Original subtitles

[film whirring]

[wind blowing]

[solemn music]

[dramatic music]

"In the name of God, the most gracious, the most Merciful.

From Muhammad, the Messenger of God

to Heraclius, the emperor of Byzantium.

Greetings to him who is the follower of righteous guidance.

I bid you to hear the divine call.

I am the messenger of God to the people.

Accept Islam for your salvation.”

He speaks of a new prophet in Arabia.

Was it like this when John the Baptist came to king Herod

out of the desert, crying about salvation?

[dramatic music]

To Muqawqis, Patriarch of Alexandria.

"Kisra, emperor of Persia.

Muhammad calls you with the call of God.

Accept Islam for your salvation.

Embrace Islam.”

You come out of the desert, smelling of camel and goat.

To tell Persia where he should kneel?

"Muhammad, Messenger of God.”

Who gave him this authority?

God sent Muhammad as a mercy to mankind.

[dramatic music]

- [people chattering] - [lively music]

[narrator] 600 years after Christ died,

when Europe was sunk in the dark ages

and everywhere the old civilizations were falling,

Muhammad was born in Mecca, in Arabia.

Mecca was then a rich trading city, ruled by its merchants

whose wealth was multiplied by a unique privilege,

they housed the gods.

Every year, at the time of the great fair,

the desert priests brought their idols

and the images of their gods

into the custody of the Kaaba.

[lively music]

[people speaking indistinctly]

[voices overlapping]

[narrator] Once, the most holy shrine of Abraham,

the Kaaba had now become a house of idolatry

boasting no fewer than 360 different gods.

Mecca in 610 AD.

[indistinct chattering]

[lively music]

[bird shrieking]

Bilal!

Have you had today's count, Umaya?

Not yet, but this year the gods are gold.

When you put the gods and Prophet together,

you sit very pretty between, hmm?

And more gods to place in the Kaaba.

[people chanting indistinctly]

Caravan from Syria.

[Umaya] Hmm, they must have been running.

They'll be thirsty.

Put five more men on the north wells.

How many sheep shall I have to kill for them?

-707? - Give them a hundred.

Mecca must keep her name for hospitality.

And 10 lambs for the leaders.

[chanting continues]

- [men laughing] - Shh, shh, shh.

Bread and water,

do the poets have in Hakim's house?

Where verse and prose are nightly put to slaughter. [imitates slicing sound]

[crowd laughing]

And, and the bread, I swear in there, is thinner than the water!

[crowd laughing]

Oh, open the space, open the space,

you lovers of poetry,

to Bu-sofyan, willing and rich

patron of the arts.

When Bu-sofyan invites the poet in,

their joy is kit and love is kin.

Where wines and cakes abound,

the skills of verse are found.

All revels and all songs begin,

when Bu-sofyan invites the poet in.

[audience applauding]

From the silkworms of China, my lady.

Pleasure to the limbs and as my lady can see,

a ravish to the eye.

Yes, seven lengths.

20 dinar.

For Bu-sofyan's wife?

15.

[people chanting indistinctly]

Good, good!

The gods of the Kaaba have their needs, their upkeeps.

[tense music]

[man] Who is that man who stood there,

who looked into my soul?

Carry me away from here.

- [indistinct chattering] - [drums playing]

Why must Muhammad come down here?

Why don't you stop him?

He is your nephew.

- Maybe he'll change. - Change?

He's 40 years old.

It's unnatural.

With a rich wife, he could afford the best of Mecca.

Yet he chooses to sit shivering in a cave.

It is unnatural!

For a man who dares to risk the anger of Al-Uzza,

who keeps our health,

Manat, the god of our prosperity,

Allat, the god of our family and tribes,

and Hubal, Hubal, who starts our caravans

and predicts our fate.

To challenge the gods within earshot

of the gods is dangerous.

- Unreasonable. - Rebellious, blasphemous.

Yes, I'm afraid Muhammad will harm himself.

[tense music]

I'm always sad when the great fair is over.

I might not see the next one.

Abu Talib!

Abu Talib!

Catch your breath, Zaid!

Has Muhammad come down from Mount Hira yet?

He's been up there three days.

No, no, we haven't seen him.

Khadijah hoped he might have come to you on his way home.

Then he's still up there.

Three days.

I'm afraid for him on the mountain,

because I don't know what it means.

Men see the world too well from a mountain.

[tense music]

[Gabriel] Muhammad, read!

In the name of thy Lord who created

man from a sensitive drop of blood.

Who teaches man what he knows not.

Read!

[crickets chirping]

He's still trembling under the blanket

but he has spoken.

Zaid!

What happened to my nephew on the mountain?

He was alone, in the cave.

Suddenly, an angel came into him.

The angel said, "Read!"

Muhammad replied, "I cannot read."

The angel commanded again, "Read!

In the name of thy Lord, who created man from

a sensitive drop of blood,

who teaches man what he knows not.

Read!"

Who knows if it was Gabriel?

It could have been a dream.

When Muhammad was coming from the mountain,

he saw Gabriel plainly

in the shape of a man standing on the horizon.

Wherever he looked, upon every turn of his head he saw him.

And Gabriel said to him again,

"I am Gabriel

and you, Muhammad,

are the Messenger of God."

Who has he told about this?

His wife, and Ali,

and his friend Abu Bakr.

And you?

I am his adopted son.

Be careful to whom you talk.

Tell him his uncle who protected him

when he was a child will protect him still.

After all,

they say the God of Moses

spoke to him out of a burning bush.

If you do not restrain your nephew, then we will.

He's dividing the city, hut against house.

He's dividing the generations, child against parent.

[Abu Talib] The young are listening to him.

He attracts the young.

We are Arabs, we obey our fathers.

Our children cannot be our teachers.

How can we accept that a man

we met in the street yesterday

can be some god's Prophet today?

Dead bones can live again, he says,

because He who created man

can also make man return from the dead, he says! [laughing]

The Gods might leave us and give their benefits to another city.

Tell him we will give him authority, position,

keys to the Kaaba, and money, what money he wants.

Tell him we will give him anything he wants.

[tense music]

Muhammad, spare yourself and me.

Do not put a greater burden on an old man than he can bear.

In your childhood, you were in my arms.

I cannot now see you hurt.

If you refuse them, they will hurt you.

He said this to me,

"Were they to put the sun in my right hand

and the moon in my left,

I would not renounce my message, which is from God."

When I am dead, you may do as you please,

but whilst I'm alive, you'll obey your father!

Why do you hurt our father?

If I were drunk every day

and played dice every night,

you'd call it high spirits!

You would be more my brother than you are now!

You--you are all my children.

I've given you everything I could,

but it seems not to be enough.

Muhammad gives me more,

he'll give all the world more.

Get him out of here, Father!

It's not Waleed or me, it's our father.

You torture him.

Wait Hudayfa, wait!

How can they say it's an invention, Musab,

when it isn't new?

In Mecca, it's new.

Yet, God has said it all before

to Noah, Moses, Jesus, to all the Prophets,

but people changed it, turned it, forgot it.

Now God says it to Muhammad again

and it is new again.

[knocking on door]

What is it?

It's Jaafar.

[man] What have you brought with you?

The very word of God.

[tense music]

"When the sun is overthrown,

when the stars fall,

when the mountains vanish,

when the camels, big with young, are abandoned,

when the wild beasts are herded together,

when the seas rise,

when the souls are sorted,

and the female infant who is buried alive

asks for what crime she was killed,

when the books are opened,

when the sky is torn away,

then every soul

will know what it has done."

Were you there, Jaafar,

when God gave him these words?

[rooster crowing]

Dawn is coming up.

[rooster crowing]

Ammar, you first, then you, Jaafar.

[rooster crowing]

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

Ammar!

You kept your mother awake all night with worry.

- I'm sorry, Father. - Where were you?

Have you been with Muhammad again?

[dramatic music]

What will happen now?

Forgive him, it was my fault, I did it.

That God has helped us all our lives.

But it fell,

it could not even help itself.

What talk have you been listening to?

The real God is unseen.

He's not made of clay.

Ammar, we see the gods in the Kaaba every day.

I'm afraid for you.

You're listening to people who will hurt you.

I'm listening to Muhammad, Mother.

Muhammad is generous, yes.

He gives, he shares, he'll pass no man without a smile,

but he is spreading dangerous ideas.

Dangerous ideas, that no man should starve?

That the rich should not defraud the poor?

The strong should not oppress the weak?

Are these dangerous ideas?

Girls should not be forced into marriage,

but be able to choose or refuse.

Why only tonight, he said,

"Stop the burial of new-born girls."

I was fortunate, always fortunate with your mother.

Yes, but you know that you and I

nearly never met, Yasser.

And you were nearly never born.

I was to be buried, like my two sisters,

but my father couldn't do it.

He couldn't do it a third time.

When the second girl was being...

When my father was putting sand over her,

she took hold of his finger, the way a baby does.

He told my mother afterwards,

that it was a minute before the tender little grip eased

and he dared take away his hand.

When I was born,

my father ran out of the house

screaming that he couldn't do it again,

that he could never do it again.

Sumayyah, it is the custom.

But it's wrong.

The gods that let such things be are no gods.

I promise to go to Muhammad's house, Mother, we pray there.

Yes!

He's a good man.

[tense music]

Yes, yes, you go.

[dramatic music]

Two men are following him.

[Bu-sofyan] Read?

Muhammad can neither write nor read.

No, but he can speak.

What did you say?

He can speak?

Well, so can you, so now, you speak up, young man.

What does Muhammad say, hm?

They are God's words, not his.

- Which god's? - [people chuckling]

What words?

A speaking god?

[people laughing]

Your Muhammad speaks only to himself.

When God reveals His message to Muhammad,

he remembers every word,

then he tells it to those who can write.

This is the Quran.

Muhammad has starved himself into dreams.

He hides under a blanket with his eyes shut.

His eyes are shut but his heart is open.

You!

Kick him for his cleverness.

There is no purpose in that.

Doesn't Muhammad realize we live by giving housing

to the gods?

We own the Kaaba.

Every year, the tribes of Arabia come here to Mecca

to pray and to buy from us.

Now, were we to replace 300 gods with just one,

whom we cannot even see, who is supposed to be in Taif

and Medina, here in my house,

in Jerusalem, on the moon?

[people laughing]

Where would Mecca be then?

The gods are both our worship and our revenue.

You cannot buy and sell God.

Young man, you are close to the whip.

Ammar, be sensible boy.

[Umaya] I have a question.

Muhammad teaches you a slave is equal to his master.

[chuckles]

[laughing] Is Black Bilal,

whom I paid money for, equal to me?

Yes, Muhammad says,

before God, all men are as equal as the teeth of a comb.

Oh. This is a very pleasant idea to slaves and beggars.

It gives them pretensions.

Bilal!

Teach this man the difference

between the Lord of Mecca and a slave.

Take that whip.

Lash his face, to teach his mouth a lesson.

Whip him!

Whip him!

Cut him!

[Umaya] Whip him!

[tense music]

[whispers] Do it, Bilal!

Obey them!

They'll kill you!

[whip clattering]

See what anarchy they bring!

They've even infected our slaves!

If you're human enough to have gods, remember!

They are the gods of your owner!

I bought your humanity, Bilal, when I bought you.

You will be corrected!

- [whip landing] - [Bilal grunting]

One...one God.

[solemn music]

There is only one God!

Who's stronger now?

Your master or this one god of yours?

One God.

There is only one God.

Bring the stones!

[Bilal] One God.

One...one God.

Crush him!

[Bilal whimpering]

[Umaya] Break him!

[Bilal screaming]

[inaudible dialogue]

[Bilal panting]

[Hind] Have you finished with him?

[Bilal] There's only one God!

- One... - You could swear the slave was preaching!

- [Bilal] One God. - [Zaid] Lord Umaya!

Abu Bakr will pay a hundred dinar for this slave.

Wait now!

It's against our social order

to sell a slave during his correction.

The offer is to Lord Umaya!

200!

If the price of slaves is raised,

we shall have to bathe ourselves next year.

Take him!

He's no use to me anymore!

Kill him or take him, I'm finished with him!

[Zaid] We are declaring ourselves.

God has told his messenger

to declare Islam to all men!

Open the windows!

Let the world hear!

[dramatic music]

We are coming out of the darkness!

Hear well the word of God!

Hear well the messenger of God!

There are no other gods but God

and Muhammad is his messenger.

There are no other gods but God

and Muhammad is his messenger.

We have come into light,

join us in the march to the Kaaba!

God is most great.

God is most great!

God has no partner!

We have come into light,

join us in the march to the Kaaba!

[indistinct chattering]

Muhammad and his rebellion

called Islam are coming out,

to foul our gods and dethrone religion.

Don't let them reach the Kaaba!

Throw them back!

Defend your gods!!

[crowd shouting indistinctly]

[men] There is no god but God

and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

There is no god but God

and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

There is no god but God

and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

[man] Protect the prophet!

