claim that it was her differences

with Muhammad's cousin and son-in-law Ali

that eventually led to the great schism in Islam,

between the Sunni and the Shia sects.

MERRYL DAVIES: The real point in this, and it is lost in all this argument,

is who was Aisha and what did she become?

She grew up in the Prophet's household

to become a really feisty, independent, intelligent,

politically aware woman,

and she is a foundation of our understanding

of the Prophet's life.

Without Aisha, half of what we know of the Prophet disappears.

OMAAR: A series of further revelations defined Islamic marriage.

They also provided Muhammad's critics with more ammunition,

as they said that while Muhammad was allowed

to keep all his wives,

in future Muslim men would only be allowed a maximum

of four wives as long as they could support them

and treat them all equally.

ABDUR-RAHEEM GREEN: We have to understand the Prophet Muhammad

in the context of his time.

Pagan Arabia is a place

where there is unlimited polygamy--

that is the normal practice.

Islam comes and limits that polygamy.

For Muslims, it is limited to four wives.

The Prophet is allowed and the Prophet is previously married

up to nine wives.

He is also prohibited from adding any more to that number,

but those wives that he is married to

he is allowed to keep.

There is a simple reason for that.

The importance of building tribal alliances.

This is very, very important.

The Prophet is not only a prophet,

he is a leader of his people, and building those alliances

is hugely important.

WOOD: Now, the justification for Muhammad having more wives

is Sura 33:50, which gave Muhammad, and only Muhammad,

permission to marry as many women as he wanted to marry,

and we have to be somewhat skeptical.

So many people have claimed to be prophets.

When we look at a prophet and his revelations give him

more sexual partners than anyone else is allowed to have,

I say we have some reason for suspicion here.

ARMSTRONG: It would be entirely mistaken to imagine the Prophet

basking decadently in a garden of earthly delights.

These are political marriages.

He marries Aisha

because he wants to bind himself more closely with their fathers.

He's creating a new community

not based on tribe or blood, but somehow this helps

to make the transition easier if you make a marriage link.

OMAAR: We know from Muslim sources that some of Muhammad's marriages

even caused him problems during his own lifetime.

For example, when he married the divorced wife

of his adopted son, his enemies spread rumors

that it was an incestuous relationship

in an attempt to divide the Muslim community.

His marriage to his former daughter-in-law

Zaynab bint Jahsh, when he married her

it's clear that there were protests from the community,

and people thought that this was

a shocking, scandalizing kind of thing for him to have done.

OMAAR: According to the sources,

Muhammad faced another marital crisis

when Aisha went missing during a journey.

She was eventually found and brought back to Medina

by a man who had known her before her marriage to Muhammad.

Again, his enemies spread rumors that something scandalous

must have happened between them.

According to Muslim tradition,

Muhammad himself was at first unsure who to believe,

but eventually, after a new revelation from God,

he accepted Aisha's protestations of innocence.

At that time in Arabia, adulterers were traditionally

stoned to death.

This new revelation defined how any future allegations

of adultery should be dealt with,

and surprisingly, in complete contrast

to the extreme views held by groups like the Taliban.

AJMAL MASROOR: The punishment of stoning to death

was borrowed from Christianity and Judaism

from the Old Testament, of course, as we know.

In the Qur'an, punishment for having sex outside marriage

is lashing hundred times on your backside,

only if it can be proven that four people

have seen the act of penetration,

which is very difficult to prove.

OMAAR: Muhammad's wives lived with him in specially built rooms

adjoining the courtyard of his mosque in Medina.

It was a very busy public place and privacy was hard to find.

With the continual attempts of Muhammad's enemies

to create division,

the potential for future scandal was always there,

so something had to be done.

One day Muhammad received a new revelation

that instructed his wives to cover themselves

to maintain their modesty.

This act of veiling or covering

has had a profound effect on Muslim women,

and also how the outside world views Islam's attitudes

to women in general.

There are injunctions about the Prophet's wives

wearing some kind of covering--

it's not exactly clear what that covering is--

but it's to distinguish them.

And this is all part and parcel

of the difficult divisions in Medina,

because Muhammad's enemies in Medina

were using his wives to discredit him.

And so some kind of distinction needed to be made,

but veiling was not for all women.

OMAAR: Today the veil is seen by Islam's critics

as symbolic of its attitude to women in general

and its desire to oppress them.

But the more universal veiling of women

did not become an Islamic custom

until more than a hundred years after Muhammad's death.

