Who is Muhammad?

To Muslims, Muhammad is the final prophet or messenger of God. A messenger is a prophet who delivers God’s message to the people. Muhammad was a man and not a god. He was born in Mecca in 520, Common Era, and died in Medina in 632. Tradition says that the Archangel Gabriel began revealing God’s message to Muhammad in 610. This continued for the rest of Muhammad’s life. He began sharing the message a few years after he started hearing it. The written message is called the Quran. Muhammad was born into a wealthy tribe, but his father died before his birth and his mother died when he was 6. Before she died, she sent the young Muhammad into the care of others in the desert. There, away from the city, he learned discipline, nobility and what it meant to be free. As a man, his generosity and fairness made Muhammad a source of advice. He delivered the Quran by dictating it to others, who wrote it down word for word.