Stories

Muhammad was not always known as the Messenger of God.

He was old enough to have been a grandfather when he first heard the words of God's Message and his life changed forever.

But before that he had lived his life much like anybody else.

Of course, his life was very different from the way that people live in Scotland

or much of the rest of the world nowadays.

For one thing, it was a long, long time ago,

before there were cars or trains or planes,

before there was electricity,

no telephones or television or radio,

no movies and no computers.

And his life was very different from the way that people live in Scotland in another way,

because Muhammad lived in one of the hottest places in the world.

For Makkah, where Muhammad was born, is in a desert

a place where it hardly ever rains and where very few plants can grow.

But in the hills and valleys of that desert there are some places where water can be found beneath the ground,

enough water to keep alive a few trees and some people.

And around these watering holes small towns grew, and such a one was Makkah.

Now you may wonder why anyone would want to live there in the first place,

but those lands were a crossroads for traders between India and Africa and Europe.

So those who knew how to find a safe way with trade goods across the deserts

could make themselves very rich.

But Makkah had another, more important reason than trading, for people to live there and visit there.

The first people to live in Makkah were the wife of God's Messenger Ibrahim, his beloved Hajar and their son Isma'il.

And there God raised water from the earth in answer to Hajar's prayers.

And there Ibrahim and Isma'il built a House to be a centre for prayer to the One God.

The House in Makkah was so special that people would travel a long way just to visit it,

and many hundreds of years after Ibrahim was dead lots of people still visited this special place as pilgrims every year.

So the job of making sure that the pilgrims all had food and water was very important.

Now, Muhammad's grandfather was an important man in Makkah,

and he was the one in charge of taking care of the pilgrims each year.

And the stories about Muhammad really start there with his grandfather, in the Year of the Elephant.

That was the year when Muhammad's grandfather took part in a marvellous happening that saved Makkah.

And in that special year Muhammad was born.

A special year for a special person,

Muhammad, born to be God's Messenger.

What happened to Muhammad's grandfather?

Who saved Makkah from the Elephant?

The year that Muhammad was born.

Who looked after Muhammad the Baby?

Who cared for Muhammad the orphan?

His strange meeting with a monk.

A trusted young man.

What happened to Muhammad in the cave that changed humankind forever?