As far as the religion is concerned,

there is a requirement of modesty for both men and women,

but how you fulfill that requirement is open to debate.

You know, I don't feel that I am compromising myself

as a Muslim by not wearing the hijab,

and I certainly don't not wear it

because I am trying to say

I'm not actually such a serious Muslim.

You can't judge the seriousness of someone's faith

and belief by what they wear.

OMAAR: Over the last 20 years,

in Britain, as in many western countries,

the veil has become a form of identity

for many Muslim women.

Some just cover their hair, others their entire face.

It is a controversial issue

with some European countries

now banning women from using the veil.

Fatima Barkatullah is a writer on Islamic women.

Fatima, are you wearing the veil

because you are obliged to because of your family,

or do you do it out of free will?

For me it is absolutely 100% free will.

It's very much about a

spiritual journey,

and about wanting to be

the best I can be in God's eyes.

When I'm getting ready in the morning to go out,

I'll just cover what I would normally be wearing,

you know, whether it's jeans or whatever I'm wearing,

with something like this... Which is a gown?

Yes, it's an outer garment--

people call it the abaya or a jilbab.

And then I wear this,

which is a khimar, or a scarf,

and then I wear this small face veil,

this is very much my public face, if you like.

OMAAR: But why do you choose to wear the full face covering

as opposed to this the khimar, the scarf,

which you see a lot of other Muslim women

wearing as well?

I believe that

the more modest I can be,

the more of a virtue it is.

So essentially I'm doing it to please God.

Where do you feel this comes from?

Is it in the Qur'an?

Yes, you'll find it in the Qur'an.

The verse in the SuratAhzab

clearly says, "O Prophet tell

"your wives, your daughters,

and the women of the believers"--

meaning the Muslim women--

"that when they go out of their homes

they should wear their outer garments,"

and the word in Arabic is jalabeeb,

which has two orthodox interpretations, actually.

But that's the point, this is all in interpretation.

There isn't anywhere in the Qur'an

which says it is a rule for Muslim women

that they must wear a veil.

It's in the interpretation.

As far as the face is concerned,

there is some difference of opinion.

DAVIES: The one verse

that specifically does deal with clothing

actually says, "Cover your nakedness"

not shroud yourself in a black bag.

Now, Muslinterpretedim women have interpretated it,

Muslim men have interpolated practices

from other societies into the interpretation of the religion,

and identity politics has a great deal to do with it.

But I say women should be free to choose,

but there is no compulsion,

and there is no requirement for them to veil themselves.

OMAAR: Despite the best efforts of his enemies to discredit him

through his marriages,

Muhammad had used them to confirm

and widen his power base in Arabia.

He could now turn his attention again to Mecca.

In early 628 A.D., he told his followers

that they were going to set out to perform the annual Hajj rites

of the Kaaba, in Mecca.

For Muhammad and his followers,

the Kaaba had become central to their worship,

the place to which they turned in prayer.

They believed it had been originally built

by the Prophet Abraham,

and regarded it as the ultimate symbol of their faith--

the unity of the one God, Allah.

But access to the Kaaba was controlled

by Muhammad's enemies, the Quraysh, the rulers of Mecca.

It contained shrines to the hundreds of gods worshipped

by all the tribes in Arabia.

Muhammad was now determined

to challenge their control of this sacred shrine.

The Prophet announces that he is going to make the Hajj.

Must have been astonishing

because on the Hajj you are not allowed to carry weapons.

He was going unarmed into the enemy territory.

ROGERSON It's when, again, you touch the magic

of Muhammad as a man.

He fought wars and now he just said,

"Right, we're off to pray to God."

OMAAR: Muhammad and the convoy of followers

were forced to stop here at Hudaybiyyah,

which is about eight miles outside of the Holy City,

because the Quraysh had reacted with characteristic aggression

and they had sent a cavalry in order to stop the convoy.

And so began a series of frenetic negotiations

with emissaries going between Muhammad and the Quraysh.

They eventually arrived at an agreement.

But the so-called Treaty of Hudaybiyyah,

signed at a spot marked by the mosque just behind me,

looked like the most humiliating of compromises for Muhammad.

The Quraysh insisted that Muhammad and his followers

return to Medina without performing the Hajj rites.

They also insisted that all raids on Meccan caravans

by the Muslim forces under Muhammad's command should stop.

In return they would allow Muhammad and his followers

to return to Mecca as pilgrims to perform the Hajj,

but only in the following year.