- [dramatic music] - [indistinct chattering, shouting]

[men] There is no god but God

and Muhammad is the messenger of God.

[people shouting]

Guards!

[men] God is great!

This is blasphemy, you idiots!

[men] God is great!

God is great!

God is great!

[all shouting]

[men] There is no god but God!

[indistinct shouting]

[dramatic music]

Now's the time to break them,

there are only 30 of them.

No, we've done enough.

More will only create sympathy for them.

[men] God is great! God is great!

- Stand down! - [men] God is great!

God is great!

God is great, God is great, God is great!

God is great, God is great, God is great!

In the name of God,

most gracious, most merciful.

Say: Oh, you who reject faith,

- I worship not what you worship. - Keep him out of the Kaaba!

- Neither do you worship what I worship. - Lead them out!

Silence, you're a false prophet!

Finish Muhammad!

Protect the prophet!

Messenger of God, back to the corner!

[all shouting]

Hamza! Hamza!

[indistinct chattering]

You are brave.

He is the bravest man in the desert

when he meets unarmed men.

Muhammad is--is a liar!

Liar?

You don't let him speak!

Where's the lie and where's the truth

when it hasn't been spoken yet?

Muhammad is a fraud!

Stand up!

Hit me back if you dare!

I affirm my nephew's religion and I say what he says!

Whoever has the courage to fight, fight with me!

[tense music]

Muhammad, when I hunt the desert at night,

I know God is not kept in a house.

Who would have thought that Hamza, Hamza above all,

with his wine drinking, lion hunting

would come to join Muhammad?

The more we attack him,

the more they seem to join him.

Where does he find his words?

I don't know.

How can an illiterate man go up on a mountain

and come down three days later, blazing with poetry?

If it were just poetry...

He says it's God.

How do we fight someone whose strength we do not understand?

Muhammad promises heaven, trees in the skies.

So naturally he's found an audience.

Then we must make that audience

less eager to listen to him.

We will begin with the weaker ones.

[whip landing]

[birds cawing]

Your turn!

[Ammar grunting]

[Sumayyah whimpering]

- Have mercy! - Stretch her!

- [Sumayyah screaming] - [Ammar] Mother!

[sobbing]

[woman screaming]

[people murmuring]

[woman screaming]

[woman sobbing]

[woman screaming]

- [Ammar] Please, let her go! - [Sumayyah screaming]

[Sumayyah gasping in pain]

[sobbing]

[Amr] Who is your God?

Answer me!

Say it!

Say Hubal is your God!

- Say it! - There is...

there is only one God

and Muhammad is the messenger of God!

[spitting]

[Sumayyah and Ammar screaming]

[birds cawing]

[dramatic music]

[somber music]

[man groaning]

My God!

Ammar!

Your father and mother

are the first martyrs of Islam!

They are promised paradise!

How much are you men prepared to suffer?

The Prophet has said we must leave Mecca.

If you stay, they will kill you

one by one.

Muhammad says that in Abyssinia,

there is a Christian King.

No man is wronged in his country.

We must leave now, today.

[solemn music]

[dramatic music]

Horsemen!

[dramatic music]

[dramatic music]

[tense music]

God be praised!

Let us go.

[Waleed] We found their tracks and followed them,

but they just disappeared!

[laughing]

They were there in the desert,

under the vultures and you let them escape you!

Escape? They vanished!

Muhammad has stayed, only the weakest have gone.

Weak or strong, they'll blacken our name.

We're honest merchants, we buy and sell in good faith.

We cannot afford scandal.

Abyssinia.

Amr!

You are a friend of Annajashi, the king?

Yes.

[Bu-sofyan] Can you use that friendship?

I think I can bring them back, yes.

Abyssinia.

Rise up, Amr.

There is nothing you may ask for that we will not give.

Lion of Judah, I...

I don't know where to begin.

You have our friendship, begin there.

Certain runaway slaves have escaped

from us into your kingdom.

Slaves go back, as you no doubt would return our slaves to us.

There are however some free men among them, rebels.

Rebels?

If there's disturbance in Arabia, why am I not informed?

They are rebels in religion.

At one time or another,

all religions were rebellions.

The bodies of slaves are of the world

and within our disposal.

But as Jesus Christ is our shepherd,

the souls of men are his sheep.

These are Arabs who have betrayed

the religion of their fathers.

They follow a lunatic they call a Prophet.

But I cannot put souls into chains without hearing them.

[crowd murmuring]

Good, their stiff necks will hang them.

Do you not bow yourselves before your prophet?

Muhammad is a man, we kneel only to God.

[Amr] Where are Muhammad's miracles, Jaafar?

If he were a prophet,

he'd light the sky with miracles

Indeed, this is true.

God has given his prophets the sign of miracles

that we may recognize them.

The miracle of Muhammad is the Holy Quran.

A book, a book!

Written by an illiterate, attributed to God.

I think the emperor has heard enough!

I'm mindful of Pentecost.

When God set down tongues of fire

upon the heads of Christ's apostles,

so they could speak the many languages of the world

that they knew not before.

But do such miracles happen in our times?

I've heard enough!

You've made a poor case.

[chains clinking]

When we suffered persecution in Mecca,

Muhammad told us, "Go to Abyssinia,

the land of a righteous king,

where no man is wronged!"

What they call persecution was fair punishment.

Their disorder, their--

Why did your prophet send you to me?

Because you believe in the book

of the one God as we do.

He sent us because in your heart,

God will protect us.

Talking with them is like drawing water from a mirage.

But they've now laid a duty on me

to listen to them, my friend.

[chains clinking]

Go on!

For years, we worshiped wood and stone,

images of our own manufacture.

We lived in ignorance of God.

We had few earthly laws and no heavenly laws.

The rich neglect the poor.

And the natural pity of man,

whereby he lifts his brother up when he has fallen

is described by them as upsetting social order!

To this inhumanity has come a man

whom God chose

and in that we believe.

You're overcome, I beg you to collect yourself.

I speak of the messenger of God.

Muhammad teaches us to worship one God,

to speak truth,

to love our neighbors as ourselves,

to give charity, even a smile can be charity.

To protect women from misuse,

to shelter orphans

and to turn away from gods of wood and stone!

I cannot keep still and hear this blasphemy!

We are an ancient civilization,

to call our gods wood and stone

is to speak ignorantly of them.

The idol, the form, is not what we worship,

but the spirit that resides within the form.

I agree that idolatry is not always fully understood.

Thank you.

Now let me bring him back to the women.

God made woman to be the proper companion of man.

She is different but equal.

Equal?!

