100 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 was where Muhammad went for long spells of solitary prayer, and it was there, in 610, that the angel brought him the opening verses of the Quran.

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 was the first person to accept Islam, and although Muhammad married several times after her death in 619, he took no other wife while she lived.

Muhammad reached Medina in Rabi' al-Awwal, but in which month does the Islamic calendar's year one begin?

Muharram opens every Islamic year, so when the Hijra's year was made year one around 638, the count began about two months before Muhammad set out.

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

Aisha gave up the spot she had wanted for her own grave so that the second caliph could lie beside Muhammad and her father, and she was buried in al-Baqi instead.

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

Fatimah is the daughter through whom Muhammad's descendants spread across the Muslim world, and they are still honoured with titles such as sayyid and sharif.

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?

Muhammad went back and forth on Moses' urging until the 50 prayers became 5, and the hadith says the five carry the reward of fifty.

Which city did Muhammad's followers face in prayer for over a year 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, dug beside the Kaaba after a dream told him where the buried well lay, and he took in 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 means 'the Trustworthy', and after the clan elders lifted the cloak together, Muhammad set the Black Stone in the wall with his own hands, five years before his first revelation.

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.

Which Persian king reportedly tore up Muhammad's letter inviting him to Islam?

Khosrow II is said to have torn it up, and Muhammad prayed that God would tear apart his kingdom; Khosrow was later overthrown and executed by his own son.

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 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 when he died about a week after news of the Quraysh defeat reached Mecca, his own family left his body unburied for days.

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

Sumayyah was the mother of Ammar ibn Yasir, and when Abu Jahl was later killed in battle, Muhammad told Ammar that God had killed his mother's killer.

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

Umar, later the second caliph, 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 people drove him out with stones, and in an orchard where he sheltered, a Christian slave named Addas brought him grapes and came to believe in him as a prophet.

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

Buraq is described in hadith as a white beast whose every stride reached as far as its eye could see.

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 Muslims as meaning no prophet can follow Muhammad, and in 1974 Pakistan declared the Ahmadiyya, who interpret it otherwise, non-Muslim.

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 had been taken into Muhammad's home as a small child to ease the load on his father, who had fallen into poverty, and he later married Muhammad's daughter and became the fourth caliph.

Which cave 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 companion, called al-Siddiq, at once believed Muhammad's account of the Night Journey?

Abu Bakr is said to have earned al-Siddiq by vouching for the Night Journey, and on the migration he hid with Muhammad in a cave.

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

Quba carries a promise in hadith: whoever makes ablutions at home and then goes to pray there 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 when Muhammad paired each with a Meccan emigrant as a brother, Sa'd ibn al-Rabi' offered his new brother half his wealth.

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's killer Wahshi later embraced Islam and, by his own account, used the same javelin to kill the false prophet Musaylima.

Which companion of Muhammad proposed the trench that held off 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.

Which god's idol, with a broken right hand replaced in gold, stood in the Kaaba until Muhammad took Mecca?

Hubal was among some 360 idols Muhammad broke when he took Mecca in 630, reciting 'Truth has come, and falsehood has vanished'.

At which mountain did Muhammad give the Farewell Sermon?

Arafat's Uranah valley heard Muhammad abolish the blood feuds and usury of the pre-Islamic era, starting with the claims of his own clan.

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

Uthman, the third caliph, later had a standard copy of the Quran prepared and ordered other versions of the text burned.

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 referred every dispute between its signatories to God and Muhammad, making him the final arbiter between the city's tribes.

By which kunya, taken from the name of his firstborn son, was Muhammad known?

Abu al-Qasim, 'father of Qasim', recalls a son of Muhammad's first marriage who died in early childhood, and Muhammad let believers take his name but not this kunya.

Which infant son of Muhammad died on an eclipse day, prompting his father to say eclipses mark no one's death?

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.

Which Washington building's 1935 marble frieze shows Muhammad among history's great lawgivers?

The Supreme Court's north wall frieze sets Muhammad among lawgivers from Justinian to Napoleon. In 1997 a Muslim group asked for the figure to be removed.

Which 1976 epic by Moustapha Akkad tells Muhammad's story without ever showing him on screen?

The Message was released in separately filmed Arabic and English versions. Its first title was Mohammed, Messenger of God.

What colour is the famous dome above Muhammad's tomb in the Prophet's Mosque at Medina?

Green paint first covered the dome in 1837. The first cupola over the tomb, raised in the 13th century, was bare unpainted wood.

What does the Arabic name Muhammad, formed from the root letters h-m-d, mean in English?

Praiseworthy comes from an Arabic verb meaning to praise. The name is that verb's passive participle, the one who is praised.

Which uncle of Muhammad was forefather of the dynasty that founded Baghdad and made it a capital?

Abbas was among the youngest of Muhammad's uncles. The rulers descended from him took his name and governed from Iraq until 1258.