And when it came to signing the documents

which describes Muhammad

as "the messenger of God",

the Quraysh emissary objected saying that to them,

he was only "Muhammad the son of Abdullah".

For Muhammad's followers, this was an unbearable insult.

According to Muslim tradition, when Muhammad's young cousin

Ali, who was doing the writing, heard this,

he refused to strike out the words "the messenger of God."

Muhammad says, "Give me the pen, point out the words

'messenger of God'" and he strikes it out himself.

See it as a striking out of ego there,

not standing on your right.

The Qur'an says that if the enemy asks for peace,

you must lay down your arms immediately

and accept any terms, however disadvantageous.

OMAAR: For Muhammad's followers, the terms of this treaty

and particularly the treatment of Muhammad

were completely humiliating.

It was only Muhammad's adamant attitude

that kept them from mutiny.

What Muhammad was trying to do

was totally unheard of in 7th century Arabia.

In a society of honor,

traditionally blood feuds ruled the day.

But after years of bloody but inconclusive conflict,

Muhammad now wanted to defeat his enemies not through war

but by peace.

By signing a truce with the Quraysh,

he had not only gained access to the Kaaba,

albeit at a later date,

but also extracted from them the crucial acknowledgement

that he and they were now equals.

RIZVI: In the sense, Hudaybiyyah does represent

a minimal option, which is,

"Okay we can't get what we want now,

but we can get it in the future if we make this agreement."

And a truce in which people were not fighting

was always preferable to war.

This is, again, something which is Qur'anically given,

that, you know, peace is better than war.

It's repeated again and again.

So it very much fits within that particular type of principle.

OMAAR: As he and his followers were returning to Medina,

Muhammad then received a new revelation

confirming that the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

was a not a humiliating defeat.

He said, "I've just had a revelation."

He said this was a manifest victory, says the God.

It may have looked like a defeat but it was a manifest victory.

The Quraysh were filled with all the violence

of the old tribal spirit,

and they were filled with contempt and pride.

It was the Muslims, the spirit of peace

that filled their hearts.

Sometimes this is forgotten.

We hear all about Muhammad's wars,

but we forget this extraordinary non-violent offensive.

After Hudaybiyyah,

the tide had turned in his favor with a campaign of non-violence.

JOHN ESPOSITO: A primary vehicle that Muhammad did use

was diplomacy at the time.

He went out, visited the tribes,

engaged with major religious leaders,

attempted to form pacts,

created, if you look at the community at Medina,

created a space for other faiths and other people.

But when faced with resistance or aggression,

did exactly what the standards of the time

would have legitimated.

And I think that that is clearly there.

You do not see the Prophet consistently

calling for wholesale killing

of all those who disagreed with him.

OMAAR: The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah marks a turning point

in Muhammad's attempts to spread his message throughout Arabia.

But it also shows that he was prepared to suffer

the utmost humiliation from his worst enemies

in pursuit of peace.

And yet in today's world,

the most commonly held views of Muhammad

is that he is the enemy of peace,

and that Islam is the religion of jihad--

commonly taken to mean "holy war".

(sirens wailing)

Thousands have been killed all over the world

by groups that are now called Jihadi,

a term never used in Muhammad's time.

And yet these groups all claim the Qur'an

and Muhammad himself as inspiration

and justification for their actions.

(music playing)

It is very clear, brothers and sisters,

that the path of jihad, and the desire for martyrdom

was deeply embedded in the Holy Prophet

and their beloved companions.

OMAAR: Most so-called jihadis

usually refer to a verse in the Qur'an,

now known as the "sword verse",

as justification for their violent acts.

If you come back to the Qur'an you have this verse.

No one can deny that there are verses

very, very much dealing with war and violence.

Now, as we have to deal with the Qur'an,

it's an eternal book dealing with history.

These verses were revealed in a very specific period of time

where the Muslims were under oppression and trying to resist,

and just to survive.

So we have to contextualize this.

The mainstream classical tradition

in the Shia and the Sunni tradition

is saying you can't use these verses

just to promote war and to kill innocent people.

This is wrong.

OMAAR: The interpretation of individual Qur'anic verses

goes to the heart of this controversy.

But most scholars now agree that the term Jihad

does not mean holy war.

Its real meaning is completely different.

The concept of jihad emerges out of the Holy Qur'an,

out of the revelation that the Prophet receives.

