title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Jules Paxton, a member of the Hounslow Harriers, a local women's amateur football team, notices Jess's football skills, befriends her, and invites her to try out for the team. The coach, Joe—a young Irish former player whose own career was derailed by injuries—accepts her onto the team. Although Jess's parents forbid her to join the team, she plays behind their backs, claiming to have a part-time job when she is actually at football practice. When he learns that Jess is on the team without her parents' permission, Joe pleads with Mr. Bhamra to allow Jess to play, but he refuses, revealing that he does not want Jess to suffer the way he did when he was excluded from a cricket club because of anti-Indian sentiment.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: With Pinky covering for her, Jess travels with the team to play a match in Germany; the Harriers lose the match after Jess fails to score on a penalty kick. When they go out clubbing in Hamburg after the match, Jules catches Joe and Jess about to kiss. This sours the two girls' friendship, as Jules also is attracted to Joe. Furthermore, Jess's parents find out she is still on the team by seeing a newspaper article about the Hamburg match. After returning, Jess goes to Jules's house to try to patch up their friendship, but Jules's mother, confused by overhearing only parts of an argument, thinks they are hiding a lesbian relationship.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Jess's father secretly attends one of her games, and sees Jess mocked with a racial slur by an opposing player, and Joe hugging her afterward to comfort her. The Harriers qualify for the finals of the league tournament, but the championship match—with an American talent scout in attendance—is to be held on the same day as Pinky's wedding, so Jess resigns herself to missing the game. At Pinky's wedding Jess is visibly miserable; her father tells her to go to the game so she can be happy on her sister's wedding day. The Harriers are behind 1–0 when Jess arrives, but they rally, and eventually Jess wins the game with a free kick. The scout offers Jess and Jules sports scholarships at Santa Clara University in California. Jules and Jess share a hug and kiss to celebrate, furthering Jules's mother's suspicions. Jess returns to the wedding, now able to celebrate. Jules's mother gives Jules a ride to the wedding as well, but when they arrive, Mrs. Paxton accuses Jess of being a hypocrite and a lesbian. Jules drags her mother away, angrily clarifying her relationship with Jess.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Later that day, Jess has still not told her parents about the scholarship; she is afraid they might not allow her to go to the United States on her own. Tony, out of friendship for Jess, decides to lie to the family and tell them he is engaged to Jess as long as she gets to go to any college she wants. The Bhamras happily accept, but Jess immediately confesses the truth. Jess's mother ignores Jess's heartfelt speech and scolds Jess's father for letting Jess leave Pinky's wedding. But her father announces he doesn't want Jess to suffer as he did, and accepts her desire to play football. Jess runs to the football field to tell Joe of her parents' decision. The two almost kiss, but Jess pulls away, saying her parents would object, and that although they had come far enough to let her go to America to play, she doesn't think they would be able to handle another cultural rebellion from her.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: On the day of Jess and Jules's flight to America, the two are about to board the plane when Joe arrives and confesses his love for Jess. The two kiss and Jess agrees to sort out their relationship (and her parents) when she returns for Christmas. While at the airport, they see David Beckham with his wife Victoria, which Jules takes as a sign. Then the two leave through the gate giving happy waves to their families.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: While Jess and Jules are away, Mr and Mrs. Paxton patch up their relationship, Pinky becomes pregnant and Mr. Bhamra gets back into playing cricket with Joe.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Gurinder Chadha co-wrote the script with Guljit Bindra and screenwriting partner Paul Mayeda Berges. Nayar and Chadha actively pursued financing for the film at Sundance Film Festival. Having previously worked with Road Movies, a German production company on several other projects, Nayar approached them and they came on board, followed by British Screen and The Film Council. The film is loosely based on the life of Permi Jhooti.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Helkon SK, formerly known as Redbus, picked up the script. Fox Searchlight Pictures picked up the rights for distribution in the United States at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Principal photography began on 18 June 2001. A variety of locations around London and Shepperton Studios, Surrey were used for the nine-week shoot, with the semi-final taking place over a three-day period in Hamburg, Germany.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Chadha, who played an active role in casting, chose Parminder Nagra and Keira Knightley, who would play the two lead roles in the film, while Archie Panjabi and Jonathan Rhys Meyers were in early talks to join the cast. Shaznay Lewis and Anupam Kher were also in final talks. Juliet Stevenson and Frank Harper joined as Paula Paxton and Alan Paxton, mother and father of Jules.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: For the role of Jess's mother, Mrs Bhamra, Chadha turned to Shaheen Khan, whom she had previously cast in "Bhaji on the Beach". Anupam Kher, a Bollywood actor, was cast as Mr Bhamra, Jess's father. Chadha worked with The Football Association and ended up casting actual players from a variety of school teams.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: "Bend It Like Beckham" was released theatrically on 12 April 2002 by Redbus Film Distribution. The film then received a limited theatrical release in the United States on 12 March 2003 by Fox Searchlight Pictures. When originally released in the United Kingdom, it topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being overtaken by "About a Boy".