Which Istanbul palace keeps relics revered as Muhammad's mantle, sword, tooth and beard hair?

Topkapi keeps the mantle in a golden chest, in a room called the Chamber of the Blessed Mantle.

From which metal was the signet ring made that bore the words 'Muhammad the Apostle of God'?

Silver formed the ring, and Muhammad ordered that no copy be made. A later owner dropped it down a deep well, where it stayed.

Which blessing do Muslims customarily say or write straight after the name of Muhammad?

Peace be upon him is shortened to PBUH in English and follows his name in print. A longer form also blesses his household.

Which fruit did Muhammad eat to end each day's fast, a habit Muslims still copy at sunset?

Dates still open the evening meal in his memory, traditionally three of them taken with water.

Through which son of Abraham does Islamic tradition trace the ancestry of Muhammad and the Quraysh?

Ishmael is honoured in Islam as a prophet and as forefather of Adnan, the ancestor from whom Muhammad's line is counted.

Which prophet, whose return Muslims still await, does Islam count as the last one before Muhammad?

Jesus is honoured in Islam as a prophet who foretold Muhammad's coming. A vacant space beside Muhammad's tomb is traditionally said to be kept for him.

Which heavenly body does tradition say Muhammad split in two as a sign to doubting Meccans?

The Moon gives its name to the Quran's 54th chapter, whose opening verses refer to the event. Some commentators take those verses as a metaphor instead.

Which festival, held in the third month of the Islamic calendar, marks Muhammad's birthday?

Mawlid was staged as an annual public festival at Erbil from 1207 by a Turkic general. The custom soon spread across the Muslim world.

What work did the young Muhammad do to earn his living while in his uncle's care at Mecca?

Herding sheep was how the orphaned boy earned his living. Only later did caravan journeys draw him into the merchant trade.

Which Arabic term names the body of Muhammad's practices, recorded in hadith, that Muslims take as a model?

Sunnah literally means a path or a way of life. Alongside the Quran, it is a primary source of Islamic law and belief.

Which Islamic creed, also part of the call to prayer, names Muhammad as the Messenger of God?

The Shahada is counted among the pillars of Islam. Its first half declares that there is no deity except God.

To which land north of Arabia did the young Muhammad travel with Meccan trading caravans?

Syria was the northern end of Mecca's caravan route. Muhammad's success leading one caravan there so impressed its owner that she proposed marriage.

Which region of western Arabia, its name meaning 'the barrier', contains both Mecca and Medina?

The Hejaz is so called because it separates the inland Najd from the coastal lowland to its west. Muhammad was born, preached and died within it.

Trunks of which tree held up the roof of the mosque Muhammad built beside his home at Medina?

Palm trunks carried a roof of beaten clay and leaves, inside walls of sun-dried mud brick. Stone columns replaced the trunks in a later rebuilding.

Muslims remember 619, when Muhammad lost both his wife and his protecting uncle, as the Year of what?

Sorrow names the year because the two deaths came close together. They cost Muhammad his clan's protection and sent him to seek a protector outside Mecca.

What did Muhammad's grandfather cast at the Kaaba to pick which of his ten sons to sacrifice?

Arrows of divination picked the son who became Muhammad's father. He was spared when further lots set his ransom at a hundred camels, which were sacrificed instead.

Which country's Alawi dynasty, in power since the 17th century, claims descent from Muhammad?

Morocco's royal house rose from the Tafilalt oasis, where its founder was declared sultan in 1631. It counts itself a Sharifian line, one of noble descent.

For what purpose did Muhammad regularly use the miswak, a twig cut from the arak tree?

Cleaning his teeth with the twig was his regular habit, hadith report. In 1986 the World Health Organization recommended the miswak too.

In the saying of Muhammad that opens al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith, by what are a person's deeds judged?

Intentions decide the reward, the saying goes: each person gains only what he set out to gain. The Arabic word for such a resolve is niyyah.

Which land's ruler, known as al-Muqawqis, answered Muhammad's invitation to Islam with gifts instead?

Egypt's ruler is widely identified with Cyrus, the patriarch of Alexandria. Among his gifts was Maria, who later bore Muhammad a son.

Which honorific, found across the Muslim world, marks a man as a descendant of Muhammad?

Sayyid translates as lord or master. In the Ottoman Empire, men who held the title had the privilege of wearing a distinctive turban.

Which prophet does tradition say greeted Muhammad in the first and lowest of the seven heavens?

Adam was the first of the earlier prophets Muhammad met on his ascent, one at each level of heaven, in the account summarised by the historian al-Tabari.

Which Byzantine emperor was sent Muhammad's invitation to Islam, carried by the envoy Dihyah al-Kalbi?

Heraclius was fresh from a long war with Persia when the envoy set out. One historian suggests the letter may never have reached him.

Which other name for Muhammad, from the same root as his own, appears in a prophecy in Quran 61:6?