We buy them.

Feed them, clothe them, use them, discard them.

Women equal to us?

[men laughing]

God created man from one male and one female.

Amr, you must respect in all woman the womb that bore you.

Why are your 300 gods so tongue-tied

while his only god is eloquent?

God has spoken to us before through Abraham, Noah, Moses,

and through Jesus Christ.

Why should we be so surprised that God

speaks to us now through Muhammad?

Who taught you those names?

They are named in the Quran.

I knew Muhammad when he was an orphan minding sheep!

And we knew Christ as a carpenter.

What Christ says and what your Muhammad says

is like two raised from the same land.

They are lying to you, they deny Christ.

You worship three gods, they say.

Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they say.

What do you say of Christ?

They say God cannot have a son.

Christ is not the Son of God.

Speak to me of Christ.

We say of Christ what our prophet has taught us,

that God cast his holy spirit into

the womb of a virgin named Mary

and that she conceived Christ, the Apostle of God.

The Apostle he says, not the son, not the son!

What does your miracle, your Quran,

say of the birth of our dear Lord Jesus Christ?

May I relate the words?

[Annajashi] Come closer to me.

In the name of God, most gracious, most merciful.

Relate in the book the story of Mary.

How she withdrew from her family to a place in the east.

How we sent to her our angel, Gabriel, who said,

"I am a messenger from your God

to announce the birth of a holy son to you."

She said, "How shall I, Mary, have a son

when no man has touched me?"

And Gabriel replied,

"For your Lord says it will happen.”

We appoint him as a sigh unto man

and a mercy from us.

It is a thing ordained.

[tense music]

The difference between us and you,

is not bigger than this line.

Not for a mountain of gold will I give them up to you.

You may live in Abyssinia, in peace,

for as long as you wish.

May God's blessings be upon you when you return.

[people murmuring]

Intolerable!

Mohammad disturbs even our foreign alliances!

Very well!

We will make a foreigner of him!

Abu Talib has his arms around him.

Very well!

We will throw uncle and nephew out.

[voices overlapping]

In one bundle, his whole family out.

We will expel them from ourselves.

No merchant may trade with them.

- No land remain to them. - [dramatic music]

No roof shelter them.

No baker bake for them.

No woman marry them.

Until they renounce,recant!

[baby crying]

[woman screaming]

Get them out!

[dramatic music]

[women screaming]

[pots shattering]

[somber music]

[narrator] These were the worst years of Muhammad's life.

For three years they suffered the hunger,

thirst, cruelty of the open desert.

But the year of grief was still to come,

when Khadija, Muhammad's wife for 24 years, died.

When Abu Talib, his old protector, died.

With his last breath, Abu Talib, tried again to reconcile

Mecca and Muhammad.

He never asked more from you than one word.

One, one God.

[Bu-sofyan] If it were only a question of one word,

we would have given him 10 words.

But the word he wants would dethrone all the gods.

[rooster crowing]

[tense music]

You were afraid...

even to hear him.

[dramatic music]

[narrator] With the death of his uncle,

Muhammad had now lost all protection.

He was no longer safe in Mecca.

Alone with Zaid, his adopted son,

he went to the hillside town of Taif.

He asked to be taken in, to be allowed to preach.

[children shouting]

But the children of Taif were turned loose,

to stone him back into the desert.

[children shouting]

[Zaid] What are you doing?!

Stop! Stop!

[dramatic music]

Leave him alone, go away!

[children shouting]

[indistinct shouting]

[narrator] Muhammad called this the bitterest day of his life.

Then miraculously, when Muhammad's mission

seemed to have failed, his entire situation changed.

A deputation from the rich, but self-destroying city of Medina,

met him by night at the rocks of Aqaba,

asking him to come to them,

to stand between their factions,

to mediate their continual quarrels and civil wars.

Muhammad agreed, provided they gave him a pledge

that they worship the one God only.

Wait!

When we take this pledge we expel

ourselves from the rest of Arabia.

So, wait!

War is in this pledge.

We are to make enemies of brothers.

We are to make firewood of our gods!

That is the meaning of the pledge.

If we take it, there can be no turning back

for Muhammad is indeed the messenger of God,

foretold to us by the Jews in our city.

So if anyone has doubt in this pledge, go now.

And if you have no doubts, then you do as I do.

[soft tense music]

I pledge myself to the one and only God,

and to you Muhammad, the messenger of God.

[man] He is of us and we are of him.

Let him bring his followers,

our brothers, to us, to Medina.

[dramatic music]

[narrator] This was a journey that changed the world.

The Hegira, or Flight to Medina.

Only 70 people, split up into small groups,

walking 250 miles of desert.

Yet, so profound were the consequences,

so lasting were the effects of this walk

that from it the Muslims date their calendar.

In this moment, Islam found its future.

Muhammad himself stayed in Mecca, in the greatest danger,

until all his followers had left safely.

[dramatic music]

Muhammad has become a nation, he has received a city,

entered into pledges and treaties

and you, Salool, who claim to be king of Medina,

lost the kingdom last night while you were in bed!

You should worry about yourself, Bu-sofyan.

Every time you trade a whiff of perfume up to Syria,

you must creep past that man in Medina.

He is across your mercantile throat so to speak.

And what do you intend to do?

I intend to wait.

And how long will you wait?

Till you and the rest of Arabia remove him,

to save your way of life.

And while you wait?

I should accept his call of course.

Does he think I will give him my birthright?

[chuckles] I will not.

Medina is worth the conversion.

Hypocrisy.

Call it a healthy hypocrisy.

King Salool, wiping his face on the floor

five times a day praying.

I don't believe it.

[Umaya] He may not have to.

We'll do now what we should have done before:

kill Muhammad.

Come, come and see.

They say that practice leads to perfection.

[indistinct chattering]

Seven young men, each from a different family,

my own son, lkrima, is with them.

They will stab him together.

[dramatic music]

If the responsibility for his death

is shared, where lies the guilt?

My idea.

I'm not sure I'm part of it.

Muhammad's body contains too much, his mind, his words.

But it is an ingenious solution.

And a final one.

[dramatic music]

No!

Ali, his cousin, laid there to die for him?

Who are we fighting?

He cannot go far, all the tracks are watched.

He must take to the desert.

[horse whinnying]

Mecca will give 100 camels to the man

who brings back Muhammad or his head!

Look for three of them:

Muhammad, Abu Bakr, and Urigat, his Bedouin guide.

[horses whinnying]

What is it?

They're not grazing camel.

They've eaten dates, they're from the city.

Why are you here?

Medina is to the north.

