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Muslim Australians - Religion Cultural Diversity Resource Manual

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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

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