Mothers and Daughters Interfaith Encounter Group on 27th November 2008:

The Future Interfaith Encounter Group of Mothers and Daughters
Encounter on November 27th 2008
Theme: Prophet Muhammad (Peace and Blessing be upon Him)

His full name is: Muhammad son of Abd-Allah son of Abd el-Mutalleb. When a Muslim mentions or reads the name of Muhammad, he must add "Salla Aleihu wasallam" which means: Blessing and Peace be upon him, out of respect to the Prophet, who was the last prophet.

He was born in Mecca, in Rabia el-Awwal Am Alphil – December 3rd year 570 – and later moved to Medina, following his suffering from the infidels who planned to kill him.

His father Abd-Allah passed away before Muhammad PBUH was born. His grandfather gave him his name and was looking for a woman to nurse him. But many refused since he was an orphan. Finally Halima al-Saadiyah accepted and nursed him until he was 4 years old, then he was returned to his mother. When he was 6 his mother took him to his maternally uncles. On her way back she became sick and died, between Mecca and Medina, and then his grandfather Abd el-Mutalleb took care of him. At the age of 9 Muhammad began traveling with his uncle Abu Taleb and work with him in commerce.

In Mecca he was called "el Sadiq el Amin" as he was so trustworthy and righteous that people used to deposit with him money and valuables.

He got married at the age of 25 with Hadija who was 40 and they had four girls and two boys. The boys died before the Islam era but the girls survived.

Before the era of Islam people believed in statues but Prophet Muhammad succeeded to convince them and unite the Arab tribes to believe in God and in Muhammad's message.

Hira cave: a place in Mecca where Prophet Muhammad used to go to, taking with him food and water, and staying in it for the whole month of Ramadan, contemplating about the world, how it all happened and who created it all. There came to him Angel Gabriel and asked him to read chapters from the Quran.

Prophet Muhammad PBUH started to publicize his message secretly among his family members and relatives and among the Arab tribes, for three years. Then he got the order from God, through Gabriel, that he should publicize the message of Islam to the whole world.

Hadija was the first woman to become Muslim. The Imam Ali son of Abu Taleb, Muhammad's cousin, was the first man to become Muslim. Abu Baker el-Sadir was the first of the friends to become Muslim.

To conclude the encounter we had a game of colors in Hebrew and Arabic, to check how much the girls progressed in learning the language. The girls were happy with this game and requested that we repeat such games of speed and that check their knowledge. We do intend to continue working to improve the interfaith encounters as well as the knowledge of the languages of both parts of the group.

Reported by Mariam Hussein

(* We deeply thank the Joseph and Harvey Meyerhoff Family Charitable Funds for their kind support to the work of this group this year


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