50 Fun Facts About Prophet Muhammad

Muhammad's birth year is named for which animal, recalling Abraha's failed march on Mecca?

The Year of the Elephant, roughly 570 CE, is named for the war elephants Abraha brought to demolish the Kaaba, an army that tradition says was routed by birds dropping stones.

In which cave above Mecca, on the 'Mountain of Light', did Muhammad receive the first revelation?

Hira is a chamber only about 3.7 m long and 1.6 m wide, 270 m up the mountainside, where Muhammad had withdrawn to meditate when the angel brought the opening verses of the Quran in 610.

Which angel, said in hadith to have six hundred wings, brought Muhammad the Quran's revelations?

Gabriel, Jibril in Arabic, is also believed by Muslims to have announced the births of John the Baptist and Jesus, so the same angel spans the Gospels and the Quran.

Which merchant paid Muhammad double her usual commission for a trade trip, then proposed marriage?

Khadijah became the first person to accept Islam, and the marriage lasted around 24 years until her death in 619.

Which year saw Muhammad's migration from Mecca to Medina, the event that opens the Islamic calendar?

622 became year one only later: the second caliph fixed the Hijra as the calendar's starting point around 638, some sixteen years after the journey itself.

In whose apartment, now under the dome of the Prophet's Mosque, did Muhammad die and lie buried?

Aisha, daughter of the first caliph, is credited with narrating over 2,000 hadiths, and the first two caliphs were later buried beside Muhammad in her room.

Which daughter of Muhammad, mother of Hasan and Husayn, died within six months of her father in 632?

Fatimah is the only child of Muhammad through whom his family line has survived, which is why descendants today trace themselves to her sons.

On which weekday did Muhammad die in 632, the same day of the week tradition gives for his birth?

Monday, 8 June 632, was the day of Muhammad's death in Medina, and he is reported to have fasted on Mondays because he was born on that day.

How many daily prayers were set at Muhammad's ascension, after Moses told him fifty was too many?

Five prayers a day was the final number after Muhammad, on Moses' advice, went back to God nine times from the original fifty, and the five were credited with the merit of fifty.

Which city did Muhammad's followers face in prayer for sixteen months before the qibla became Mecca?

Jerusalem gave way to Mecca in the second year after the Hijra, and the Medina mosque where the congregation is said to have turned mid-prayer is still called the Mosque of the Two Qiblas.

Which uncle took in Muhammad at eight and later swore to the Quraysh he would never hand him over?

Abu Talib took in his orphaned nephew despite his own poverty, and his death around 619, aged over 80, stripped Muhammad of his protector in Mecca.

Which grandfather, finder of the lost Zamzam well, raised Muhammad from age six until his own death?

Abd al-Muttalib, a leader of the Quraysh, found traces of the ancient well beside the Kaaba and cried 'Allahu akbar', and he took charge of the orphan when the boy's mother died on the road from Medina.

Muhammad's mother, who died at al-Abwa on the road from Medina when he was six, bore which name?

Aminah bint Wahb had taken her six-year-old to visit relatives in Medina, where her husband lay buried, and she fell ill on the way home attended by her maid Umm Ayman.

Which name did Muhammad's father bear, a trader who died at Medina months before his son was born?

Abdullah died, by Ibn Sa'd's account, three months after his marriage, having stopped in Medina on his way home from Syria, so Muhammad was born fatherless around 570.

Which Banu Sa'd woman nursed the infant Muhammad in the desert, as Meccan families then arranged?

Halimah kept the boy for his first years, and her family remembered that their flock gave milk through a famine while the neighbours' animals were dying.

Which clan of Muhammad, named for his great-grandfather, faced a Meccan ban on trade and marriage?

Banu Hashim's boycott ended, tradition says, when the written pact was found eaten by termites except for the words 'In your name, O God', after two to three years of hunger in the valley.

What did Meccans call the trader Muhammad, who settled the Black Stone dispute with a shared cloak?

Al-Amin, 'the Trustworthy', was the reputation Muhammad earned as a merchant, and when the rebuilt Kaaba's stone had to be replaced he set it in place himself after the four major clans raised the cloak together.

