Today we continue our survey of the scriptures and sources we will be drawing on at Sifter of Dust, focusing on the Prophet Muhammad, the Quran, and Islam.

The Prophet Muhammad was born in the year 571 AD in a backwater of the civilization of His time, along the trade routes that coursed through Arabia between the ancient Persian empire and the Byzantine empire, a remnant of Roman civilization.  He was orphaned early in life and trained and worked as a merchant.  After He reached 40 years old, He went to meditate in the cave of Hira, a mountainous cave near his home of Mecca, and was visited by an angel who told Him to “Recite!”, calling Him to be the bearer of a Revelation from God.  For the next 23 years, the Prophet revealed the Quran- the “Recitation”- in a beautiful form of Arabic poetry.  A community quickly developed around Him and persecution of that community in Mecca led them to flee to neighboring Medina, where the Muslim community continued to grow in influence, leading to further battles and ultimately the conquering of Mecca by the new community centered around the Quran.  The Prophet entered the holy shrine of the Kaaba in Mecca, previously devoted to idol worship, and destroyed all the idols personally, teaching that only an immaterial God was worthy of worship. Every chapter of the Quran uses terms to describe the nature of that God, the most common being “the Compassionate, the All-Merciful”. 

The new community of Islam was structured around belief in one God, and submission to that God- the Source of all Goodness- was the ultimate responsibility of all human beings.  The social laws of Islam were a vast improvement over the tribal structure of the time, and every community member was expected to care for the orphans and the elderly, paying a religious tax that provided subsistence money for the disadvantaged.

Islam was a universal religion that recognized virtually every significant religion known to the people of Arabia before it as valid. There are over 25 previous “prophets” or “messengers” of God noted specifically in the Quran, but even that number was regarded as only a partial list.  The Prophet Muhammad taught that both Christ and Moses (as well as other Hebrew prophets) were true, and both Jews and Christians were given special status in Muslim communities. 

Islamic civilization spread quickly and within 100 years of the Prophet’s lifetime was already a major civilizing force.  It spread into Persia, over Africa, down into the Indian sub-continent, and into southern Europe. It came to be regarded as the most advanced civilization on earth for several hundred years.   

The source of all the “civilizing energy” was the Quran itself. The Prophet Muhammad drew a distinction between Himself and the recitations that flowed through Him, with the author of the Quran being the voice of God Himself.  Verses of the Quran often start with “Say:”, emphasizing that the Quran comes directly from the Voice of God.  The Prophet would comment personally in a less formal way on His religion, and those “sayings”- known as “Hadith”- were another source of guidance and spirituality for the Muslim community. 

The Quran was the first Revelation of God that was directly transcribed in written form.  (The words of Jesus were recorded and compiled years after His death.) For that reason, the written Word- the “Verses”- are held in high honor as their inner melody is the primordial Word of God itself, something that transcends even the outer words. Mosques devoted to the worship of God are embellished only by Quranic verses, and never images or idols.  Quranic interpretation became a spiritual and scholarly pursuit, with enough volumes of interpretative works produced to fill many libraries.  Mystical poetry and philosophy flourished under Islam and the depth and beauty of these outpourings is one of humanity’s greatest spiritual and literary treasures.

In addition to the Prophet Muhammad and His sayings, the other sources of guidance include early Muslim leaders, particularly Muhammad’s son-in-law, Ali Ibn Talib.  Ali accompanied and supported the Prophet through much of His mission, and married his daughter Fatimah. After the death of the Prophet, Ali continued his sermons on the true nature of Islam and its implications, in addition to ultimately leading the Muslim community before his assassination by those jealous of his influence. Ali’s sermons and story are recorded in an 11th century compilation known as the “Peaks of Eloquence”.  Ali’s virtues and greatness can be appreciated by the commonness of his name among Muslim populations, surpassed only by the name “Muhammad” itself. They are sometimes complexed together, as with the great American boxer “Muhammad Ali”. 

We draw on the Quran, the Hadith, as well as the sayings and stories from the life of Ali Ibn Talib.