They make the tracks, not I.

[Amr] Nomads, traveling west?

I know my art.

They say that you can track a bird by smelling the air.

We go with them.

[dramatic music]

He may be in that cave over there.

Muhammad, if you come out,

we'll take you to Mecca alive.

[tense music]

Muhammad, come out!

They can't be in there, this web is unbroken.

And these pigeons, they would not build.

We were wrong to follow them, we should have gone north.

Let's move then.

We still have time to head them off.

[narrator] A few threads of a spider's web

were all that was then between Muhammad and murder.

But he was a man not to be killed.

The Bedouin guide led him and his companion, Abu Bakr,

in their escape through untracked spaces of the desert

and the heat of the June days.

At Medina, his followers waited with their welcome ready

but in great fear for his journey.

Anything?

[man] No, nothing.

He himself says he's only a man.

No man can survive that heat.

There, I see them!

- Look! - [people chattering]

[people ululating]

[lively music]

[crowd shouting]

Run and hide.

I may be obliged to free you as a gesture.

- [lively drumming] - [people singing in Arabic]

Welcome to the city of Medina, the blessed.

Your city, messenger of God.

[mysterious music]

You will stay with me, messenger of God.

I have the best house in Medina.

You will give me the honor of keeping you.

[man] Stay with me!

[all shouting indistinctly]

Please, please, please!

How can the Prophet choose between so many welcomes?

Where God guides his camel to stop,

there he will build his house.

All agreed?

We turn Quaswa, his camel loose

and where Quaswa sits, the Prophet stays.

[crowd shouting]

[Quaswa grunting]

Clever man.

A choice made by a camel can offend no one.

[chiming]

[energetic music]

[chiming]

[energetic music]

[chiming]

[crowd murmuring]

Here we will build the house of the Prophet.

[crowd cheering]

And our first meeting place, a prayer house!

[crowd cheering]

The first mosque of Islam, here!

[crowd cheering]

God is great, God is great!

[energetic music]

What is the prophet of God doing?

Carrying bricks, huh?

Give me that.

Look, you are doing too much.

Please, go and sit down, we'll do it.

[light music]

Look, he went for more.

"Work is a worship,"” he says.

He's 53 years old.

How old are you?

[energetic music]

But there's something missing.

Maybe a bell to call the people in.

- The Christians use a bell? - Mmm.

What about a horn, like the Jews?

A drum?

There's too much blood in a drum.

[man] Why not the human voice,

as in Umar ibn Khattab's vision?

The Prophet agrees?

He means you, Bilal.

Me?

You have a good voice, use it.

Climb up there.

[crowd chattering]

[singing in Arabic]

[Bilal continues singing in Arabic]

[Zaid] Brothers!

Today, a man of Medina will embrace a man of Mecca.

Each will share half and half.

Reach out, embrace your neighbor and brother.

[crowd murmuring]

I'm tired of the politics of kissing slaves, read this!

The prophet should concern himself with the after-world.

How is my son?

Praying like a horse.

Does it burn your hands?

If it's not torn up, it will burn down the house.

He's making laws like a king.

He has declared that loyalty to Islam

is more than loyalty to tribal family.

What?

All Muslims are next of kin to one-another?

[Bu-sofyan] Don't be misled by that.

He must change the nature of the tribes before that.

The danger is here, equality,

a man's neighbor is as good as himself.

The lunatic means it!

Jews and Christians have equal rights with Muslims.

The Jews who attach themselves to a commonwealth

shall be protected.

Hah, women have rights of inheritance?

Rights.

Next, he'll be giving the camel rights.

He has, the lunatic has!

You can't overload them.

He's remaking a city, my city!

Damn him!

He's taken our sons from us, our future from us.

His rights are our wrongs!

No more.

This time it will not be just his riffraff.

We will take everything of value they have left in Mecca.

Their rugs, their houses, their silver,

and with it, enlarge our caravan to Damascus.

[dramatic music]

- [child crying] - [men shouting]

[pots shattering]

[woman shouting]

[light music]

[indistinct chattering]

[Salool] My friends, listen to me!

I have news from Mecca!

Everything you have left behind is gone!

The thieves!

Abu Bakr's shops, the Prophet's house, sold!

Every cup or piece of cloth,

every rag or bone you ever owned is thrown on the market.

You are a people of nothing.

Don't you even fight for what you own?

[Hamza] Who talks of fight?

What other way is there, Hamza?

When the Prophet says fight, we fight.

Now he says peace.

Exactly!

You're a peace-loving people!

Up to your necks in forbearance.

Go back to work.

[indistinct chattering]

[rooster crowing]

[light music]

We have to defend ourselves.

You are the messenger of God.

Yet they mock, abuse and plunder us and we do nothing.

In the baggage of war, we are pathetic!

But they are led by greed.

We are led by God and you.

Now I... I know how you hate the sword,

but we have to fight.

They have stolen our property.

They are taking it to Damascus,

right past our own door.

I say by God, get it back!

[tense music]

I'm sorry, I'm carried away.

It's the pounding in my head.

Please, fight them!

[crowd murmuring]

[tools striking sand]

[Bilal singing in Arabic]

But look at the sun.

[Bilal continues singing in Arabic]

It's not the time for prayer.

[Bilal continues singing in Arabic]

It is newly revealed by God to his messenger.

Fight, but fight in the way of God,

against those who fight against you.

Drive them out of the places

where they drove you out,

for persecution is worse than slaughter.

Fight them until persecution is no more

and religion is for God.

But if they stop, let there be no more war

for God never loves the starter of wars.

So, fight in the way of God

against those who fight against you!

God is great!

[crowd] God is great, God is great!!

[Hamza] God is great!

[crowd] God is great!

[dramatic music]

These are the disciplines the Prophet puts upon you.

You may not harm a woman, a child, or any old person!

You may not harm cripples!

You may not harm the man that works in the field!

You may not cut down trees!

Strike only at those who have expelled you!

Who have stolen your rights and enriched themselves

with your possessions!

Now, to the wells of Badr!

[crowd shouting in Arabic]

[Waleed] News from Medina!

Arm, arm yourselves!

Arm yourselves!

Defend your wealth!

Muhammad has come out of Medina to attack the great caravan!

- How many men? - 300, two horses.

We'll mount 100 horses.

- How many camels? -70.

We'll bring 170!

And load twenty of my camels

with wine, we'll make a feast of it.

This is a war I'd like to fight,

a war we cannot lose!

[crowd shouting]

[rapid drumming approaching]

[people chanting]

Ride to Bu-sofyan's caravan,

tell him to turn towards Badr.