Which monk, by tradition, saw a cloud shade the boy Muhammad in a caravan and foretold his mission?

Bahira, the story goes, checked the boy against descriptions in an old book, found the 'sign of prophethood' on his back, and urged his uncle to hurry him home to Mecca.

Which Christian cousin of Muhammad's first wife called the angel the 'Namus' once sent to Moses?

Waraqah ibn Nawfal, a Christian ascetic, died shortly afterwards, and the revelations themselves paused for a while before they resumed.

How old was Muhammad when, around 610, the first revelation came to him in a cave outside Mecca?

Forty was Muhammad's age when his mission began, roughly twelve years before the Hijra and twenty-two before his death in 632.

Which command was the first word revealed to Muhammad, opening a surah named for a blood clot?

Read, 'Iqra', was the command Muhammad reports the angel pressing on him three times after he answered that he could not read, and the chapter it opens is the 96th of the Quran.

In which month, on the Night of Power, do Muslims hold that Muhammad received the first revelation?

Ramadan is named in the Quran itself (2:185) as the month of revelation, and the Night of Power is sought on an odd-numbered night among the month's last ten.

Which Christian kingdom across the Red Sea took in Muhammad's persecuted followers around 615?

Abyssinia's king, the Negus, refused to surrender the migrants to a Meccan delegation until he had heard their case, made by Ja'far, who described how Muhammad had called them from idols to one God.

Which uncle of Muhammad is condemned in Surah al-Masad, the 111th chapter of the Quran?

Abu Lahab was Muhammad's half-uncle, and he died around 624 about a week after news of the Quraysh defeat reached Mecca, a head wound from his sister-in-law having turned septic.

Who is honoured as Islam's first martyr, an elderly woman speared by Abu Jahl for her faith?

Sumayyah, an old and frail woman of around 60, was the mother of the companion Ammar ibn Yasir, whose whole family was among the earliest converts in Mecca.

Which opponent set out to kill Muhammad but converted on hearing Surah Ta-Ha at his sister's home?

Umar, later the second caliph, was moved by the verse on God's oneness (20:14) and then prayed openly at the Kaaba, a public act the Quraysh had been trying to suppress.

Which walled city of the Banu Thaqif pelted Muhammad with stones when he sought its protection?

Ta'if's orchards gave Muhammad refuge after the stoning, where a Christian slave named Addas brought him grapes and, hearing him say 'Bismillah', kissed his head, hands and feet.

Which steed, smaller than a mule but bigger than a donkey, carried Muhammad on the Night Journey?

Buraq's every stride, the hadith says, reached as far as the eye could see, and a spot beside the Western Wall in the holy city is still shown as where Muhammad tethered it.

Quran 33:40 calls Muhammad 'not the father of any of your men' and gives him which title?

Seal of the Prophets, Khatam an-Nabiyyin, is understood by Sunni and Shia alike as meaning Muhammad closes the line of prophets that began with Adam.

What was Medina called before Muhammad came, its Aws and Khazraj tribes having feuded for 120 years?

Yathrib is presumed to have been renamed Madinat al-Nabi, 'City of the Prophet', and its residents had met Muhammad secretly outside Mecca to invite him as a mediator between the factions.

Where near Mecca did some 75 Medinans pledge by night to protect Muhammad before the Hijra?

Aqaba's second pledge bound the 75 to obey Muhammad, enjoin good and forbid wrong, and answer a call to arms, clearing the way for the migration to Medina.

Which cousin raised in Muhammad's household lay in his bed as a decoy on the night of the Hijra?

Ali, who had come under Muhammad's guardianship as a small child, later married his daughter and became the fourth caliph, and he was among the very first to profess Islam, aged about eleven.

Which cave an hour's walk south of Mecca hid Muhammad and a companion for three days on the Hijra?

Thawr sheltered the pair while the companion's children and servants slipped out of Mecca with food, and after three days in hiding they set out for Medina on camels.

Which future first caliph was called al-Siddiq for at once believing Muhammad's Night Journey?

Abu Bakr accompanied Muhammad on the migration itself, hiding with him in a cave when the Quraysh hunted them, and he freed several slaves including the man who became the first muezzin.

