He was born in 570 in the Arabian city of Mecca. He was orphaned at a young age and brought up under the care of his uncle Abu Talib. . According to Islamic beliefs, at the age of 40, in the month of Ramadan, he received his first revelation from God. Three years after this event Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "surrender" to Him. Islam is the only way acceptable to God. Muhammad (P.B.U.H) was a prophet and messenger of God, in the same vein as other Islamic prophets.
Muhammad gained few followers early on, and was met with hostility from some Meccan tribes; he and his followers were treated harshly. Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina (then known as Yathrib) in the year 622. This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the conflicting tribes, and after eight years, he and his followers, who by then had grown to ten thousand, conquered Mecca. In 632, a few months after returning to Medina from his Farewell pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam; and he united the tribes of Arabia into a single Muslim religious polity.
The revelations (or Ayat, lit. "Signs of God") which Muhammad reported receiving until his death—form the verses of the Qur'an, These were the “Words of God” and around which the religion is based. Besides the Qur'an, Muhammad’s life (sira) and traditions (sunnah) are also upheld by Muslims.
