Muhammad Shallallahu Alaihi Wasallam

Muhammad SAW was an Arab religious, social and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet, sent to present and confirm the monotheistic teachings preached previously by Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is viewed as the final prophet of God in all the main branches of Islam, though some modern denominations diverge from this belief. Muhammad SAW united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran, as well as his teachings and practices, forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

Born approximately 570 CE (Year of the Elephant) in the Arabian city of Mecca, Muhammad SAW was orphaned at the age of six. He was raised under the care of his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, and upon his death, by his uncle Abu Talib. In later years he would periodically seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer. When he was 40, Muhammad SAW reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave and receiving his first revelation from God. Three years later, in 610, Muhammad SAW started preaching these revelations publicly.

The followers of Muhammad SAW were initially few in number and experienced hostility from Meccan polytheists. He sent some of his followers to Abyssinia in 615 to shield them from prosecution, before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad SAW united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad SAW gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The conquest went largely uncontested and Muhammad SAW seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.

Muhammad SAW is the role model of all Muslims. For he was the most virtuous a human can be. Even when all committed sin against him, he never went against them, unless they were dangerous for the future of Islam. And were they to atone and ask forgiveness, he would readily accept it and forget all they had done to him.

Questions:
1. When was Muhammad SAW born?
2. Who took care of Muhammad SAW after his grandfather died?
3. Where did Muhammad SAW seclude himself for several nights?
4. When did Muhammad SAW and his followers migrated to Medina?
5. What marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar?