The Journey

570 CE

Abdullah falls ill on his return from a trading caravan to Syria and stops in Yathrib with his maternal uncles (Banu Najjar). He passes away there before the birth of his son.

• 570Death of Abdullah

570 CE

Abraha al-Ashram, the Abyssinian viceroy of Yemen, marches on Mecca with an army including elephants to destroy the Ka'bah. Allah sends flocks of birds (Ababil) dropping stones of baked clay to destro…

• 570The Year of the Elephant

570 CE

Following the custom of Meccan nobility, the infant Muhammad is entrusted to a Bedouin wet nurse, Halimah al-Sa'diyah, to be raised in the pure air and language of the desert. Her household is blessed…

• 570Adoption by Halimah al-Sa'diyah

570 CE

Muhammad ﷺ is born to Aminah bint Wahb in Mecca. His grandfather Abdul-Muttalib takes him to the Ka'bah and names him Muhammad, a name uncommon among the Arabs.

• 570Birth of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ

574 CE

Two angels (Jibril) approach the young Muhammad, open his chest, remove his heart, cleanse it of a black clot (portion of Satan), wash it with Zamzam water in a golden basin, and return it. Halimah be…

• 574Splitting of the Chest

576 CE

Aminah takes the 6-year-old Muhammad to Yathrib to visit his father's grave and meet his maternal relatives. On the return journey to Mecca, she falls ill and dies at Al-Abwa. Umm Ayman brings Muhamma…

• 576Death of Aminah

576 – 578 CE

Abdul-Muttalib loves his grandson dearly, often seating him on his own cushion near the Ka'bah, a privilege denied to his own sons.

• 576Custody of Abdul-Muttalib
• 578Death of Abdul-Muttalib
• 578Custody of Abu Talib

582 CE

Muhammad accompanies Abu Talib on a trade caravan to Syria. At Busra, a Christian monk named Bahira notices a cloud shading the caravan and trees bowing. He invites them to a feast, examines the boy,…

• 582Journey to Syria & Bahira the Monk

590 – 605 CE

A war between Quraysh/Kinana and Qays Aylan during the sacred months (hence 'Fijar' or Sacrilegious). The Prophet participated by gathering arrows for his uncles but did not fight directly.

• 590The Sacrilegious War (Harb al-Fijar)
• 590Alliance of the Virtuous (Hilf al-Fudul)
• 595Marriage to Khadijah

610 CE

While meditating in Cave Hira, the Angel Jibril appears and commands him to 'Read' (Iqra). The first verses of Surah Al-Alaq are revealed.

• 610The First Revelation

613 CE

After 3 years of secret preaching, the command comes to warn his kinsmen. He climbs Mount Safa and calls the clans of Quraysh to Islam. Abu Lahab condemns him.

• 613Public Proclamation

614 CE

As the Muslim community grew to approximately 20-30 members, the Prophet chose the house of al-Arqam ibn Abi al-Arqam, a young Makhzumi from a rival clan, whose Islam was still secret, as the first pr…

• 614Establishment of Dar al-Arqam

614 CE

Abu Jahl operated a three-tier persecution system: verbal humiliation for nobles, economic boycott for merchants, and physical torture for slaves and clients who had no tribal protection. Of the seven…

• 614The Persecution of the Early Muslims

615 CE

Due to persecution, the Prophet advises a group of Muslims to migrate to Abyssinia, ruled by a just Christian king, the Negus (Najashi).

• 615Migration to Abyssinia

615 – 616 CE

Quraysh sent their elder statesman Utbah ibn Rabi'ah to negotiate with the Prophet, offering him wealth, kingship, or marriage to any woman he desired, in exchange for stopping the Dawah. The Prophet…

• 615Utbah ibn Rabi'ah's Negotiation
• 615Return from Abyssinia & the Gharaniq Incident
• 616Boycott of Banu Hashim

616 CE

After the first batch of seventeen emigrants returned to Mecca on a false rumor, their eyewitness accounts of safety, dignity, and hospitality in Abyssinia convinced a far larger group to emigrate. Ov…

• 616The Second Hijra to Abyssinia
• 616Ja'far's Speech Before the Najashi

616 – 619 CE

Two of the most feared enemies of Islam, Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib (the Prophet's uncle) and Umar ibn al-Khattab, converted within three days of each other. Hamza's conversion arose from tribal honor:…

