The First Muslims After the second revelation, which was a portion
of surah Mudassir, Muhammad (s) secretly started to invite his closed family members friends
to accept him as prophet and follow Allah (swt) laws.
According to Ibn Kathir, the top 4 people who accepted Islam are:
Khadija (pbuh) was the first Woman, Zayd (pbuh) was the first free slave, Ali (pbuh) was the
first child, and Abu Bakr (pbuh) was the first free man who all became Muslims.
Animal: So who was the second person who accepted Islam after Khadija (pbuh)?
Yusuf: There were different opinions about that.
Some scholars believe Muhammad (s)'s closed friend Abu Bakr was the second person, who
became a Muslim.
Other scholars believe, Abu Bakr was not in town at that time, and that he went to Yemen
for his business trip.
So in that viewpoint, Ali (pbuh), who was only a 10 year old boy at that time, was the
second person who accepted Islam.
On the other hand there is another opinion that all these 4 great people accepted Islam
on the same day as when Allah (swt) sent the second revelation.
But Allah (swt) knows the best.
For us, the main point is that they all were the great Muslims who helped Muhammad (s)
spread Islam with their life from the very beginning.
After a few days, Allah (swt) sent the first complete Surah, which was surah al Fatiha.
One day Angel Jibrael (pbuh) came and showed the prophet how to wash the important parts
of the body which were the steps to make Wudu.
He was taught that wudu was needed in order to prepare for the prayer.
At that time, when the angel was teaching the prophet how to pray, those who accepted
Islam used to pray differently.
They used to pray in secret, and made sure that it was in a quiet place.
During the first three years, Muhammad (s) secretly spread Islam with Allah (swt)'s guide.
During this time his goal was to find some good people to make them a strong believer
of Allah (swt) and make them a very good Muslim.
He tried to tell them not to do Idol worshiping, and explained to them that those idols were
not their god.
Those were just a piece of stone or mud.
The true God is, the God of Adam, Ibrahim, Moses and Jesus (pbut) all.
Spreading Islam in secret continued to happen for almost three years.
However, even though he didn’t spread Islam openly at that point, people knew about his
work; and since he never did it in publicly, the bad people also could not say anything
about his work.
Animal: So how many people accepted Muhammad (s) as a prophet?
Yusuf: According to some scholars, by that time there were only around 130 people or
less who accepted Muhammad (s) as their Prophet.
When Muhammad (s) got some strong supporters, Allah (swt) ordered him to tell the people
openly to everyone so they would stop their Idol worshipping and accept Allah (swt) as
their God.
After receiving the order from Allah (swt), during his first gathering, about 45 people
came and Muhammad (s) talked about Allah (swt)'s law and order.
But from the beginning, the prophet had a very bad uncle named Abu Lahab.
When the prophet went out to preach in public, Abu Lahab started to shout and threaten Muhammad
(s), and told him not to talk about the one and only God Allah (swt).
So in that very first meeting, because of Abu Lahab, Muhammad (s) could not say anything
to the people.
So in another day he had a small gathering with the people that he personally selected,
so that meant that on that day, Abu Lahab wasn't there to disturb the prophet while
he was preaching.
In that meeting, Muhammad (s) openly said that, he was a prophet from Allah (swt).
He also told the people to do good actions because this life is very short and there
is a life after our death where all of our good and bad deeds will matter.
And at that time, Allah (swt) will judge us to see who was good, and who believed in him
as the one and only God.
If we are good, Allah (swt) will be happy with us and grant us heaven.
Otherwise we will have to stay with the evil, which is in a very bad place.
After hearing that, his very good uncle, Abu Talib, who loved him very much and took care
of him starting from his childhood, told Muhammad (s) that, he would not be a Muslim.
Animal: (gasp).
So, he did not help Muhammad (s) anymore?
Well, even though he was not a Muslim, he promised to protect Muhammad (s) from the
bad people throughout his entire life.
That was a very good news for Muhammad (s) but bad for Abu Lahab who did not like that
and became very mad.
One early morning, when everyone was sound asleep, Muhammad (s) woke up and climbed Mount
Safa.
Then all the sudden in the early quiet morning, Muhammad (s) started to scream, Ya sabahah,
Ya sabahah.
Meaning O, morning Disaster.
People from every house starting to come out to hear prophet Muhammad (s) because they
thought that there was an enemy that was coming to attack them.
Then the prophet asked, "If I tell you that behind the hill there was an enemy ready to
attack you, would you believe me?"
Everyone said, yes, because he never said a lie.
Then Muhammad (s) said, if you don't believe in Allah (swt), a big punishment will come
to you.
Then his uncle Abu Lahab became very mad and said," you called us only for that?
You should die!!"This was the first open invitation for everyone, and right then Abu Lahab threw
a stone at the prophet Muhammad (s), and the people were started to leave.
From that day, he started to tell people about Allah (swt)'s laws and orders in every corner
of the town, and he openly started to pray at the Kabah.
Many people started to feel like Islam was a logical and true religion so they accepted
Allah (swt) as their only true God and Muhammad (s) as a true prophet.
Soon at least one member of each family had become a Muslim.
However, as a result those who became Muslims, their family members did not like that.
So they were very rude to them and sometimes they even punished them
for becoming a Muslim.