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: The film was released on DVD and VHS on 18 November 2002 by Warner Home Video, and re-released on DVD and VHS on 30 September 2003 in the United States by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Among the DVD bonus features, there are several scenes that did not make the final release. Some include dialogue from Pinky's friends and from Jules, as well as her mother meeting Kevin and his friends outside a shop, which would have been helpful, as Kevin is mentioned three times but is never seen.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: On the North American "Billboard" video charts, the film entered the top ten of the Top DVD Sales and Top DVD Rentals charts, at number six on Top VHS Sales, and number seven on Top VHS Rentals.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: In the United Kingdom, it was the sixth most-watched film of 2003 on subscription television, with 810,000 viewers on Sky Premier that year. It was later the most-watched film on UK television during the first half of 2005, with viewers on BBC1 during that period. Combined, the film drew at least UK viewership during 2003 and 2005.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: "Bend It Like Beckham" surprised critics and met with mostly positive reviews. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 85% based on 154 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The consensus states, "Inspiring, compassionate, and with a sly undercurrent of social commentary, "Bend It Like Beckham" is a lively feel-good movie that genuinely charms." Metacritic gave the movie a score of 66 based on 32 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" noted that the film "was really full of easy humor, an impeccable sense of milieu that is the result of knowing the culture intimately enough to poke fun at it while understanding its underlying integrity."


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: "The Times of India" noted the film's social context, saying, "[it] is really about the bending of rules, social paradigms and lives – all to finally curl that ball, bending it like Beckham, through the goalpost of ambition... The creeping divide shows that Britain is changing, but hasn't quite changed yet. The stiff upper lip has travelled miles from the time Chadha's father was denied a pint at some pubs at Southall, but like dollops of coagulated spice in badly stirred curry, discrimination crops up to spoil the taste, every now and then, in multi-racial Britain."


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: "Planet Bollywood" gave the film a mark of 9 out of 10: the "screenplay not only explores the development of Jess as a person, but also the changing values and culture of NRI teens: Jess's urge to break the social norm of the Indian home-maker, her sister's (Archie Punjabi) sexually active relationship, and the gay Indian [Tony, played by Ameet Chana]."


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: "The Hindu" argued, "If ever there is a film that is positive, realistic and yet delightful, then it has to be Dream Production's latest venture directed by Gurinder Chadha... Light-hearted, without taking away the considerable substance in terms of values, attitudes and the love for sport, the film just goes to prove that there are ways to be convincing and honest."


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: Jamie Russell at the BBC gave it 4 out of 5 stars, and argued that "Mr Beckham ought to be proud to have his name on such a great film." The British film was distributed by iDream Productions in India, and went on to set the record in India for most tickets sold during a single weekend for a foreign movie.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: In the United Kingdom, the film grossed over £11million, making it one of the highest-grossing Black/Asian-themed British films. With in US box office revenue, "Bend It Like Beckham" became the highest-grossing Indian-themed film in the United States since "Gandhi" (1982). At the time of its release, "Bend It Like Beckham" became the highest-grossing association football themed sports film in the United States; it remains the third highest-grossing film there in this genre (behind "Kicking & Screaming" and "She's the Man"). The film grossed worldwide.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: The release of the soundtrack in the United Kingdom features bhangra music, and songs by the Spice Girls' Victoria Beckham and Melanie C and rock band Texas. It also features "Baddest Ruffest" by Backyard Dog, the aria "Nessun Dorma", from Puccini's "Turandot" and excerpts from dance band Basement Jaxx. The USA release rearranges the tracks and excludes some material. "Dream the Dream" appears in the movie but did not make the final cut on the soundtrack.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: To mark the tenth anniversary of North Korea's relations with the United Kingdom, an edited version of "Bend It Like Beckham" was broadcast on North Korean state television on 26 December 2010, Boxing Day. The British Ambassador to South Korea, Martin Uden, said it was the "first ever Western-made film to air on television" in North Korea.


