Where does Islam originate from?
Early in the seventh century, forces of change were suddenly unleashed in the Arab world. The catalyst was a religious prophet called Mohammed, who galvanised the Arab world into unity and jolted it out of its isolation. Mohammed was born in Mecca about 570. Orphaned in his youth, he was brought up by an uncle as a trader. Eventually, he entered the service of a rich widow, whom he married, so ensuring himself a respectable and leisured career. As a trader, Mohammed came into contact with foreign merchants passing through Mecca. But there’s reason to suspect that the decisive aspects of his life were shaped less by these extraneous conditions than by his own introspective, brooding, ascetic spirit, which caused him to spend much of his time in prayer and meditation, often in the solitude of the desert. While the question of his own salvation may have been central to his spiritual searching, it’s likely that he was also troubled about the breakdown of traditional communal values and the
