JAMB Islamic Religious Knowledge Past Questions & Answers - Page 131

Abubakar, Umar then Uthman"
As the Islamic Empire began to grow, and differing recitations were heard in far-flung areas, the Quran was recompiled for uniformity in recitation (r. 644-56). under the direction of the third caliph - Uthman ibn Affan. For this reason, the Qur'an as it exists today is also known as the Uthmanic codex.

The first Quranic revelation occurred when the angel Gabriel visited Muhammad and asked him to recite. Muhammad responded ma ana bīqāre'u, which could be translated into a number of ways: 'I do not read' or 'what am I to read/recite?' or 'I will not read/recite'. Gabriel pressed him "until all the strength went out of me; thereupon he released me and said: 'Read!'" This was repeated three times and upon the third, Gabriel released him and said, "Read in the name of the Sustainer who created humankind from a clot! Read! And your Sustainer is the most Beautiful."

Uthman ibn Affan, the third caliph, was chosen by a council meeting in Medina, in northwestern Arabia, in AH 23 (643/644). The second caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, was stabbed by Piruz Nahavandi, a Persian slave. Mindful of the tumults that had occurred after the death of Muhammad (see Succession to Muhammad), on his deathbed Umar appointed a committee of six men, to choose a new leader.

According to Ibn Sad, one of Muhammad's companions, the opposition in Mecca started when Muhammad delivered verses that condemned idol worship and polytheism. However, the Quran maintains that it began when Muhammad started public preaching.
Among the first things Muhammad did to ease the longstanding grievances among the tribes of Medina was draft a document known as the Constitution of Medina, "establishing a kind of alliance or federation" among the eight Medinan tribes and Muslim emigrants from Mecca. The document specified rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the different communities in Medina (including between the Muslim community and other communities, specifically the Jews and other "Peoples of the Book"). The community defined in the Constitution of Medina, Ummah, had a religious outlook, also shaped by practical considerations, and substantially preserved the legal forms of the old Arab tribes.
The first group of pagan converts to Islam in Medina were the clans who had not produced great leaders for themselves but had suffered from warlike leaders from other clans. This was followed by the general acceptance of Islam by the pagan population of Medina, with some exceptions.
When Muhammad was in Mecca he faded opposition but was accepted when he got to Medina making the da'wah more far-reaching.

But Arabia before Islam was a society where there were no rules, except that the strong dominated the weak. It seems reasonable to expect that a natural byproduct of such society would be the oppression of women. In fact, alongside the examples of strong and independent women, there are numerous reports of women having an inferior status. Female infanticide, for instance, was practiced by fathers who did not value their daughters as much as they valued their sons. In areas, such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, women were often deprived of their basic rights: to choose their husbands freely, to divorce if ill-treated or to inherit from their families.