title: Bend It Like Beckham

text: On 7 May 2019 it was announced that the stage production, which debuted in London's West End, would have its North American premiere in Toronto, with a limited run at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts' Bluma Appel Theatre beginning in December 2019.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A* (pronounced "A-star") is a graph traversal and path search algorithm, which is used in many fields of computer science due to its completeness, optimality, and optimal efficiency. One major practical drawback is its formula_1 space complexity, as it stores all generated nodes in memory. Thus, in practical travel-routing systems, it is generally outperformed by algorithms which can pre-process the graph to attain better performance, as well as memory-bounded approaches; however, A* is still the best solution in many cases.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Peter Hart, Nils Nilsson and Bertram Raphael of Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) first published the algorithm in 1968. It can be seen as an extension of Dijkstra's algorithm. A* achieves better performance by using heuristics to guide its search.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Compared to Dijkstra's algorithm, the A* algorithm only finds the shortest path from a specified source to a specified goal, and not the shortest-path tree from a specified source to all possible goals. This is a necessary trade-off for using a specific-goal-directed heuristic. For Dijkstra's algorithm, since the entire shortest-path tree is generated, every node is a goal, and there can be no specific-goal-directed heuristic.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A* was created as part of the Shakey project, which had the aim of building a mobile robot that could plan its own actions. Nils Nilsson originally proposed using the Graph Traverser algorithm for Shakey's path planning. Graph Traverser is guided by a heuristic function , the estimated distance from node to the goal node: it entirely ignores , the distance from the start node to . Bertram Raphael suggested using the sum, . Peter Hart invented the concepts we now call admissibility and consistency of heuristic functions. A* was originally designed for finding least-cost paths when the cost of a path is the sum of its costs, but it has been shown that A* can be used to find optimal paths for any problem satisfying the conditions of a cost algebra.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The original 1968 A* paper contained a theorem stating that no A*-like algorithm could expand fewer nodes than A* if the heuristic function is consistent and A*'s tie-breaking rule is suitably chosen. A ″correction″ was published a few years later claiming that consistency was not required, but this was shown to be false in Dechter and Pearl's definitive study of A*'s optimality (now called optimal efficiency), which gave an example of A* with a heuristic that was admissible but not consistent expanding arbitrarily more nodes than an alternative A*-like algorithm.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A* is an informed search algorithm, or a best-first search, meaning that it is formulated in terms of weighted graphs: starting from a specific starting node of a graph, it aims to find a path to the given goal node having the smallest cost (least distance travelled, shortest time, etc.). It does this by maintaining a tree of paths originating at the start node and extending those paths one edge at a time until its termination criterion is satisfied.


title: A* search algorithm

text: At each iteration of its main loop, A* needs to determine which of its paths to extend. It does so based on the cost of the path and an estimate of the cost required to extend the path all the way to the goal. Specifically, A* selects the path that minimizes


title: A* search algorithm

text: where is the next node on the path, is the cost of the path from the start node to , and is a heuristic function that estimates the cost of the cheapest path from to the goal. A* terminates when the path it chooses to extend is a path from start to goal or if there are no paths eligible to be extended. The heuristic function is problem-specific. If the heuristic function is admissible – meaning that it never overestimates the actual cost to get to the goal –, A* is guaranteed to return a least-cost path from start to goal.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Typical implementations of A* use a priority queue to perform the repeated selection of minimum (estimated) cost nodes to expand. This priority queue is known as the "open set" or "fringe". At each step of the algorithm, the node with the lowest value is removed from the queue, the and values of its neighbors are updated accordingly, and these neighbors are added to the queue. The algorithm continues until a removed node (thus the node with the lowest value out of all fringe nodes) is a goal node. The value of that goal is then also the cost of the shortest path, since at the goal is zero in an admissible heuristic.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The algorithm described so far gives us only the length of the shortest path. To find the actual sequence of steps, the algorithm can be easily revised so that each node on the path keeps track of its predecessor. After this algorithm is run, the ending node will point to its predecessor, and so on, until some node's predecessor is the start node.


