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C H A P T E R  3
Lesson 2 Reading Strategy
Muhammad and Islam
(Across the Centuries pp. 58-64) 
[see pages 58-59 as children are referred to]

Thinking Focus: Find details to support the statement, "Islam, like other religions, is not only a system of beliefs but also a way of life"

The Life of the Prophet
In about A.D. 570, Muhammad was born into the Quraysh tribe. Muslims believe that on a visit to Mount Hira in 610, the angel Gabriel spoke to him. The angel told him to speak to others in the name of God. Muslims say this was the first of Muhammad's many messages from God. The messages made Muhammad sure that there was one God. Belief in one God is called monotheism. Allah, the God Muhammad believed in, is the same God as that of Judaism and Christianity. Muhammad called his faith Islam. Believers in Islam are called Muslims.

Muhammad began to preach to members of his tribe. Quraysh leaders in Mecca became worried. They refused to trade with Muhammad and his followers. When Arabs outside of Mecca became interested in Muhammad's message, the Quraysh leaders planned to kill the prophet. In 622, Muhammad and his followers left Mecca for Medina. This migration was known as the Hijra.

Over the next eight years Islam grew. Muhammad's enemies tried to get rid of Islam. But nomadic tribes and some Meccan leaders joined the Muslims. Muhammad created an army of 10,000 men, which, in 630, marched into Mecca. The city gave up without a fight. Muhammad removed idols from the Ka'bah, which again became a place of worship for the one God. The area around the Ka'bah became the first mosque. When Muhammad died in 632, many people in the central and western coastal regions of Arabia were Muslims.

? How was the religion of Islam founded, and how did it spread?
[shocking how they left out all the aggressive slaughters of non-Muslims]

Muslim (muz'lam) a believer in Islam
monotheism (mon a-the-iz am) belief in only one God
Islam (Is-lam) a religion based on the teachings of the prophet Muhammad
mosque (mosk) a Muslim church or house of worship

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See also: What's in the textbook, Across the Centuries