Abu l-Qasim Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allh al-Hashimi al-Qurashi

Abu l-Qasim Muhammad ibn
‘Abd Allāh al-Hashimi al-Qurashi

: Muḥammad; (Mohammed, Muhammed, Mahomet) (c. 570
Mecca – June 8, 632 Medina) was the founder of the world religion of
Islam and is regarded by Muslims as the last messenger and prophet of
God Muslims consider him the restorer of the original, uncorrupted
monotheistic faith (islām) of Adam, Abraham and others. They see him as
the last and the greatest in a series of prophets of Islam.[8][9][10]
Muhammad is also regarded as a prophet by the Druze and as a
manifestation of God by the Bahá'í Faith. He was
also active as a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator,
general and reformer.]
The principal and most credible source of information for the life of
Muhammad is the Qur'an Next in importance are the historical works by
writers of third and fourth century of the Muslim era Sources on
Muhammad’s life concur that he was born ca. 570 CE in the city of Mecca
in Arabia He was orphaned at a young age and was brought up by his
uncle, later worked mostly as a merchant, and was married by age 26. At
some point, dis*******ed with life in Mecca, he retreated to a cave in
the surrounding mountains for meditation and reflection. According to
Islamic tradition, it was here at age 40, in the month of Ramadan,
where he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this
event, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly,
proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him (lit.
islām)[16] is the only way (dīn) acceptable to God, and that he was a
prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as Adam, Noah, Abraham,
Moses, David, Jesus, and other prophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was largely met with
hostility from the tribes of Mecca; he was treated harshly and so were
his followers. To escape persecution, Muhammad and his followers
migrated to Medina. in the year 622. This historic event, the Hijra,
marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad
managed to unite the conflicting tribes, and after eight years of
fighting with the Meccan tribes, his followers, who by then had grown
to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returning
to Medina from his 'Farewell pilgrimage', Muhammad fell ill and died.
By the time of his death, most of Arabia had converted to Islam.
The revelations (or Ayats, lit. Signs of God), which Muhammad reported
receiving until his death, form the verses of the Qur'an. regarded by
Muslims as the “word of God”, around which the religion is based.
Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are
also upheld by Muslims.
Figurative depictions of Muhammad were a significant part of late
medieval Islamic art; however, such depictions were generally limited
to secular contexts and to the elite classes who could afford fine art.
The taboo on depictions of Muhammad was less stringent during the
Ottoman Empire, although his face was often left blank.

Sources for Muhammad's life

Main articles: Historiography of early Islam and
Historicity of Muhammad From a scholarly point of view, the most
credible source providing information on events in Muhammad's life is
the Qur'an. The Qur'an has some, though very few, casual allusions to
Muhammad's life. The Qur'an, however, responds "constantly and often
candidly to Muhammad's changing historical circumstances and contains a
wealth of hidden data that are relevant to the task of the quest for
the historical Muhammad. All or most of the Qur'an was apparently
written down by Muhammad's followers while he was alive, but it was,
then as now, primarily an orally related document, and the written
compilation of the whole Qur'an in its definite form was completed
early after the death of Muhammad. The Qur'an in its actual form is
generally considered by academic scholars to record the words spoken by
Muhammad because the search for variants in Western academia has not
yielded any differences of great significance.]
Next in importance are the historical works by writers of third and
fourth century of the Muslim era. These include the traditional Muslim
biographies of Muhammad and quotes attributed to him (the sira and
hadith literature), which provide further information on Muhammad's
life. The earliest surviving written sira (biographies of Muhammad and
quotes attributed to him) is Ibn Ishaq's Sirah Rasul Allah (Life of
God's Messenger). Although the original work is lost, portions of it
survive in the recensions of Ibn Hisham (Sirah al-Nabawiyyah, Life of
the prophet) and Al-Tabari. According to Ibn Hisham, Ibn Ishaq wrote
his biography some 120 to 130 years after Muhammad's death.[29] Another
early source is the history of Muhammad's campaigns by al-Waqidi (death
207 of Muslim era), Maghazi al-Waqidi, and the work of his secretary
Ibn Sa'd al-Baghdadi (death 230 of Muslim era) Tabaqat Ibn Sa'd The
biographical dictionaries of Ali ibn al-Athir and Ibn Hajar provide
much detail about the contemporaries of Muhammad but add little to our
information about Muhammad himself. Lastly, the hadith collections,
accounts of the verbal and physical traditions of Muhammad, date from
several generations after the death of Muhammad. Western academics view
the hadith collections with caution as accurate historical sources
Many, but not all, scholars accept the accuracy of these biographies,
though their accuracy is unascertainable. Studies by J. Schacht and
Goldziher has led scholars to distinguish between the traditions
touching legal matters and the purely historical ones. According to
William Montgomery Watt, in the legal sphere it would seem that sheer
invention could have very well happened. In the historical sphere
however, aside from exceptional cases, the material may have been
subject to "tendential shaping" rather than being made out of whole
cloth.
There are a few non-Muslim sources which, according to S. A. Nigosian,
confirm the existence of Muhammad. The earliest of these sources date
to shortly after 634, and the most interesting of them date to some
decades later. These sources are valuable for corroboration of the
Qur'anic and Muslim tradition statements]

جزاكي الله كل خير