Muslim Australians - Religion Cultural Diversity Resource Manual
http://www.islamicglobe.com
http://www.islamicglobe.com
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
He began to preach his message to<br />
his family and close relatives. His<br />
wife was the first believer, followed by<br />
his children and some close relatives<br />
and friends. His teaching began to<br />
spread slowly, but the Meccan elite<br />
became alarmed at what they saw as<br />
a challenge to their influence. They<br />
began to resist Muhammad’s teaching<br />
and persecute those who followed<br />
him.<br />
Muhammad continued for thirteen<br />
years, preaching his message with<br />
little success. He had relatively few<br />
converts. Because of the persecution,<br />
he and his followers finally departed<br />
Mecca, leaving behind their homes,<br />
property and often their families, and<br />
settled in a town in the north called<br />
Yathrib, which later became known<br />
as Medina or ‘City of the Prophet’.<br />
There they established their first<br />
community in 622, a date which also<br />
marks the beginning of the Islamic<br />
calendar. Medina became the central<br />
place for <strong>Muslim</strong>s, the capital of<br />
the first Islamic ‘state’. For the next<br />
ten years in Medina, the Prophet<br />
continued to teach his message with<br />
great success. At the time of the<br />
Prophet’s death ten years later in<br />
632, Islam had spread to all corners<br />
of Arabia and a large part of the<br />
population had embraced the new<br />
religion.<br />
Spread of Islam<br />
With the Prophet’s death, the<br />
revelations from God ended and<br />
the mission of the Prophet was<br />
completed. After the death of the<br />
Prophet, Abu Bakr, one of his earliest<br />
followers and a close friend, became<br />
his political successor and leader of<br />
the <strong>Muslim</strong> community. Within a<br />
few years, the <strong>Muslim</strong>s began a series<br />
of conquests, largely directed at the<br />
Byzantine and Sassanid empires<br />
located in the north and northeast of<br />
Arabia respectively. These conquests<br />
gradually brought much of the<br />
Middle East and North Africa under<br />
the political control of Arab <strong>Muslim</strong>s.<br />
The conquests and military activities<br />
were not aimed at converting non-<br />
<strong>Muslim</strong>s to Islam. Rather, they were<br />
aimed at expanding the <strong>Muslim</strong><br />
state’s borders and bringing hostile<br />
neighbouring regions under the<br />
political and military control of<br />
the <strong>Muslim</strong> state. The spread of the<br />
religion of Islam (as opposed to<br />
the power of the <strong>Muslim</strong> state) was<br />
largely the result of the following<br />
factors:<br />
» Preaching by the Prophet and<br />
his earliest followers.<br />
» Missionary work of the <strong>Muslim</strong>s<br />
in the lands that came under the<br />
control of the <strong>Muslim</strong> state.<br />
» Missionary work of <strong>Muslim</strong>s<br />
outside these lands, in particular<br />
by Sufis (practitioners of Islamic<br />
mysticism) through their<br />
personal contacts.<br />
From the Qur’anic point of view,<br />
conversion to Islam by force is against<br />
Islam and such a conversion is not<br />
valid. The Qur’an says: ’There is<br />
no compulsion in religion.’ (2:256)<br />
Deciding to become a <strong>Muslim</strong> is a<br />
personal decision and can only be<br />
truly made if a person is convinced of<br />
what he or she is doing.<br />
Within a hundred years of the death<br />
of the Prophet, Islam had reached<br />
modern-day Spain and southern<br />
France in the west, and the borders<br />
of China in the east. Over the next<br />
thirteen hundred years, <strong>Muslim</strong>s<br />
founded a series of great empires and<br />
contributed significantly to world<br />
civilisation. Among the famous<br />
periods of Islamic history are:<br />
» The period of the Rashidun<br />
caliphs (immediately after the<br />
death of the Prophet) from 632<br />
to 661, which saw the expansion<br />
of the <strong>Muslim</strong> state well beyond<br />
the borders of Arabia.<br />
» The Umayyad period from 661<br />
to 750, which consolidated the<br />
<strong>Muslim</strong> state.<br />
» The Abbasid period from 750<br />
to 1258, known as the golden<br />
period of Islamic civilisation,<br />
in which prosperity, scientific<br />
achievements and high culture<br />
were achieved.<br />
14 <strong>Muslim</strong> <strong>Australians</strong>:THEIR BELIEFS, PRACTICES AND INSTITUTIONS