And there are about 35 examples in the Qur'an of the word jihad

or the term basically being used,

and often in the case of striving.

Now striving can be all sorts of things,

it can be striving against the baseness of oneself,

it can be a seeking to overcome evil and being good,

it can be striving in the sense of fighting.

But jihad is always distinguished from fighting

and a different terminology is used for the words fighting.

OMAAR: In all the battles that Muhammad fought,

the rules of engagement were always carefully delineated

within the context of his time,

and what was generally acceptable.

But there are no recorded instances

of deliberate attacks on civilian populations.

BONNEY: One of the points about jihad

in the early Islamic tradition,

both in the Prophet's lifetime and afterwards,

is that there is a gradual evolution of an idea

towards something like a just war.

And the just war is a constraint on the army,

does not attack or massacre civilians,

doesn't kill women or children,

doesn't kill priests of other religions, incidentally,

and so on.

And this draws on the practice in the lifetime of the Prophet.

OMAAR: These rules of engagement appear to have been forgotten

by today's Muslim extremists.

Suicide bombers kill people not only in Western cities,

but also in mosques and other places of worship

in the Muslim world itself.

In Britain today, no Muslim activist or group

will openly defy the law

by accepting or agreeing to the use of violence.

But over the last ten years,

more than 200 Muslims have been convicted

of terrorist-related offenses.

In 2008, Abdul Muhid was convicted and jailed

for two years for terrorist funding.

Mizanur Rehman was charged for soliciting murder,

and jailed for four years in 2006.

Both have now served their sentences,

but still have strong views

about the role of jihad in today's world.

Has the modern interpretation of jihad

changed in any way,

because for most people today

jihad means just one thing doesn't it?

It means fighting in the physical struggle?

The scholars of Islam in the past,

they all agreed that jihad means fighting non-Muslims yes,

but not just for the sake

of forcing them to be Muslim,

but to make the word of Allah the highest

by removing the obstacles

from the implementation of the Sharia,

and for the call to Islam to spread across the world.

From your interpretation of the Prophet's life,

is it permitable at any time

in jihad to attack non-combatants?

If I just cut straight to the point

the argument of Islamic terrorists is this--

if you choose a government that represents you,

and they decide to bomb a country,

or kill people,

then you have blood on your hands.

It's like hiring, for example, a murderer.

If I pay a murderer to go and kill someone,

it's not just the murderer that is blameworthy.

I share that blame.

So if you say by non-combatants

these people voted for a government

that is carrying out crimes,

then they share the blame,

And obviously in the eyes of the Islamic terrorists,

they are blameworthy.

These ideas are abhorrent to Muslims and non-Muslims

and would have been unrecognizable to Muhammad.

For him, the concept of jihad

was not just simply about killing and war,

but it was about striving to improve yourself

in the eyes of God.

There is the concept of just war in Islam

and Muhammad himself fought many battles,

but for him there was no justification

of the killing of innocent people.

The verses of the Qur'an

that talk about fighting and defending yourself

don't legitimize killing yourself deliberately

and killing others in that process.

Remember, in Islam, collateral damage is not allowed.

Intentionally bombing a group of people,

assuming that your target would be killed as well as others,

and the others would be collateral damage,

is completely disallowed in Islam.

OMAAR: Muhammad's peaceful jihad

was now about to come to fruition.

Under the terms of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah,

he could embark on a journey that would take him back

to the city of his birth; the city he had left

nearly seven years ago as a refugee,

penniless and in fear of his life.

He was now returning as the head of an ever-expanding

religious community,

the most powerful leader in Arabia.

In February 629,

Muhammad agreed with the Quraysh to be allowed back into Mecca,

in order to visit the Kaaba.

The Quraysh agreed to allow Muhammad and his followers

into the Kaaba for three days.

And yet, during that time,

it marked a change in people's perceptions

towards Muhammad and his followers.

The people of Mecca saw the Muslims enter the Kaaba,

and they observed how well behaved they were,

how sincere they were, and it was important

because it showed that slowly but surely

the stranglehold of the Quraysh in Mecca

was beginning to crumble.

A year later, the Quraysh broke the truce

by attacking one of Muhammad's allies.

It was a fatal mistake.

In January 630, the Prophet gathered a massive army

of 10,000 men and marched towards Mecca.

The Quraysh were powerless to resist

and they fully expected Muhammad

to storm into Mecca and exact a bloody revenge

for the many years of persecution and war.

Their control of the city was at an end.

But it was what he did next at this,

his hour of ultimate victory, that left people stunned.

Muhammad declared that he forgave all his former enemies.

He then said that there was to be a general amnesty,

and he said that no one

was to be forced to convert to Islam.

Instead of revenge,

Muhammad consciously chose reconciliation.

RIZVI: The conquest of Mecca is very important,

because there's a wide-ranging amnesty given,

and people were given options of accepting the faith,

or going elsewhere or whatever.

But certainly there was this notion that once Mecca is taken,

and Mecca is considered to be

the cultic center now of this new faith,

certainly the first stage of the mission is complete,

so there's no need for fighting.

OMAAR: For Muhammad, this was the moment he had been waiting for.

He had come back to Mecca

not to kill the Quraysh,

but to restore the Kaaba to its role as the sacred shrine

to the one God.

According to Muslim tradition,

when he and thousands of his followers entered the Kaaba,

they destroyed the many gods and effigies placed there.

ROGERSON: He pardons the Meccans,

but he doesn't just pardon them, he pardons them with kindness,

and he almost drowns their criticisms with gifts.

And there is that sort of wonderful instance

of just the tribal sheiks,

who had never really opposed and never listened to his message--

all they wanted was cattle, more camels and more silver--

and he gives it to them.

DAVIES: It seems to me that's the heart and the essence

of the life of the Prophet, the moment it was building to.

From what I understand and know

of the personality of the Prophet,

it is the most characteristic moment in his entire life.

He was not a vengeful man.

His message was not about vengeance,

but about constructing

a transformative reformative process,

building society by including everybody.

So it seems to me that when he came back to Mecca,

that's when I say, yes, that's the point from which we begin.

That's the model we need to build on.

And then he goes home.

There is no attempt to impose

what we'd call today an Islamic state.

So, we're not talking about doctrinal conformity,

we're talking about ending this tribalism

which sets people off against one another.

OMAAR: Although Mecca was now his,

Muhammad chose not to move back to the city of his birth.

Instead he returned to his adopted home, Medina.

And with the Quraysh defeated,

it wasn't long before the rest of Arabia joined his cause.

Muhammad's bloodless conquest of Mecca

was clear proof that his movement was succeeding.

And what's more, his message of justice

and using peace and reconciliation

as a means of delivering that message

was beginning to attract huge numbers of converts.

In fact, tribes were beginning to convert wholesale.

By 631, the last pagan stronghold of Taif fell.

Now Muhammad was effectively

the ruler of the whole of Muslim Arabia.

More than 20 years had passed

since he had received his first revelation.

For over a decade he and his followers

had eked out a precarious existence.

Time after time they had been on the verge of destruction,

but they had managed to survive through a combination of

Muhammad's spiritual, military and political leadership.

and, finally, after a seemingly humiliating treaty,

to triumph over their enemies.

Muhammad expressed and exemplified

the qualities that we now see universally

are characteristic of a good leader and a leader for good--

enthusiasm, integrity,

then the combination of toughness and demandingness

and fairness is very important in leaders universally.

And Muhammad had all those attributes, very clearly.

I think warmth, humanity, kindness is important too.

And, again, if you look at the traditions

of the life of Muhammad,

there are plenty of examples where he showed

those kinds of humane qualities.

By the year 632 Muhammad had achieved

almost all he had set out to achieve.

He created a level of peace and security

that Arabia had rarely known.

He laid out the foundations and rules of Islam

and he created the foundations of a new Muslim community.

But by this time he was 60 years old,

and his health was beginning to fail.

In that year, he came to Mecca for the last time

and he performed his first and only Hajj, or pilgrimage,

and he gave what would become known as the "farewell sermon".

Sitting here on a camel, on the plains of Arafat,

he spoke to a vast crowd

with strategically placed announcers relaying his words.

It was a deeply emotional speech in which, in his own words,

Muhammad summarized what he felt

he and his followers had achieved.

"O People! Lend me an attentive ear,

"for I know not whether after this year

"I shall ever be amongst you again.

"Therefore, listen carefully to what I am saying

"and take these words to those who could not

be present here today."

You see in the final sermon

this heartfelt plea from the Prophet

warning the Muslims about certain things,

advising them about certain things.

You can see his worries for the future of Muslims,

and that these words are something

that they should take note of and they should hang on to

and they should be aware because in here,

is a very, very important message for every Muslim.

OMAAR: "Do not therefore do injustice to yourselves.

