The life of the Prophet ﷺ
Islamic Studies · Key Stage 2 · The School
Makkah: thirteen years
Born about 570 CE, orphaned young, raised by his grandfather then his uncle. Known as trustworthy. At forty he received the first revelation in the cave of Hira. For thirteen years in Makkah he taught, and he and the early Muslims were mocked, boycotted and tortured — Bilal, an enslaved man, among the worst treated.
The Hijrah and Madinah
In 622 CE the Muslims migrated to Madinah. That migration — the HIJRAH — begins the Islamic calendar, which tells you how much it mattered: not his birth, not the first revelation, but the moment belief became a community with a home. In Madinah he built a masjid, made a written agreement covering Muslims and the Jewish tribes, and paired migrants with hosts.
Makkah again
Eight years later he returned to Makkah with ten thousand followers and took the city almost without bloodshed. Standing before the people who had driven his community out, he asked what they expected of him, and then said: go, for you are free. He died in 632 CE, aged 63, in Madinah.
In 630 CE the Prophet ﷺ entered Makkah with an army, over the city that had driven him out, boycotted his family and tried to kill him. He could have done anything. He asked what they expected, and when they appealed to his generosity he said: go, you are free. Almost no blood was shed. Put that beside how conquests usually ended in the seventh century, and the choice becomes visible.