Word: muhammad
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Islam and Government. Muhammad's teachings are fundamentally democratic, since they proclaim the equality of all men before God. In practice, Islamic nations, like other countries, have both liberals and conservatives, democrats and dictators. The Islamic socialists of Iraq and Libya?not to mention Iranian moderates who want to see a parliamentary democracy established by their new constitution?look with disdain on a semifeudal monarchy like Saudi Arabia. Says Hussein Bani-Assadi, son-in-law of Iran's Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan: "Ideologically, this revolution cannot support systems like Saudi Arabia's. Islam has no kings." The Saudis answer that...
Saudi Arabia. The birthplace of Muhammad is the most strictly orthodox Muslim society on earth; rulers and ruled profess adherence to the austere, fundamentalist Wahhabi sect, noted for its zealous enforcement of the Shari'a. But there is a widening gap between the very rich and very poor, a heavy influx of foreign workers, and a pace of development that may be too rapid for an underpopulated country to handle. Although the Wahhabi leaders have close links to the royal family, there is a small Islamic movement that is critical of the debauchery of spoiled princelings on their sojourns outside...
...cave at the foot of Mount Hira near Mecca, where he had spent six months in solitary meditation, the vision came to Muhammad. The Angel Gabriel roused him from his bed with the stern command: "Proclaim!" Rubbing his eyes, the startled Muhammad gasped, "But what shall I proclaim?" Suddenly his throat tightened as though the angel were choking him. Again came the command: "Proclaim!" And again the terrified Muhammad felt the choking grip. "Proclaim!" ordered the angel for a third time. "Proclaim in the name of the Lord, the Creator who created man from a clot of blood! Proclaim! Your...
...preach God's word in the year A.D. 610. Compared with Jesus or the Buddha, information about the life of the man who became known as the Messenger of Allah is relatively abundant, although the facts have been embellished with pious folklore. Some have claimed that at Muhammad's birth the palace of the Persian emperor trembled, or that a mysterious light ignited at his mother's breast, shining all the way to Syria, 800 miles away. It was said that his body cast no shadow and that when Ms hair fell into a fire it would...
...known that the Prophet was born about A.D. 570 to a member of the respected Meccan clan of Hashim. His father died shortly before Muhammad was born, and his mother when the boy was only six. Two years later, his doting grandfather Abd al-Muttalib died, leaving the orphan in the care of a poor uncle, Abu Talib. As a youth, Muhammad was set to work tending his uncle's herds; he later recalled that task as a mark of divine favor. "God sent no prophet who was not a herdsman," he told his disciples. "Moses was a herdsman...