We will join our forces

tomorrow at the wells of Badr.

[drumming, chanting continue]

[camels grunting]

[Bu-sofyan] The wells of Badr, here.

Muhammad's march, here.

My charge of the caravan, here.

One day's march.

Meet them at the wells.

I don't like it.

There is too much of Mecca in my caravan to be risked.

Put out the fires!

Load the camels!

[camels grunting]

[horse whinnying]

We are turning west, away from the wells.

Away?

You can't!

You must meet them at Badr.

We can drink them down like raw eggs.

If I run all night,

I'll be out of Muhammad's reach by morning.

Where is your honor, Bu-sofyan?!

Honor?

My honor is on the backs of my camels.

Yes, I run.

[camels grunting]

[people chattering]

[energetic music]

[men laughing]

[music continues]

[men laughing]

Muhammad has occupied the wells!

He has moved directly into our line of march.

He's mad.

[people cheering]

Bu-sofyan has broken camp.

He's moving west, away from Badr.

The caravan is safe.

So, there is no need to fight.

Not fight?

If we fight, we will start blood feuds between brothers.

Between father and son, you mean.

Hudayfa, your own son is with them,

he should have been whipped.

Mecca is greater than your family!

Waleed, your second son, he is your true blood.

I say, fight!

We stand in the present, let the future look after itself.

Otba is not a coward.

[crowd murmuring]

We finish them tomorrow.

- We fight! - [crowd] We fight!

- [crowd shouting] - [energetic music]

[water splashing]

Are you finished?

[group chattering]

[distant drums thundering]

[horse whinnying]

[distant shouting]

Form ranks, battle positions!

Each man to his own place!

[indistinct shouting]

[drumming continues]

[horses whinnying]

[Waleed] Go back to your columns!

[man] Move away, move back, back!

[Waleed] So Muhammad's filled the wells.

Now if we want water, we'll have to fight for theirs.

[man] Good, we fight!

[intense drumming]

Brothers, we hold the wells.

We stand in the name of God and his messenger.

We wait.

[horses whinnying]

[drumming continues]

[men shouting]

[drumming stops]

Send us your champions!

Who are you?!

We expect our peers and our equals!

[Hamza] Come back!

My brother, Shaiba!

My son, Waleed!

And myself!

Not you.

Ubaida and I and Ali.

[swords scraping]

Are we your equals?

There is only one God

and Muhammad is His messenger.

- [men grunting] - [swords clanging]

[horse whinnying]

[dramatic music]

[Muslim soldiers shouting in Arabic]

[swords clanging]

[shouting in Arabic]

[men grunting]

- Ah! - [crowd groaning]

[horse whinnying]

Archers, advance!

[men shouting]

- [dramatic music] - Archers!

Hold!

Strike!

[arrows whistling]

[men shouting]

Strike!

[arrows whistling]

[soldier crying out]

Strike!

[soldiers grunting]

[horse whinnying]

Archers!

[soldiers grunting]

Archers back!

[men shouting]

They're regrouping.

Forward!

[men shouting]

Ready!

Lancers!

[advancing army whooping]

[horses whinnying]

[men screaming]

Attack!

- [all shouting] - [weapons clanging]

Umaya!

[men screaming]

Umaya!

Bilal!

- [Umaya screaming] - [dark music]

- [men shouting] - [weapons clanging]

[dramatic music]

[shouting in Arabic]

[dramatic music]

[triumphant music]

Onward to victory!

[army shouting]

[army chanting in Arabic]

[Hamza] The Prophet has seen you!

You are not to rope or drag the prisoners!

They'd have roped us!

Cut them loose!

I said, cut them loose!

And give them water.

And share your food, equal mouthfuls.

And if they walk, walk beside them.

Any prisoner who can teach 10 Muslims to read

will go free.

- [mournful music] - [people singing, wailing]

Why don't they go away?

Because they blame me, Hind,

for whatever reason, good or bad.

I should have joined them and drowned at the wells of Badr with them

but I saved the caravan and our future with it.

Why sing at me!

Why sing my father and my brother's name at me?!

Do you think I need you to remind me?

Muhammad, Ali, Hamza!

With my nails, Hamza,

I'll give you measure for measure, with my nails,

killer, cutthroat, butcher!

Murdering beast!

You slaughtered my father!

[whispers] Hamza.

I will hunt a lion hunter!

I will make Hamza a running lion, my prey.

And when you are dead, Hamza,

I will cut your heart out,

taste your blood,

cut you to pieces!

Hamza!

I forbid this wailing.

It cannot go on!

What we should do, we will do.

We will call in our allies,

raise a new army against them.

This time, we will prepare it and plan it.

Hamza!

[crowd chattering]

[Bilal singing call to prayer]

[rooster crowing]

[rooster crowing]

Is it a plague?

What kind of an upside down town have we come into?

You could fill your pockets very nicely here.

No merchant is minding his shop.

God is minding the shop.

Where do you come from?

Yemen.

Did you stop in Mecca?

It is on the road.

You didn't answer my question,

did you stop in Mecca?

Long enough to rest my camels.

Camels rest better in Mecca

than anywhere in the world.

- Yes. - [rooster crowing]

What is the word on the desert?

Oh, it is bad for you.

They are gathering.

Every young man with a sword is on his way to Mecca.

Our strength is here.

[man] Do not underestimate them.

They are summoning up their courage.

In Mecca there is music in every house.

[energetic music]

[music gets faster]

An Abyssinian slave, Wahshi.

He's good, he's vicious, watch him.

[music continues]

[crowd gasping]

[crowd murmuring]

[energetic music]

[music stops]

I will free you,

give you your weight in silver,

and your height in silk,

for one throw like this.

[crickets chirping]

So they have come at last.

We'll know how many soon enough.

[hooves striking sand]

It's a big army.

3,000 men, hundreds of horses.

We beat them at Badr.

That was a year ago.

They have come to revenge Badr.

Go home and get your swords.

[Hind] Soldiers of Mecca!

Blood must have blood!

Avenge the dead of Badr!

[soldiers cheering]

There, Hamza, can you see him?

He is your fortune.

[horse whinnying]

Ubada!

Those horsemen on the flank out there,

they're oddly placed.

- [Ubada] They are under Khalid. -Khalid?

[Hamza] I've often thought of that young man.

- [Zaid] Hamza! -Yes?

The Prophet asks if you have noticed those horsemen.

Yes, I have.

I don't like them.

He's sending out 50 archers to watch them.

No matter what happens,

the archers must hold off those horsemen.

Zaid, tell the Prophet we are ready.