Ahmad grew into a common given name on the strength of that verse. Most Islamic scholars take its promise of a messenger still to come as foretelling Muhammad.

Which companion, whose nickname means 'father of a kitten', narrated more of Muhammad's sayings than any other?

Abu Hurayra accepted Islam late, only around 629. He still came to be seen as the most prolific narrator of Muhammad's sayings.

Which oasis of Jewish fortresses, captured by Muhammad in 628, was where he was served poisoned lamb?

Khaybar's defenders surrendered and stayed on in return for half their harvest. A companion died from the poisoned lamb, and Muhammad spat his mouthful out.

Which object's sound did Muhammad liken to the form of revelation he found hardest to bear?

A bell ringing was his comparison for the form of revelation that was hardest on him. When the sound passed, he had grasped what was said.

Which scholar born in today's Uzbekistan compiled the hadith collection many rank second only to the Quran?

Al-Bukhari began studying hadith at ten and sifted more than 600,000 narrations, keeping fewer than 3,000 once repeats are set aside.

Which 8th-century historian, born in Medina, collected the oral traditions behind an early life of Muhammad?

Ibn Ishaq's original text is lost. It survives chiefly in a version trimmed by a later editor, Ibn Hisham, and in long extracts quoted by the historian al-Tabari.

In which Islamic month, on its 27th night, do most Muslims mark Muhammad's Night Journey and ascension?

Rajab is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar and one of four sacred months in which fighting was forbidden. Early writers disagree on when the journey took place.

Which cemetery by the Prophet's Mosque, the oldest in Islam, holds many of Muhammad's family and companions?

Al-Baqi was chosen as a burial ground by Muhammad himself. The structures over its graves were demolished in 1806 and again, after rebuilding, in 1926.

Which saint's monastery in Sinai holds copies of a charter of protection attributed to Muhammad?

Catherine's monks say Ottoman soldiers carried the original off to the sultan's palace. The charter bears an imprint representing Muhammad's hand.

What wedding gift from her mother did Muhammad's eldest daughter send to ransom her captive husband?

A necklace of onyx went with the ransom money for her husband, Abu al-As. He later accepted Islam and returned to Medina.

When the Christian slave Addas named Nineveh as his home, Muhammad called it the town of which prophet?

Jonah, in Arabic Yunus, was the name Muhammad gave. Addas, startled that an Arab knew of the man, kissed Muhammad's head, hands and feet.

What term do Muslims use for the 'age of ignorance' in Arabia before Muhammad's mission began?

Jahiliyyah casts the old Arabia as a morally corrupt order, set against the way of life that Muhammad introduced.

Which 630 battle against the Hawazin, fought in a valley outside Mecca, is named in the Quran's ninth chapter?

Hunayn began with the Muslims driven back in disorder by a sudden attack. It ended in a decisive victory and vast spoils, among them 24,000 camels.

Which northern outpost names Muhammad's 630 'Campaign of Hardship' against a feared Byzantine invasion?

Tabuk was reached by a force of as many as 30,000. No Byzantine army appeared, so after twenty days of making local alliances Muhammad went home without a battle.

Which Meccan pact of about 590, joined by the young Muhammad, defended traders who had no clan?

Hilf al-Fudul is often translated as the League of the Virtuous. It was formed after a Meccan notable refused to pay a visiting Yemeni merchant for his goods.

Which Meccan clan kept the keys to the Kaaba before Islam and again after Muhammad took the city in 630?

Bani Shaiba members welcome visitors into the Kaaba at its ceremonial cleaning and wash the interior alongside them.

In which meeting place of the Banu Sa'ida was the succession debated while Muhammad's burial was prepared?

Saqifa means a covered communal place for conversation. In histories the word now stands for that one gathering, held while his close relatives readied the burial.

Which rival claimant to prophethood, based in Yamama, proposed to share power over Arabia with Muhammad?

Musaylima is remembered by Muslims as 'the Arch-Liar'. He recited verses of his own that he presented as revelations from God.

Which early convert of the Makhzum clan owned the Meccan house where Muhammad's first followers met?

Al-Arqam later joined the emigration to Medina, where Muhammad granted him a house in his turn.

At which pond between Mecca and Medina did Muhammad take his cousin by the hand and give a speech?

Ghadir Khumm lies near Juhfa. Shia Muslims keep the day as a feast and take the words spoken there as naming his cousin leader of the community.

What name is given to a pre-Islamic Arabian who, like Muhammad by tradition, worshipped only Abraham's God?

A hanif is understood as one who turned away from idolatry. Such believers followed neither Judaism nor Christianity, holding to what they saw as Abraham's unaltered faith.

Which shrine on Dal Lake in Kashmir houses a strand of hair revered as a relic of Muhammad?

Hazratbal's relic was reported missing on 27 December 1963, and its disappearance set off mass protests across Jammu and Kashmir.