When the Prophet ﷺ approached the age of 40, periods of seclusion became beloved to him. He would spend the month of Ramadan in the Cave of Hira by himself and devote himself to worship within it. The prophet ﷺ remained upon this for three years until revelation descended upon him during his period of seclusion that year.

When he ﷺ turned 40, he was bestowed with the light of prophethood, for Allah the Exalted honored him with His message and sent him to His creation, and distinguished him with His miracle, and made him a trustee between Him and His servants. Thus, Gabriel (peace be upon him) came to the Prophet by the order of Allah the Majestic and Exalted and made him a mercy to the worlds, and designated him for all people as a bearer of glad tidings and a warner.

As soon as the Prophet ﷺ received the command of his Lord, Glory be to Him, to convey the message by His saying: “O you who are covered up, rise and warn,” (Surat Al-Muddaththir:1-2) he immediately began calling people to worship Allah alone, and to embrace the religion that Allah the Exalted sent him with.

Then Allah the Majestic and Exalted commanded him to invite publicly: {Then proclaim what you are commanded} (Al-Hijr:94). So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ announced his invitation to Islam and cracked open with the truth as Allah the Exalted commanded him).

When the polytheists saw that these methods were of no use, and that the Prophet ﷺ was continuing with his call to Islam, they decided to fight Islam, and began to harm the Prophet ﷺ and torture and persecute his companions who believed with him. When the persecution of the polytheists intensified, the Prophet ﷺ instructed his companions to migrate to Abyssinia. As a result, a number of Muslims, men and women, migrated there in the fifth year of his prophethood.

While the Prophet ﷺ was at a juncture in which his call was carving a path between success and persecution, the incident of Al-Isra' and Al-Mi'raj occurred. This incident came as a confirmation of and honoring the Messenger of Allah ﷺ after many years of preaching and patience with the abuse from the polytheists, their persecution, their rejection, and their estrangement.

After the majority of the Muslims emigrated from Mecca, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) emigrated to Medina. However, they left in the opposite direction to blindside and confuse the Quraysh regarding the matter. They both descended upon the Cave of Thawr and spent three days in it. Then they set out towards Medina using an unfamiliar path near the coast of the Red Sea. When the Prophet ﷺ and his companion reached the outskirts of Medina, the Muslims welcomed him in a solemn procession full of joy and pleasure.

The first thing that the Prophet ﷺ did when he arrived in Medina was to build the Prophet’s Mosque and to establish fraternity and brotherhood between the Muhajireen (migrators from Makkah) and the Ansar (Muslim residents of Medina), thus laying the foundations for the new Islamic society.

Allah the Exalted sent down permission for Muslims to fight in order defend their religion and their state, and to spread the eternal message of Islam. So the Exalted said: {Permission [to fight] has been given to those who are being fought because they were wronged} (Al-Hajj:39). This was the first verse revealed granting permission to fight. The Messenger of Allah fought in a total of 27 military campaigns and sent 56 military campaigns that he sent without attending.

When the Prophet's call to Islam was completed and Islam spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula, people entered the religion of Allah in droves, and the light of its spread began to appear in the world, overshadowing other religions, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sensed the approach of his time in the world. So he began preparing to meet his Lord and his words and actions appeared to indicate his approaching departure from this mortal world.

Even though he ﷺ passed away, his religion remained. By his death, there was not anything virtuous except that he guided the nation to it, and there was not anything evil except that he had warned his nation against it. The virtue that he guided to was monotheism and everything that Allah loves and is pleased with. The evil that he warned against was polytheism and everything that Allah hates and detests.