What do you think, Hamza?

Well, they outnumber us, so I'd say it's a fair fight.

We see them and they see us.

What faces me has never frightened me.

Glory be to Hubal!

[soldiers] Hubal!

[army shouting]

When Muhammad gives the word,

we will go to them.

[army shouting]

[man] Hamza!

Weapons ready!

[swords unsheathing]

[Hamza] We march now!

Attack!

[army shouting]

[Hamza] Archers!

- Strike! - [arrows whistling]

Forward!

[army shouting]

[weapons clashing]

[horse squealing]

[tense music]

- [Hamza grunting] - [dramatic music]

[Hamza panting]

They've killed Hamza! On to them!

[army shouting in Arabic]

[dramatic music]

Fight back, go back!

You, take this, fight back!

Where are you going?!

Fight, fight, fight! Back!

This is a moment of victory!

They're running away from us, let's get the loot!

Stand where you are told to stand!

Come back to your positions! All of you, come back!

It's a rout!

Our center is gone!

We've lost the battle, Khalid!

Not yet.

[army shouting]

- [men shouting] - [dramatic music]

[man] Hold on!

[army shouting]

[men shouting]

Where is the prophet?

Muhammad is dead, I saw him fall!

No, no! He's alive!

Find him!

[dramatic music]

[men grunting]

Back, back to the mountain!

[men shouting]

[Khalid] Hold!

[horse snorting]

I thought we were beaten!

Now, victory is yours, Khalid.

We have no victory until we have finished Muhammad.

He is up in those rocks.

We have finished our business,

we have avenged Badr.

But we can end him and Islam forever.

Some of his fanatics are still with him.

They have the advantage of the mountains,

the risk is too high.

Muhammad, listen!

A day for a day!

The day of Uhub for the day of Badr!

Our dead have answered to your dead!

[Zaid] Our dead are in paradise,

your dead are in hellfire!

[indistinct chattering]

[horse whinnying]

[Hind] Hamza!

Hamza!

Do you hear me, Hamza?

Do you know that I am with you? I, Hind!

Do you remember anything, Hamza?

How you killed my father and my brother?!

Now you too are dead!

My heart is light!

Do you hear, Hamza?

Light!

But I haven't finished with you!

Death is too small.

Wahshi, cut him open. Cut him!

[dramatic music]

[Salool] They lost a battle and what do they do?

They come home and dig the ground harder.

They're mad.

I agree with you!

They defy reason, they are even happy they lost!

God sent their defeat they say,

to try them in their faith.

Oh, yes!

They are fighting with the sky.

They'll get what they want.

[man] They want Mecca.

[Salool] They'll get Mecca.

When we see the stars at noon

Don't underestimate them,

I've learned that to my cost.

My friend, Mecca is more than their home.

It's where God spoke to man.

Mecca is like a homesickness of the soul to them.

This year they're going as pilgrims.

What?

Unarmed.

Unarmed?

Bu-sofyan will slaughter them in the desert.

If you believe in God as they do,

it might be possible not to get slaughtered.

[chuckles] But I agree with you,

they probably will be.

[crowd chanting in Arabic]

[crowd chattering]

[horse whinnying]

[hoofbeats approaching]

[crowd murmuring]

Be still! Do not let them provoke you, that is what they want!

Stand firm!

[indistinct chattering]

[horse squealing]

Peace be to you.

[horse whinnying]

[horse snorting]

[Zaid] The Prophet says, "All who love God

must renew their oath to him."

Under the tree!

[crowd murmuring]

[crowd chanting in Arabic]

[light music]

They've sent someone else.

It's Suhayl!

That means we might come to an agreement.

Muhammad, you have been given conditions of truce

between yourself and Mecca.

Have you agreed to them yet?

What is this?

"In the name of God, the most gracious."

Who is this new god they call gracious?

I do not know him, strike him out.

And I cannot agree with this.

"Muhammad, the messenger of God"?

If I had thought you were the messenger of God,

I would not have fought you.

Make it, "Muhammad, the son of Abdullah,

agrees with Suhayl, the son of Amr."

That is more factual.

Well, so I understand.

Good, that is better.

Now, it is agreed

that you do not continue your pilgrimage,

you must turn around and go home.

[Zaid] Mecca is home.

However, you may continue your pilgrimage next year,

and for three days only, in and out.

We also agree to the truce for 10 years.

During that time, you will not attack any tribe,

or ambush any caravan, or any individual associated

with us and vice versa.

If you injure any one of us, the truce ends

and vice versa.

Is that clear?

10 years, 10 years of peace.

We need that time.

We will use that time.

[soft music]

These letters, from Muhammad, messenger of God,

to the rulers of the world

call the world to Islam!

To Heraclius, Emperor of Byzantium,

Kisra, Emperor of Persia,

Muqawqis, Patriarch of Alexandria.

God go with you!

[crowd] God is great, God is great, God is great!

[dramatic music]

There are no different races in Islam.

An Arab is not superior to a foreigner.

Nor a white man superior to a Black.

All return equally to God.

Unless you desire for your neighbor,

what you desire for yourself,

you don't have faith.

A man who goes to bed with his belly full

while his neighbor is hungry, he isn't a Muslim.

The ink of a scholar is holier

than the blood of a martyr.

A man reading is handsome in the sight of God.

So, learn to read.

And when you have learned, teach!

The people of the book,

the Jews with their Bible,

the Christians with their testament,

must be respected by you.

For their books likewise came from God.

You must not think of Muhammad as more than a man.

He was collecting firewood one day.

"Let me do it," I said.

"Why?" he said.

"You are the prophet of God!

You can't go around scratching for firewood."

But he looked at me, mumbling,

"God does not like the man who considers

himself above other men," he said.

So, I lay back and watched him.

Suddenly, he stopped.

He stood to his full height and came to me.

"Yes, I am the prophet of God," he said.

"But even I do not know what will become of me."

[tense music]

[overlapping shouting]

Amr, have you come to take me again?

No.

I have come to ask you to take me.

[light music]

I witness that there is only one God,

and that Muhammad is His messenger.

May God forgive me the times I have fought against you.

Islam does away with all that went before it.

I'm sorry, I came in here wearing...

Here are my jewels.

What they are worth, I give to the poor.

- And may I offer you my— - Yes.

But you were the bitterest sword against Islam.

Now by the will of God,

I will be the raised sword of God.

[solemn music]

Ah, it's all easy to God.

Just as he makes dying living,

he can make losing winning.

Two years ago we thought we were

beaten when we had to sign that truce.

Look at us now.