Which mosque, built where Muhammad halted outside Medina on the Hijra, is called the first in Islam?

Quba was where Muhammad stayed for between 3 and 22 days, depending on the source, and a hadith promises that praying there after ablutions at home earns the reward of an umrah.

Which freed slave, once pinned under a boulder for his faith, did Muhammad make the first muezzin?

Bilal kept repeating 'ahad, ahad', 'one, one', under the torture, and in 630 he was chosen to sound the call to prayer from the Kaaba after Mecca's surrender.

What were Medina's Aws and Khazraj converts called for taking in Muhammad and his Meccan emigrants?

Ansar means 'the helpers', and the Meccans they housed were the Muhajirun, the two groups together forming the first Muslim community in Medina.

Which 624 battle saw Muhammad's army of about 313 defeat a Quraysh force that set out 1,300 strong?

Badr is named in the Quran (3:123), which describes thousands of angels descending to terrify the Quraysh, and the Meccan commander Abu Jahl was among the dead.

Which 625 battle turned when Muhammad's archers left their hill for loot and Khalid charged in?

Uhud left Muhammad himself wounded in the face by stones, and the few archers who obeyed his order to hold the hill were cut down by the cavalry that exploited the gap.

Which uncle of Muhammad, titled 'Lion of God', fell in 625 to a javelin thrown by the slave Wahshi?

Hamza was also Muhammad's milk-brother, nursed by the same woman, and he is remembered as Sayyid al-Shuhada, the leader of the martyrs.

Which companion of Muhammad proposed the trench that held off 10,000 besiegers from Medina?

Salman the Persian, born near Isfahan or Kazerun, was still a slave and so had missed the earlier battles, and Muhammad later declared 'He is one of us, one of the People of the House'.

Which 628 pact, made when the Quraysh turned Muhammad's pilgrims back, set a ten-year truce?

Hudaybiyyah let the Muslims return the following year for three days in Mecca, which the Quraysh would vacate, and Surah 48 of the Quran was revealed on the journey home.

Which Quraysh leader, father of the first Umayyad caliph, submitted to Muhammad as Mecca fell?

Abu Sufyan had led Mecca's resistance from 624 to 630, and Muhammad declared that whoever took refuge in his house would be safe, a concession that helped the city surrender almost bloodlessly.

How many idols, by tradition, filled the Kaaba when Muhammad cleared it after Mecca's surrender?

360 idols filled the Kaaba, and they were destroyed after Muhammad's army of 10,000 entered a city that had surrendered with only a small skirmish on one flank.

At which mountain did Muhammad give the Farewell Sermon, saying no Arab has merit over a non-Arab?

Arafat's Uranah valley was where Muhammad spoke on 9 Dhu al-Hijjah of 10 AH, and the Quran verse 'Today I have perfected for you your religion' is said to have been recited there.

Which companion wed two of Muhammad's daughters in turn and was titled 'Possessor of Two Lights'?

Uthman, a wealthy merchant who became the third caliph, married Ruqayyah and, after her death, Umm Kulthum, and the Arabic honorific is Dhu al-Nurayn.

Which freedman, adopted by Muhammad and long known as his son, died holding the standard at Mu'tah?

Zayd ibn Harithah was for years known as 'Zayd ibn Muhammad', regarded socially and legally as Muhammad's son until Quranic verses directed that adopted sons be called by their fathers' names.

Which charter by Muhammad after the Hijra made Muslims and local Jewish tribes one community?

The Constitution of Medina set out the rights and duties of every group in the city after a century of feuding, creating, in one scholar's phrase, 'a kind of alliance or federation'.

By which kunya, taken from the name of his firstborn son, was Muhammad addressed by his companions?

Abu al-Qasim, 'father of Qasim', honours the eldest of the sons born to Muhammad's first wife, a boy who died in early childhood before the prophethood began.

Which infant son of Muhammad died on a day of solar eclipse that his father refused to call a sign?

Ibrahim, born to the Coptic Maria, was not yet two, and when the eclipse of 27 January 632 was taken as mourning, Muhammad said the sun and moon do not eclipse for anyone's death or life.