Today I want talk to you about the caring of orphaned Mohammad.
WHO TOOK CARE OF MOHAMMAD THE CHID?
As for Mohammad, his grandfather Abd al-Matlib, that is, the father of his father, made a pledge to take care of him until his death. After that, the responsibility for his care passed this time to his uncle Abu Talib, his father’s brother.
In the Middle East, families who are keen on blood ties and free of selfishness do not accept or allow the humiliation of orphaned children and abandon them to be raised in foreign hands. Fortunately, Mohammad remained with the atmosphere of being raised in his family’s warm care.
When Mohammad reached the age of twelve, his uncle Abu Talib would introduce him to the new world outside the periphery of the Quraysh tribe and the Arabian Peninsula. At the same time, Mohammad remained safely under the care of him (his uncle). This is the appropriate age for children in oriental society to absorb the audacity and courage, accept responsibility for life and discover the mystery of its affairs.
Mohammad’s First Journey to Damascus
At that young age, his uncle Abu Talib asked him to accompany him on his journey to the Levant that is Damascus, the city of Syria. The Levant society was different from the world of the peninsula, with its natural climate, its people, its building/construction and its civilization. The majority of the peoples of the Levant embraced Christianity under the auspices of Byzantium. Do not forget, about Saul, (St Paul before his sainthood) who was going to Damascus to arrest some Christians, and the Holy Spirit descended on him.
Christians and Jews were residents in Damascus, in the Arabian Peninsula, in Iraq and Persia, ‘Iran,’ before Mohammad was born. Thus, there was an opportunity for Mohammad in Damascus to get acquainted with the friends and acquaintances of his uncle.
Mohammad Met a Christian Monk
Among the friends and acquaintances of his uncle in Damascus, Mohammad met a Christian monk known by the name of ‘Monk Bahira.’ For the first time, Mohammad the young boy was fascinated by the zeal of hospitality, the people’s respect for each other and for the guest and the behaviour of the civilized Christian people. He drew his attention to the courtesy of their words, conversations, well-educated manners, politeness, trim clothing, cleanliness, way of eating food and drinking and socializing freedom.
Indeed, Damascus at that time was beautiful, it still is and on its way to sophistication, urbanization and prosperity in trade and housing arrangement. That trip to Damascus generated an important impact on the soul of the young emerging boy Mohammad and a tremendous moral energy in his thinking and vision.
Do not forget that Mohammad was illiterate and scientifically uneducated, except for the custody of his straight upbringing from his relatives. Mohammad was pleased with the monk’s words, kindness and his talk about piety, God, Love, humanity and the meaning of life.
Mohammad’s Return with His Uncle to the Peninsula
Mohammad, on his way back with his uncle to the peninsula, would ask and discuss with him the beauty of Damascus, its prosperous high society and the activity of its people. Especially about the generosity and kindness of the monk Bahira and his talk about the Creator, humanity and progress in civil life.
While they were walking at night, it was the preferred walk to avoid the scorching heat of the sun during the day, because their journey was in the summer, which was usually the preferred trip to Damascus and the winter trip was dedicated to the south of the peninsula to Aden.
Mohammad was watching the stars in the sky and listening to the stillness of the desert and his soul was longing to know the Creator. He knew upon his arrival in Macca, that his life was unpleasant in its demagogic pagan society. And he did not find people to meet with to discuss, ask and search for the secret of the Creator.
In Macca, Mohammad the boy was controlling his thinking and suppressing his anger and his questions in the depth of his soul. He mocked the pagans, even his relatives; he was psychologically distressed because they worshiped gods who had no spirit and no meaning in the comfort of the human creature’s soul.
Whenever the circumstances arose for him to travel to Damascus, he was eager to meet the monk Bahira and talk to him about the mystery of the Creator. With the passage of years after several trips to Damascus and numerous meetings with the monk, there was permeated discussion and research on the Torah, the Gospel and the Creator.
Worship of Idols
The Arab tribes tended to monotheism and considered the worship of idols and planets as a means of reaching their god. It appears in their history that Christianity and Judaism contributed to directing the religious thought of the Arabs towards monotheism.
Paganism in the peninsula was the most widespread of worship. The most famous of their deities were al-Lat in Taif, al-Uzza in Macca and Manat in al-Madinah. In al-Kaabah there were many idols, the greatest of them being Hubal.
The Arabs believed in sprite, ‘ginn,’ demons, ghouls and devils. They narrated many stories about them and used magic to treat them and get rid of their evil doing.
The Monk Bahira Was One of the Dearest People to Mohammad’s Heart
The monk Bahira became one of the closest and dearest people to Mohammad’s heart, when he reached his manhood at the beginning of the age of twenty. He found in the monk moral, harmony and tranquility in his friendship. Some rumours in the Middle Eastern society say that the monk Bahira contributed to writing the words of Mohammad’s ideas, when he used to meet with him in the hermitage from time to time.
But we do not have the proof to present it to the reader. Perhaps there is a writing missing from the collection of the primitive codification of the Qur’an and from the hermitage of the Monk Bahira and no one has yet discovered it. Or some of the fanatical and extremist caliphs, who succeeded Mohammad after his death, destroyed the writing?!
Mohammad began to grow with the idea of God the One Most High, which he heard from the explanation and interpretation of the monk. He believed that the universe, as it exists and in perspective, was created by God. Perhaps Mohammad imagined God as an old being, who sits in a place in the sky and waits for the death of people to judge them?
That is what most people today believe! This is the capacity of his limited thinking like the rest of the people who have left life and are still living and thinking the same idea in life.
Mohammad or others, in their limited thinking at the time, did not know that a day would come when the art of science would battle them and expose the absurdity of the human mind in their visions, their hallucinations, their misguided belief and their false claims about the creation of the universe.
To be continued, next time I will talk about his marriage.
These excerpts are from the book: “Is God a Lie or Are We? Certainly We Are!”
Author: Jamil Elias Kabalan
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