Chief of the Prophets

Chief of the Prophets — Page 1

In the Name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Ever Merciful We praise Him and invoke His blessings upon His Noble Messenger With the Blessings and Mercy of God Chapter One The State of Arabia and Its People before the Rise of Islam The Location, the Basis for the Name and the Boundaries Looking at the map of the world, we see a large rectangular peninsula in southwest Asia to the west of India. This is the country of Arabia where Muḥammad sa was born. Historians disagree on the basis of the name of Arabia. Some of them are of the opinion that the word Arab has a connotation of eloquence and articulation, and that the Arabic language also enjoys a distinctive position with respect to this connotation—therefore the country acquired the name of Arabia. Others think that it is called Arabia because of it being a desert and due to its sparse population. Since Arabia has water on three sides—the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman on the east, the Red Sea on the west, and the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Sea on the south—and desert on the fourth side, it came to be known as the Arabian Peninsula. The Area and the Topography Arabia is about 1. 2 million square miles in area, with an average length of 1,600 miles and a width of 700 miles. Geographically, the country can be divided into three parts with respect to its height above the sea level. The first part is the coastal area consisting of flat plains; the second is the mountainous area (the country to a large extent depends on the produce from the valleys of this area); and the third is the desert which is generally barren and uninhabited.