title: A* search algorithm

text: As an example, when searching for the shortest route on a map, might represent the straight-line distance to the goal, since that is physically the smallest possible distance between any two points. For a grid map from a video game, using the Manhattan distance or the octile distance becomes better depending on the set of movements available (4-way or 8-way).


title: A* search algorithm

text: If the heuristic satisfies the additional condition for every edge of the graph (where denotes the length of that edge), then is called monotone, or consistent. With a consistent heuristic, A* is guaranteed to find an optimal path without processing any node more than once and A* is equivalent to running Dijkstra's algorithm with the reduced cost .


title: A* search algorithm

text: Remark: In this pseudocode, if a node is reached by one path, removed from openSet, and subsequently reached by a cheaper path, it will be added to openSet again. This is essential to guarantee that the path returned is optimal if the heuristic function is admissible but not consistent. If the heuristic is consistent, when a node is removed from openSet the path to it is guaranteed to be optimal so the test ‘tentative_gScore < gScore[neighbor]’ will always fail if the node is reached again.


title: A* search algorithm

text: An example of an A* algorithm in action where nodes are cities connected with roads and h(x) is the straight-line distance to target point:


title: A* search algorithm

text: The A* algorithm also has real-world applications. In this example, edges are railroads and h(x) is the great-circle distance (the shortest possible distance on a sphere) to the target. The algorithm is searching for a path between Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles.


title: A* search algorithm

text: There are a number of simple optimizations or implementation details that can significantly affect the performance of an A* implementation. The first detail to note is that the way the priority queue handles ties can have a significant effect on performance in some situations. If ties are broken so the queue behaves in a LIFO manner, A* will behave like depth-first search among equal cost paths (avoiding exploring more than one equally optimal solution).


title: A* search algorithm

text: When a path is required at the end of the search, it is common to keep with each node a reference to that node's parent. At the end of the search these references can be used to recover the optimal path. If these references are being kept then it can be important that the same node doesn't appear in the priority queue more than once (each entry corresponding to a different path to the node, and each with a different cost). A standard approach here is to check if a node about to be added already appears in the priority queue. If it does, then the priority and parent pointers are changed to correspond to the lower cost path. A standard binary heap based priority queue does not directly support the operation of searching for one of its elements, but it can be augmented with a hash table that maps elements to their position in the heap, allowing this decrease-priority operation to be performed in logarithmic time. Alternatively, a Fibonacci heap can perform the same decrease-priority operations in constant amortized time.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Dijkstra's algorithm, as another example of a uniform-cost search algorithm, can be viewed as a special case of A* where for all "x". General depth-first search can be implemented using A* by considering that there is a global counter "C" initialized with a very large value. Every time we process a node we assign "C" to all of its newly discovered neighbors. After each single assignment, we decrease the counter "C" by one. Thus the earlier a node is discovered, the higher its value. Both Dijkstra's algorithm and depth-first search can be implemented more efficiently without including an value at each node.


title: A* search algorithm

text: On finite graphs with non-negative edge weights A* is guaranteed to terminate and is "complete", i.e. it will always find a solution (a path from start to goal) if one exists. On infinite graphs with a finite branching factor and edge costs that are bounded away from zero (formula_3 for some fixed formula_4), A* is guaranteed to terminate only if there exists a solution.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A search algorithm is said to be "admissible" if it is guaranteed to return an optimal solution. If the heuristic function used by A* is admissible, then A* is admissible. An intuitive ″proof″ of this is as follows:


title: A* search algorithm

text: When A* terminates its search, it has found a path from start to goal whose actual cost is lower than the estimated cost of any path from start to goal through any open node (the node's value). When the heuristic is admissible, those estimates are optimistic (not quite—see the next paragraph), so A* can safely ignore those nodes because they cannot possibly lead to a cheaper solution than the one it already has. In other words, A* will never overlook the possibility of a lower-cost path from start to goal and so it will continue to search until no such possibilities exist.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The actual proof is a bit more involved because the values of open nodes are not guaranteed to be optimistic even if the heuristic is admissible. This is because the values of open nodes are not guaranteed to be optimal, so the sum is not guaranteed to be optimistic.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Algorithm A is optimally efficient with respect to a set of alternative algorithms Alts on a set of problems P if for every problem P in P and every algorithm A′ in Alts, the set of nodes expanded by A in solving P is a subset (possibly equal) of the set of nodes expanded by A′ in solving P. The definitive study of the optimal efficiency of A* is due to Rina Dechter and Judea Pearl.