• 616Conversion of Hamza and Umar
• 619Year of Sorrow

619 CE

In Shawwāl, Year 10 of Prophethood (the same month as Khadijah's death), the Prophet ﷺ secretly walked to Ṭāʾif with Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, no mount, no announcement, to seek support from the Thaqīf tribe…

• 619Journey to Ta'if

619 CE

The boycott was broken by a combination of: (1) the Prophet's dua for a famine on Mecca, which devastated Quraysh's food supply; (2) a coordinated public challenge at the Meccan assembly (Nadi) organi…

• 619The End of the Boycott and Return from Shi'b Abi Talib

619 CE

After the Year of Sorrow and the failure at Ṭāʾif, the Prophet ﷺ, under the external protection of Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī, began approaching the Arab tribes that gathered in Mina during Hajj. He employed the…

• 619The Prophet Presents Himself to the Tribes

620 CE

Approx. 1 year before the Hijrah, after the Year of Sorrow and Journey to Ṭāʾif, Allah granted the Prophet ﷺ the greatest personal miracle: Al-Isrāʾ wal-Miʿrāj. Jibrīl came to him in the Ḥaṭīm (or his…

• 620The Night Journey & Ascension

621 CE

Twelve people from Yathrib, ten from the Khazraj and two from the Aws, arrived for Ḥajj in the eleventh year of the Daʿwah and met with the Prophet ﷺ at the Aqabah area in Mina. This was the first tim…

• 621First Pledge of Aqabah

621 CE

After the First Pledge, the Prophet ﷺ chose Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr from among 250+ converts and sent him to Yathrib. Hosted by Asʿad ibn Zurārah, Muṣʿab taught Quran and led Ṣalāh. Within weeks, forty peop…

• 621Mus'ab ibn Umayr's Mission to Yathrib

621 CE

In the last third of the night, on the final night of Ḥajj, 72 men and 2 women from Yathrib slipped secretly out of their tents to meet the Prophet ﷺ in the valley behind the Aqabah. Jābir ibn ʿAbdull…

• 621Second Pledge of Aqabah

622 CE

After the Second Pledge of Aqabah, the Prophet ﷺ formally announced to the Muslims that Allah had shown him the land of their emigration in a dream: a land 'bayna labbatayn', between two volcanic plai…

• 622The Prophet Announces the Land of Hijrah

622 CE

Following the Prophet's announcement, Muslims emigrated secretly from Makkah to Yathrib in the weeks and months before the Prophet's own Hijrah. The departures were difficult and dangerous: Abu Salama…

• 622The Early Emigrants to Madinah

622 CE

Representatives of every Quraysh tribe except Banū Hāshim gathered secretly in Dār al-Nadwah, their tribal parliament, on the night before the Hijrah. A stranger claiming to be a chief from Najd joine…

• 622The Dar al-Nadwa Assassination Plot
• 622The Prophet Departs Makkah

622 CE

The Prophet ﷺ and Abū Bakr arrived in the vicinity of Madinah after the Hijrah journey. The Anṣār had been going out daily to the outskirts to wait for them but had returned home when the sun got too…

• 622The Hijrah to Medina

622 CE

After waiting for ʿAlī to arrive from Makkah (~Wednesday/Thursday), the Prophet ﷺ began building the first purpose-built masjid in Islamic history at the settlement of Qubāʾ. The first stone was place…

• 622Masjid Quba Built, First Purposely-Built Masjid

622 CE

The Prophet ﷺ had never prayed Ṣalāt al-Jumuʿah in his life, persecution in Makkah had prevented public gathering. He had sent word to Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr in Madinah to begin Jumuʿah, and it had been es…

• 622The Prophet's First Jumu'ah Prayer and Khutbah
• 622Masjid al-Nabawi Built in Madinah
• 622The Institution of the Adhan

623 CE

The Prophet ﷺ personally led the first military expedition of the Islamic state toward al-Abwāʾ to intercept a Quraish caravan. No battle occurred, the caravan was not encountered. However, the expedi…

• 623Ghazwat al-Abwa, The First Military Expedition

623 – 624 CE

The Prophet ﷺ led 150–200 Companions to intercept the annual Quraish Syrian trade caravan, the 'mother of all caravans' carrying 70–80% of Makkah's collective wealth, commanded by Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb.…

