Muhammad
• Confronted people with the coming judgment, threatening dire punishments in the next life and calling for justice and social solidarity.
• Called for submission to the one and unique God (in Arabic “Allah”), who is just and merciful; Arab speaking Jews and Christians also use the word “Allah” to designate the One God.
• Fought against polytheism and the commercialized pagan pilgrimage to the Kaaba, Mecca’s central sanctuary.
• Provoked the merchants,
threatening their religious
business interests.
• Came increasingly in conflict with the Meccans, so that in 622 he was forced to flee with his followers to the neighbouring city of Medina, some 300 km distant. – The year 622 CE corresponds to the year 1 of the hijri calendar (AH = anno Hegirae), by which the years are numbered in the Islamic world.
“Allah” (in
Arabic)