title: A* search algorithm

text: They considered a variety of definitions of Alts and P in combination with A*'s heuristic being merely admissible or being both consistent and admissible. The most interesting positive result they proved is that A*, with a consistent heuristic, is optimally efficient with respect to all admissible A*-like search algorithms on all ″non-pathological″ search problems. Roughly speaking, their notion of non-pathological problem is what we now mean by ″up to tie-breaking″. This result does not hold if A*'s heuristic is admissible but not consistent. In that case, Dechter and Pearl showed there exist admissible A*-like algorithms that can expand arbitrarily fewer nodes than A* on some non-pathological problems.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Optimal efficiency is about the "set" of nodes expanded, not the "number" of node expansions (the number of iterations of A*'s main loop). When the heuristic being used is admissible but not consistent, it is possible for a node to be expanded by A* many times, an exponential number of times in the worst case.


title: A* search algorithm

text: In such circumstances Dijkstra's algorithm could outperform A* by a large margin. However, more recent research found that this pathological case only occurs in certain contrived situations where the edge weight of the search graph is exponential in the size of the graph, and that certain inconsistent (but admissible) heuristics can lead to a reduced number of node expansions in A* searches.


title: A* search algorithm

text: While the admissibility criterion guarantees an optimal solution path, it also means that A* must examine all equally meritorious paths to find the optimal path. To compute approximate shortest paths, it is possible to speed up the search at the expense of optimality by relaxing the admissibility criterion. Oftentimes we want to bound this relaxation, so that we can guarantee that the solution path is no worse than (1 + "ε") times the optimal solution path. This new guarantee is referred to as "ε"-admissible.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The time complexity of A* depends on the heuristic. In the worst case of an unbounded search space, the number of nodes expanded is exponential in the depth of the solution (the shortest path) : , where is the branching factor (the average number of successors per state). This assumes that a goal state exists at all, and is reachable from the start state; if it is not, and the state space is infinite, the algorithm will not terminate.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The heuristic function has a major effect on the practical performance of A* search, since a good heuristic allows A* to prune away many of the nodes that an uninformed search would expand. Its quality can be expressed in terms of the "effective" branching factor , which can be determined empirically for a problem instance by measuring the number of nodes generated by expansion, , and the depth of the solution, then solving


title: A* search algorithm

text: The time complexity is polynomial when the search space is a tree, there is a single goal state, and the heuristic function "h" meets the following condition:


title: A* search algorithm

text: where is the optimal heuristic, the exact cost to get from to the goal. In other words, the error of will not grow faster than the logarithm of the "perfect heuristic" that returns the true distance from to the goal.


title: A* search algorithm

text: The space complexity of A* is roughly the same as that of all other graph search algorithms, as it keeps all generated nodes in memory. In practice, this turns out to be the biggest drawback of A* search, leading to the development of memory-bounded heuristic searches, such as Iterative deepening A*, memory bounded A*, and SMA*.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A* is often used for the common pathfinding problem in applications such as video games, but was originally designed as a general graph traversal algorithm.


title: A* search algorithm

text: It finds applications in diverse problems, including the problem of parsing using stochastic grammars in NLP.


title: A* search algorithm

text: What sets A* apart from a greedy best-first search algorithm is that it takes the cost/distance already traveled, , into account.


title: A* search algorithm

text: Some common variants of Dijkstra's algorithm can be viewed as a special case of A* where the heuristic formula_12 for all nodes; in turn, both Dijkstra and A* are special cases of dynamic programming.


