Excerpts from Books and Wikipedia
"There is a land called Arabia. It is mostly desert with very little water and a hot, unfavourable climate. In this difficult land there used to live savage tribes who were always at war with one another. They were so savage and ignorant that they used to bury their living baby daughters just because they were girls, and women were no more than slaves in those days.
However, no matter how cruel those people were, they were still God’s children and had to be educated. Muhammad, the Prophet of God, was born among them.
Muhammad was a simple man. As a young man, He was placed in charge of a camel caravan taking loads of goods from Arabia for sale in other lands. Most of the Manifestations of God were simple people. Even those who, like Buddha, came from higher ranks in life, gave up their princely positions to live simple lives. God wants to show that it is His wealth and His influence that work through His Manifestations rather than Their material possessions. When charged with the spiritual Power of God, even the humblest person becomes victorious over all the material power of the world.
One day when Muhammad was praying on a hill-top, He received inspiration from God. He had not been to any school. He could not even write His own name, but from that hour the verses of the Holy Qur’án were revealed through Him. From then onwards, Muhammad was no longer a leader of a caravan. He was the Messenger of God. He went to the people with His Message. At first nobody listened to Him. When He insisted that they should stop worshipping the idols they had built, and should believe in the One True God, the people of Arabia rose up against Him. They called Him a madman. They ridiculed Him as a poor poet. However, Muhammad went about saying, “O people, I am the Messenger of God. I have come to save you and to lead you to the Path of Truth.” This was too much for the proud people of Arabia. At first the people had tolerated Muhammad, then they began to persecute Him and His followers. However, after thirteen long years of suffering, Muhammad was still calling upon them to turn to the One Compassionate God and to follow His Commandments. Why should they put aside their gods, they thought. Besides, they were too busy with their continuous warfare. They finally lost patience with Muhammad, so they decided to kill Him and His handful of followers. However, the Mission of Muhammad was not yet fulfilled. He had additional laws to give to the people of His age. So He left His birth place, Mecca, for another town, now called Medina.
The enemies of the Cause of God organized great armies to kill Muhammad and His band of followers. Muhammad had to protect the Cause of God and those who had come to believe in God, so He permitted His followers to fight against the savages who wished to destroy them. Thus, in the days of Muhammad, as in the life time of Krishna, the armies of Light and of Darkness arrayed their forces against each other.
Muhammad was a Divine Shepherd. He had to protect His innocent flock from the attack of savage wolves. Muhammad and His followers initially had a difficult time. Many of them were killed while defending themselves against the fierce onslaught of their enemies. However, Muhammad continually assured them that the Cause of God had always been victorious and would always continue to be so. When the Muslims, His followers, were surrounded by powerful enemies, Muhammad foretold that mighty empires would soon crumble before them because they were alive with the Spirit of God whereas others were spiritually dead.
This has happened as we all know. The great Persian and Roman empires were defeated by a handful of Arabs whose lives were transformed after they believed in Muhammad, the Prophet of God, and accepted His Divine Message. The Message of God transformed the lives of millions of other people too as the teachings of Islám spread from India to Spain. During the Age of Islám’s golden civilization, many different nations were united in one great brotherhood. They offered their daily Prayers to the One God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. They recited the Holy Qur’án which prescribes a life of virtue and submission to the Will of the Almighty. Even today millions of people all over the world pray the same prayer and read the same Holy Book. Muhammad, like all the Manifestations of the past, assured his followers that a great Messenger would come after Him. He said that the Religion of God, which had come down from heaven through Him, would go back to God after the passing of a thousand years. His meaning is that people would forget His teachings during the following one thousand years. However, after that, He said, when no trace of God’s Religion was left on earth, a mighty Trumpet sound would be heard— not once but twice—and the people of the world would behold the Face of God Himself.
A Trumpet call refers to the Call of God. The Call of God has already been raised twice in this age as foretold by Muhammad. The Báb appeared over one thousand two hundred years after the revelation of the Qur’án. Very soon after this, Bahá’u’lláh declared His Mission. It was the Báb Who called men to God and reminded them of God’s great Promise. And it was Bahá’u’lláh Who raised up the cry a second time immediately after the Báb, calling upon the children of God to behold His Face!" [The New Garden, Hooshmand Fathea'zam]