Introduction

Public communication achieved prominence and became a course to be studied as result of great speeches by great leaders of antiquity. These leaders were entrusted the task of influencing the course of political, economic, social, cultural and spiritual destinies of their people through the power of their rhetoric. People all over the world tended to use these speeches as platform to pattern their behaviors and attitudes towards one another.

A good leader is one who combines political skills with moral skills. Through his speech it should be evident that he is the pillar for change. The Prophet Mohammad is one of those leaders who embodied these qualities in both his speeches and actions. He stood like a change agent for all humankind because he blended spirituality with politics and governed from his heart, soul and head. The Prophet’s influence is still felt strongly. Hart (1978) listed Muhammad as the most influential individual in the history of humankind because he “was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels” (p. 3) and “In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time” (p. 9). The importance of the Prophet’s   communication, as he is deemed the most influential person in history, makes this research especially valuable as it further explains the importance of reading closely his words and communication and interpreting them for others to understand and learn from.


He was born in Arabia in the year 570 C.E. (common era), and fulfilled his mission of preaching the religion of Islam (submission to One God) from the age of forty until he departed from this world at the age of sixty- three. During this short period of 23 years of his prophethood, he changed the complete Arabian peninsula from paganism and idolatry to the worship of one God, from tribal quarrels and wars to national solidarity and cohesion, from drunkenness and wickedness to sobriety and piety, from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living, from utter bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence (Shaw, 1946).
Prophet Muhammad’s patterns of communication with his family, friends, followers and enemies enabled him to successfully deliver his message of Islam and increase the number of his followers. Over twenty-three years of delivering the message from Allah, Prophet Muhammad developed a communication pattern to invite people to learn about Islam. This study is a textual analysis of values as reflected in the public communication of Prophet Muhammad.

Prophet Muhammad was the political leader and the chief of the first Muslim State in Arabia with Medina as the capital. The most important quality of a military leader coincides with those of a political leader, especially when the leader assumes the highest position in the state, or is establishing a state. Military leadership requires firmness and resoluteness and political leadership requires clemency, forbearance and wisdom. Possessing these qualities for both kinds of leadership is rare in the same individual.

Historically, Prophet Muhammad differs from other political leaders in that he neither inherited a throne nor seized power. Rather, he established a state from nothing. A state rests on three pillars: people, land and political authority, which manages the affairs of people. The state can be defined as “A group of people who are living permanently on a specific geographical territory and who are subjected to a specific political administration” (Abd Allah, 1996, p. 19).

Prophet Muhammad spent 13 years in Mecca advocating peace for war, calm for violence, forgiveness for revenge and the call of justice for tyranny. (Abd Allah, 1996) During this period, he was able to build a community that consisted of people ready to sacrifice their lives in the path of God and the new religion. (Abd Allah, 1996) Prophet Muhammad became convinced that Qoraish would not allow him to make Mecca a “safe and strong base” from which he could start to establish his state. He prepared the believers, which is the first pillar of the state. But he needed the second pillar, land. That was why he
turned to another city that would be suitable to form his base. He first chose Taef because of its strategic location near Mecca and its warrior inhabitants. Then, he went to invite its leaders to Islam but they rejected him and verbally and physically abused him. They even incited their children to harm him. Following this, he returned to Mecca disappointed but still hopeful for God’s help and support.
(Shah, 1996)
Prophet Muhammad did not give up and continued calling on other tribes to Islam, those that made pilgrimages to Mecca according to ancient Arab traditions. (Salahi, 1995, p. 25) He met a group of 12 men from the city of Yathreb (Madina). In the next year, seventy-three Madinans came and met the Prophet. He felt that he could look forward to having his safe and solid base in Madina. (Abd Allah, 1996) When God gave His permission to the Prophet to immigrate to Madina, he realized that he had ensured the second element of his state: the land. ( Abd Allah, 1996).

Prophet Muhammad still had to establish some sort of organization and political administration in order to have all the necessary elements of the state. The first thing he did after arriving in Madina was to declare that his followers from Mecca and Madina were brethren. The Prophet formulated a treaty, Al Sahifa, to govern the relationships between the various elements of the new society for Muslims and non- Muslims. The treaty embodied the provisional constitution of the first Muslim State.
Prophet Muhammad acknowledged the equality and brotherhood of man. He was not content with just preaching it; he practiced it. One of his closest companions was a former negro slave, Bilaal; one of his trusted lieutenants was an Iranian called Salmaan; a third, Suhayb of Rome. These followers came from different places, spoke different languages, and were of different heritage. However, in their teacher's company, they were all the same, equal to each other without distinction (Great Prophet, n.d.).

Although Prophet Muhammad delivered numerous speeches concerning many extraordinary values and principles that were misunderstood in the West, the religion of Islam is often described as a source of violence, extremism and terrorism (Ahmad &Yousef, 1998). This research seeks to examine the values that are manifested in Prophet Muhammad’s addresses during his twenty-three years of Prophet hood and to evaluate the Prophet’s leadership traits as evident in his public addresses.