title: A* search algorithm

text: A* can also be adapted to a bidirectional search algorithm. Special care needs to be taken for the stopping criterion.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muḥammad bin ʿAbd Allāh bin ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib bin Hāshim (; 570 – 8 June 632 CE), is believed to be the seal of the messengers and prophets of God in all the main branches of Islam. Muslims believe that the Quran, the central religious text of Islam, was revealed to Muhammad by God, and that Muhammad was sent to restore Islam, which they believe did not originate with Muhammad but is the true unaltered original monotheistic faith of Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. The religious, social, and political tenets that Muhammad established with the Quran became the foundation of Islam and the Muslim world.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Born about the year 53 BH (570 CE) into a respected Qurayshi family of Mecca, Muhammad earned the title "al-Amin" (, meaning "the Trustworthy"). At the age of 40 in 11 BH (610 CE), Muhammad is said to have received his first verbal revelation in the cave called Hira, which was the beginning of the descent of the Quran that continued up to the end of his life; and Muslims hold that Muhammad was asked by God to preach the oneness of God in order to stamp out idolatry, a practice overtly present in pre-Islamic Arabia. Because of persecution of the newly converted Muslims, upon the invitation of a delegation from Medina (then known as Yathrib), Muhammad and his followers migrated to Medina in 1 AH (622 CE), an event known as the Hijrah. A turning point in Muhammad's life, this Hijrah also marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar. In Medina, Muhammad sketched out the Constitution of Medina specifying the rights of and relations among the various existing communities there, formed an independent community, and managed to establish the first Islamic state. Despite the ongoing hostility of the Meccans, Muhammad, along with his followers, took control of Mecca in 630, and ordered the destruction of all pagan idols. In his later years in Medina, Muhammad unified the different tribes of Arabia under Islam and carried out social and religious reforms. By the time he died in about 11 AH (632 CE), almost all the tribes of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muslims often refer to Muhammad as Prophet Muhammad, or just "The Prophet" or "The Messenger", and regard him as the greatest of all Prophets. He is seen by the Muslims as a possessor of all virtues. As an act of respect, Muslims follow the name of Muhammad by the Arabic benediction "sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam", (meaning Peace be upon him), sometimes abbreviated as "SAW" or "PBUH".


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The Quran enumerates little about Muhammad's early life or other biographic details, but it talks about his prophetic mission, his moral excellence, and theological issues regarding Muhammad. According to the Quran, Muhammad is the last in a chain of prophets sent by God (). Throughout the Quran, Muhammad is referred to as "Messenger", "Messenger of God", and "Prophet". Some of such verses are 2:101, 2:143, 2:151, 3:32, 3:81, 3:144, 3:164, 4:79-80, 5:15, 5:41, 7:157, 8:01, 9:3, 33:40, 48:29, and 66:09. Other terms are used, including "Warner", "bearer of glad tidings", and the "one who invites people to a Single God" (Quran , and ). The Quran asserts that Muhammad was a man who possessed the highest moral excellence, and that God made him a good example or a "goodly model" for Muslims to follow (Quran , and ). The Quran disclaims any superhuman characteristics for Muhammad, but describes him in terms of positive human qualities. In several verses, the Quran crystallizes Muhammad's relation to humanity. According to the Quran, God sent Muhammad with truth (God's message to humanity), and as a blessing to the whole world (Quran , and ). In Islamic tradition, this means that God sent Muhammad with his message to humanity the following of which will give people salvation in the afterlife, and it is Muhammad's teachings and the purity of his personal life alone which keep alive the worship of God on this world.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: According to the Quran, the coming of Muhammad was predicted by Jesus: "And remember, Jesus, the son of Mary, said: ‘O children of Israel! I am God;s messenger to you, confirming the law (which came) before me, and giving glad tidings of a messenger to come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad'" (Quran 61:6). Through this verse, early Arab Muslims claimed legitimacy for their new faith in the existing religious traditions and the alleged predictions of Jesus.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad, the son of 'Abdullah ibn 'Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim and his wife Aminah, was born in 570 CE, approximately, in the city of Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula. He was a member of the family of Banu Hashim, a respected branch of the prestigious and influential Quraysh tribe. It is generally said that 'Abd al-Muttalib named the child "Muhammad" ().


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad was orphaned when young. Some months before the birth of Muhammad, his father died near Medina on a mercantile expedition to Syria. When Muhammad was six, he accompanied his mother Amina on her visit to Medina, probably to visit her late husband's tomb. While returning to Mecca, Amina died at a desolate place called Abwa, about half-way to Mecca, and was buried there. Muhammad was now taken in by his paternal grandfather Abd al-Muttalib, who himself died when Muhammad was eight, leaving him in the care of his uncle Abu Talib. In Islamic tradition, Muhammad's being orphaned at an early age has been seen as a part of divine plan to enable him to "develop early the qualities of self-reliance, reflection, and steadfastness". Muslim scholar Muhammad Ali sees the tale of Muhammad as a spiritual parallel to the life of Moses, considering many aspects of their lives to be shared. The Quran said about Moses: "I cast (the garment of love) over thee from Me, so that thou might be reared under My eye. ... We saved thee from all grief, although We tried thee with various trials. ... O Moses, I have chosen thee for Mine Own service" (). Taking into account the idea of this spiritual parallelism, together with other aspects of Muhammad's early life, it has been suggested that it was God under Whose direct care Muhammad was raised and prepared for the responsibility that was to be conferred upon him. Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan argued that Muhammad's orphan state made him dependent on God and close to the destitute – an "initiatory state for the future Messenger of God".