Charging from victory to victory in the hearts of men.

[horse whinnying]

What's that?

[dramatic music]

[people shouting]

[indistinct chattering]

Bu-sofyan is coming!

Bu-sofyan!

Why am I insulted like this?

I'm Bu-sofyan!

I expect some courtesy!

We are not at war, we have a truce!

I have come to speak to Muhammad, where is he?

He is in the mosque.

[crowd murmuring]

[light music]

Muhammad, we did not break the truce.

I have come to reaffirm the truce.

I speak for Mecca.

Muhammad, why do you turn from me?

Don't go.

Muhammad, don't go!

Bandits broke the truce, not us!

The night was dark!

I am here to testify, the night was dark!

Barra, Barra this is your city!

Hudayfa, you are my Kin, intercede for me!

I must be heard!

I am Mecca!

I am the leader of Mecca!

Why am I insulted like this?!

[Khalid] Because you keep no promise and respect no pledge.

I have heard what I never thought I'd hear,

Bu-sofyan asking for pity.

To be outfought, outfought,

outmaneuvered by a one-time shepherd!

You saw that shepherd's religion grow from a speck.

That speck was in my eye.

I could see nothing.

Tell Mecca their gods are dead.

It is useless to resist God.

Travel fast, or every man here

will be close behind you.

It's you who have broken the truce.

[dramatic music]

For tonight, we'll be 10,000, men from every tribe.

[indistinct chattering]

Now we can fight them, you are back.

We'll close the streets, and defend from the houses.

It's no use.

There are thousands of them,

every hour they are joined by more.

You coward!

Hind, go home!

You coward!

Are you the leader of Mecca?!

Look at yourself!

You are broke, they swallowed you and spat you back!

Did my father and brother die,

for my husband to run away?!

You go home! You!

We cannot resist!

Mecca is taken.

- No, no, no! - [dramatic music]

We are to camp here for the night.

I can see Mecca, even through the mountains.

[Bu-sofyan] So many fires, I cannot count them.

[Hind] It's very beautiful.

When we drove them out of Mecca,

I did not know they carried Mecca with them.

[Hind] We can smell the bread they're baking.

[Bu-sofyan] Yes, it means they don't intend to plunder,

at least I hope that's what it means.

They don't want blood on their own walls and doorsteps.

I can bargain with that.

[people chattering]

Take me to him.

So you're giving us the city?

You offer me no bread.

I understand.

You may decide to kill me.

[light music]

Say what you've come to say.

I saw your fires, the men around them,

and I know what power you put into your men.

We can no longer resist, Muhammad.

Now if you'll agree...

You dare to come here and ask for conditions?

Isn't it time yet for you to recognize who Muhammad is?

Muhammad, there is still doubt in my heart.

If I were to cut off your head,

it would remove all your doubts.

Khalid, there's no compulsion in religion.

A man may take many years or only need minutes.

It's God who decides the time.

So respect his doubts.

You Black slave, you are the best school.

I am only what God has given me.

Yes.

If the gods that I worshiped

had been of any use

they would have helped me.

I declare,

under no compulsion...

[light music]

...there is one God,

and you are the messenger of God.

Now, let me go.

[man] They're coming! They're coming in from three sides!

[indistinct shouting]

[rhythmic drumming]

[army chanting in Arabic]

Get inside! Get inside!

Guard your door!

[drumming, chanting continue]

[dramatic music]

No doors may be broken down,

nothing plundered, nothing seized!

No one abused!

All behind closed doors are safe!

All in Bu-sofyan's house are safe!

All by the Kaaba are safe!

At least he kept his word, they haven't forced a door.

He storms hearts, not walls.

It's a permanent victory.

I dread going out.

We must, we must appear, Hind.

Were we so wrong?

The way we lived, yes, that was wrong.

We were trapped in our own faults.

Our gods were less than us.

Now there he is, making his entrance to the Kaaba.

[light music]

[Muhammad] In the name of God,

most gracious, most merciful.

God gave this house to Abraham to be a sacred place.

Worship no other gods but Him and cleanse his house.

[wood shattering]

Truth has come! Falsehood has fled away!

[crowd chanting in Arabic]

[crowd shouting]

[shouting continues]

[Bilal singing in Arabic]

[Bilal continues singing in Arabic]

[narrator] So it was.

Muhammad took no revenge and allowed none.

He declared Mecca a holy place.

No one may shed blood or cut down a tree,

or kill a living thing in Mecca.

Soon, all Arabia was converted.

Not only to the new worship but to the new laws, manners,

attitudes contained in Islam.

The Prophet had lived to see his work done,

but now he began to feel the nearness of death.

One great act of his prophethood remained,

the setting of its seal.

He called the people to him and he spoke for the last time

his message of surrender to God and humanity to man.

"'Oh, mankind, listen well!

I may not be with you much longer.

The weak among you, feed them on what you eat.

Dress them as you are dressed.

You will meet your God,

and He will call you to account for your actions.

Let those who are present warn those who are absent.

You are all are descended from Adam,

and the best among you is he who most regards God.

Think deeply about what I say.

Let all your feuds be abolished.

You must know that every Muslim

is the brother of every other Muslim.

And all Muslims are brothers one of another.

Between Muslims, there are no races and no tribes.

Nor must you take anything from your brother,

except what is given freely.

Do not oppress and do not be oppressed.

Oh, my people, I am but a man.

It may be that the angel of death will visit me soon,

and death will overtake me.

But I have left you a book,

revealed by God, the Quran,

which is light and guidance.”

Now he repeated to the people

the final revelation of the Quran,

the seal and termination,

not Muhammad's words, but God's word.

"This day I have perfected your religion for you

and completed my favor to you

and I've chosen for you Islam as your religion.”

On June the eighth, 632, in his 63rd year, Muhammad died.

Many of his followers could not believe the fact.

How can such a man die?

But Abu Bakr, the Prophet's friend, stood up in the mosque.

"If anyone worships Muhammad,

let him know that Muhammad is dead.

But he who worships God, let him know that God

is alive and cannot die."”

[muffled chanting]

[narrator] They buried Muhammad beside his mosque, in Medina.

But the religion he preached

found its place in the heart of man.

It endured.

It multiplied.

Still to Mecca they come, mankind.

The people of Islam dressed in their pilgrim white.

All equal before God,

all united in this place of prayer.

Each individual soul joined in a community of worship:

One God.

[crowd chanting in Arabic]

[men singing call to prayer]

[singing continues]

[singing continues]

[singing continues]

[dramatic music]

[music continues]

[no audible dialogue]

[no audible dialogue]