"Remember one day you will meet Allah and answer your deeds.

"So beware, do not astray from the path of righteousness

after I am gone."

ESPOSITO: Remember what God's earliest message was, to Abraham,

to Adam, to Moses, to Jesus etc,

and remember that the only real reality,

the ultimate reality, is the one true God.

And that that God is the creator, sustainer,

and judge of the universe.

OMAAR: "All mankind is from Adam and Eve.

"An Arab has no superiority over a non-Arab,

"nor a non-Arab has any superiority over an Arab.

"Also, a white has no superiority over black,

"nor a black has any superiority over white

except by piety and good action."

ARMSTRONG: He's saying all humans are one.

God has called you from the tribalism of paganism,

and it's pride in ancestors,

but remember all men came from Adam and Adam came from dust.

And then he quotes these words from the Qur'an

which really speak to our time.

"Oh people," God says to humanity,

"we have formed you from a male and a female,

"and have formed you into tribes and nations

"so that you may get to know one another,

"not so that you may fight or oppress or occupy

"or convert or terrorize,

but so that you may get to know one another."

OMAAR: "All those who listen to me

"shall pass on my words to others

"and those to others again;

"and may the last ones understand my words

"better than those who listen to me directly.

"Be my witness, O Allah,

that I have conveyed your message to your people."

ARMSTRONG: And he asks them, "Oh people, oh Muslims,

have I fulfilled my mandate to you?"

And they cry na'am-- yes.

And it rings around.

And he asks them three times, "Have I?"

And each time they reply "na'am".

And I think it's a most moving moment.

SARDAR: Well that's the summation of his life.

So he emphasizes all the principles

that he has been teaching for the last 23 years.

He says, for example, there is no difference

between Arab and non-Arab.

Look after your family.

So it's kind of summation of his life.

If you did nothing else but simply read the last sermon,

you will get the essence of the life of Muhammad.

DAVIES: The Prophet's final sermon

sets the agenda for modern, contemporary Muslim society.

It shows were we failed,

and it shows were we have to try to get to.

It sums up the transformative mission

that was the life of the Prophet.

OMAAR: After his farewell pilgrimage,

Muhammad returned to his small house in Medina exhausted.

He had begun to have headaches and fainting fits.

He tried to attend public prayers in the mosque,

but he was more and more confined to his bed

where Aisha nursed him.

One day he appeared to get better,

and the news spread like wildfire around the oasis.

But it was only a brief reprieve.

On the 8th of June, 632,

Muhammad died in the house of his wife Aisha.

The news stunned his followers.

Some refused to accept the truth.

Panic began to take hold.

How could the messenger of God be dead?

His closest companion, Abu Bakr, calmed their fears,

reminding them that Muhammad had never claimed to be

anything other than a mere mortal,

and that only God is to be worshiped, not Muhammad.

He was buried here, next to his mosque,

his face turned towards Mecca,

a practice still common today among Muslims.

Within a hundred years,

Muhammad's message had spread across the world,

as far as India and China in the east,

and as far North Africa and Spain and France in the west.

But in many ways, his struggle for a peaceful jihad

was already in tatters.

Within just a generation of Muhammad's death,

his closest companions and family were already squabbling,

breaking out into open and bloody warfare

that lead to the deep schism that still exists

within the Muslim world today between Sunni and Shia.

But today, Muhammad's message seems under threat

like never before.

Many Muslims feel humiliated and condemned

by the sheer power of Western culture

and military might, whilst many in the West

see Islam as the religion of some of the most

oppressive states on earth, a violent, intolerant faith.

But the question is,

how much of this can be blamed on Muhammad himself?

Muhammad left the world with three things-- his faith in God,

the example of his own life, and above all else,

the Qur'an itself.

Now people will always choose and highlight

those aspects of his life they want

to support their own arguments whilst ignoring the rest.

But if we examine his life in total,

we find that he left Arabia a better place than he found it.

When faced with persecution,

he chose to suffer rather than to retaliate.

Although he did fight many military battles,

he turned his back on war when he could.

His ultimate victory came through peace,

not through conflict.

And with that victory, he chose the path

of reconciliation rather than revenge.

And finally, in his farewell sermon,

Muhammad left us with the most important lesson of all,

that we are all equal, Arab and non-Arab, Muslim and non-Muslim,

a universal message that is as relevant today

as it was in 7th century Arabia,

and it seems to me,

this is the true legacy of the life of Muhammad.

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