• 623Ghazwat al-Ushayrah, Stage One of Badr
• 624The Change of the Qiblah, From Jerusalem to Makkah
• 624Muslim Army Departs Madinah for Badr

624 CE

Following the alarm call of Ḍamḍam ibn ʿAmr (Abū Sufyān's crier warning of the Muslim army targeting the Syrian caravan), the Quraysh mobilized with unprecedented speed, the largest army ever assemble…

• 624Quraysh Army Departs Makkah for Badr

624 CE

The Battle of Badr (Ghazwat Badr al-Kubrā) took place on 17 Ramaḍān 2 AH (~March 17, 624 CE) on the plains of Badr, approximately 160 miles southwest of Madīnah. A Muslim army of approximately 313–317…

• 624The Battle of Badr

628 CE

In Dhū al-Qaʿdah of 6 AH the Prophet ﷺ set out from Madinah with roughly 1,400 Companions in iḥrām, intending ʿUmrah, not war. Barred by a Quraysh determined that the Arabs never say the Muslims had f…

• 628The Treaty of al-Hudaybiyyah

628 CE

Two weeks after returning from al-Hudaybiyyah, the Prophet ﷺ marched on Khaybar, the last hostile power in central Arabia and refuge of the exiled Banū Naḍīr leadership. Its eight-plus fortresses fell…

• 628Battle of Khaybar

629 CE

Roughly 3,000 Muslims marched north to confront the Ghassanids over the killing of the Prophet's ﷺ envoy, only to find a much larger coalition of Christian Arab tribes and a Roman contingent awaiting…

• 629Battle of Mu'tah

629 CE

A winter expedition of 300 men under ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ, a Muslim of barely three months, against the large northern tribe of Quḍāʿah, which had aided the Ghassanids at Muʾtah. ʿAmr marched by night with…

• 629The Ghazwah of Dhat al-Salasil

630 CE

The near-bloodless conquest of Makkah on 20 Ramaḍān 8 AH, after Quraysh broke the Treaty of al-Ḥudaybiyyah. The Prophet ﷺ marched with ten thousand under strict orders not to fight, entered on his cam…

• 630The Conquest of Makkah

630 CE

The battle against the Hawāzin–Thaqīf confederacy in Shawwāl 8 AH, days after the Conquest, the largest gathering of pagan Arabs in their history (some 20,000) against 12,000 Muslims. An ambush of arc…

• 630The Battle of Hunayn

630 CE

The siege of the fortified mountain-city of Ṭāʾif in Shawwāl 8 AH, directly after Ḥunayn, as Thaqīf fled behind their walls. The Muslims deployed the first catapult, ram and testudo they had ever buil…

• 630The Siege of Ta'if

630 CE

The last ghazwah of the Prophet's ﷺ life (Rajab 9 AH): the largest and furthest-marching army he ever led, north to the oasis of Tabūk in the fierce summer heat and harvest season, the Army of Hardshi…

• 630The Expedition of Tabūk

631 CE

After the conquest of Makkah, Ḥunayn and Tabūk, the tribes of Arabia had no force left to rally behind, and delegations poured into Madinah, to embrace Islam, to negotiate a treaty, to feign conversio…

• 631The Year of Delegations

631 CE

In the ninth year the Prophet ﷺ sent Abū Bakr with 300 pilgrims and 25 sacrificial camels to lead the Ḥajj, refusing to attend himself while idolaters still circled the Kaʿbah naked. Sūrat al-Tawbah w…

• 631The Ḥajj of Abū Bakr and the end of pagan pilgrimage

632 CE

The Prophet's ﷺ only Ḥajj, in the tenth year, drawing perhaps a hundred thousand pilgrims. From it descends the entire fiqh of Ḥajj (Jābir's narration), the Farewell Sermon at ʿArafah with the verse o…

• 632The Farewell Ḥajj (Ḥajjat al-Wadāʿ)

632 – 638 CE

After the Farewell Ḥajj the Prophet ﷺ ordered Usāmah's expedition, then fell ill in Rabīʿ al-Awwal 11 AH. Through some ten days he appointed Abū Bakr to lead the prayer, gave his final counsels, and d…

• 632The death of the Prophet ﷺ
• 638Establishment of the Islamic Hijri Calendar