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: According to Arab custom, after his birth, infant Muhammad was sent to Banu Sa'ad clan, a neighboring Bedouin tribe, so that he could acquire the pure speech and free manners of the desert. There, Muhammad spent the first five years of his life with his foster-mother Halima. Islamic tradition holds that during this period, God sent two angels who opened his chest, took out the heart, and removed a blood-clot from it. It was then washed with Zamzam water. In Islamic tradition, this incident signifies the idea that God purified his prophet and protected him from sin.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Islamic belief holds that God protected Muhammad from getting involved in any disrespectful and coarse practice. Even when he verged on any such activity, God intervened. Prophetic tradition narrates one such incident in which it is said on the authority of Ibn Al-Atheer that while working as herdsman at early period of his life, young Muhammad once told his fellow-shepherd to take care of his sheep so that the former could go to the town for some recreation as the other youths used to do. But on the way, his attention was diverted to a wedding party, and he sat down to listen to the sound of music only to soon fall asleep. He was awakened by the heat of the sun. Muhammad reported that he never tried such things again.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Around the age of twelve, Muhammad accompanied his uncle Abu Talib in a mercantile journey to Syria, and gained experience in commercial enterprise. On this journey Muhammad is said to have been recognized by a Christian monk, Bahira, who prophesied about Muhammad's future as a prophet of God.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Around the age of twenty five, Muhammad was employed as the caretaker of the mercantile activities of Khadijah, a distinguished Qurayshi lady.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Attracted by his noble ethics, honesty and trustworthiness, she sent a marriage proposal to Muhammad through her maid-servant Meisara. As Muhammad gave his consent, the marriage was solemnized in the presence of his uncle.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Between 580 CE and 590 CE, Mecca experienced a bloody feud between Quraysh and Bani Hawazin that lasted for four years, before a truce was reached. After the truce, an alliance named Hilf al-Fudul (The Pact of the Virtuous) was formed to check further violence and injustice; and to stand on the side of the oppressed, an oath was taken by the descendants of Hashim and the kindred families, where Muhammad was also a member. In later days of his life, Muhammad is reported to have said about this pact, "I witnessed a confederacy in the house of 'Abdullah bin Jada'an. It was more appealing to me than herds of cattle. Even now in the period of Islam I would respond positively to attending such a meeting if I were invited."


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Islamic tradition credits Muhammad with settling a dispute peacefully, regarding setting the sacred Black Stone on the wall of Kaaba, where the clan leaders could not decide on which clan should have the honor of doing that. The Black stone was removed to facilitate the rebuilding of Kaaba because of its dilapidated condition. The disagreement grew tense, and bloodshed became likely. The clan leaders agreed to wait for the next man to come through the gate of Kaaba and ask him to choose. The 35-year-old Muhammad entered through that gate first, asked for a mantle which he spread on the ground, and placed the stone at its center. Muhammad had the clans' leaders lift a corner of it until the mantle reached the appropriate height, and then himself placed the stone on the proper place. Thus, an ensuing bloodshed was averted by the wisdom of Muhammad.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muslims believe that Muhammad is the last and final messenger and prophet of God who began receiving direct verbal revelations in 610 CE. The first revealed verses were the first five verses of sura Al-Alaq that the archangel Jibril brought from God to Muhammad in the cave Mount Hira.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: After his marriage with Khadijah and during his career as a merchant, although engaged in commercial activities and family affairs, Muhammad gradually became preoccupied with contemplation and reflection. and began to withdraw periodically to a cave named Mount Hira, three miles north of Mecca. According to Islamic tradition, in the year 610 CE, during one such occasion while he was in contemplation, Jibril appeared before him and said 'Recite', upon which Muhammad replied: 'I am unable to recite'. Thereupon the angel caught hold of him and embraced him heavily. This happened two more times after which the angel commanded Muhammad to recite the following verses:


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In Islamic belief, revelations are God's word delivered by his chosen individuals – known as Messengers—to humanity. According to Islamic scholar Muhammad Shafi Usmani, God created three media through which humans receive knowledge: men's senses, the faculty of reason, and divine revelation; and it is the third one that addresses the liturgical and eschatological issues, answers the questions regarding God's purpose behind creating humanity, and acts as a guidance for humanity in choosing the correct way. In Islamic belief, the sequence of divine revelation came to an end with Muhammad. Muslims believe these revelations to be the verbatim word of God, which were later collected together, and came to be known as Quran, the central religious text of Islam.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: During the first three years of his ministry, Muhammad preached Islam privately, mainly among his near relatives and close acquaintances. The first to believe him was his wife Khadijah, who was followed by Ali, his cousin, and Zayd ibn Harithah. Notable among the early converts were Abu Bakr, Uthman ibn Affan, Hamza ibn Abdul Muttalib, Sa'ad ibn Abi Waqqas, Abdullah ibn Masud, Arqam, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, Ammar ibn Yasir and Bilal ibn Rabah. In the fourth year of his prophethood, according to Islamic belief, he was ordered by God to make public his propagation of this monotheistic faith (Quran ).


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad's earliest teachings were marked by his insistence on the oneness of God (Quran ), the denunciation of polytheism (Quran ), belief in the Last judgment and its recompense (Quran ), and social and economic justice (Quran ). In a broader sense, Muhammad preached that he had been sent as God's messenger; that God is One who is all-powerful, creator and controller of this universe (Quran , Quran ), and merciful towards his creations (Quran ); that worship should be made only to God; that ascribing partnership to God is a major sin (Quran ); that men would be accountable, for their deeds, to God on last judgment day, and would be assigned to heaven or hell (Quran ); and that God expects man to be generous with their wealth and not miserly (Quran ).


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad's early teachings invited vehement opposition from the wealthy and leading clans of Mecca who feared the loss not only of their ancestral paganism but also of the lucrative pilgrimage business. At first, the opposition was confined to ridicule and sarcasm which proved insufficient to arrest Muhammad's faith from flourishing, and soon they resorted to active persecution. These included verbal attack, ostracism, unsuccessful boycott, and physical persecution. Biographers have presented accounts of diverse forms of persecution on the newly converted Muslims by the Quraysh. The converted slaves who had no protection were imprisoned and often exposed to scorching sun. Alarmed by mounting persecution on the newly converts, Muhammad in 615 CE directed some of his followers to migrate to neighboring Abyssinia (present day Ethiopia), a land ruled by king Aṣḥama ibn Abjar famous for his justice, and intelligence. Accordingly, eleven men and four women made their flight, and were followed by more in later time.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Back in Mecca, Muhammad was gaining new followers, including notable figures like Umar ibn Al-Khattāb. Muhammad's position was greatly strengthened by their acceptance of Islam, and the Quraysh became much perturbed. Upset by the fear of losing the leading position, and shocked by continuous condemnation of idol-worship in the Quran, the merchants and clan-leaders tried to come to an agreement with Muhammad. They offered Muhammad the prospect of higher social status and advantageous marriage proposal in exchange for forsaking his preaching. Muhammad rejected both offers, asserting his nomination as a messenger by God. Unable to deal with this status quo, the Quraysh then proposed to adopt a common form of worship, which was denounced by the Quran: 'Say: O ye the disbelievers, I worship not that which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your Way, and to me mine' ().


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Thus frustrated from all sides, the leaders of various Quraysh clans, in 617 CE, enacted a complete boycott of Banu Hashim family to mount pressure to lift its protection on Muhammad. The Hashemites were made to retire in a quarter of Abu Talib, and were cut off from outside activities. During this period, the Hashemites suffered from various scarcities, and Muhammad's preaching confined to only the pilgrimage season. The boycott ended after three years as it failed to serve its end. This incident was shortly followed by the death of Muhammad's uncle and protector Abu Talib and his wife Khadijah. This has largely been attributed to the plight to which the Hashemites were exposed during the boycott.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The death of his uncle Abu Talib left Muhammad unprotected, and exposed him to some mischief of Quraysh, which he endured with great steadfastness. An uncle and a bitter enemy of Muhammad, Abu Lahab succeeded Abu Talib as clan chief, and soon withdrew the clan's protection from Muhammad. Around this time, Muhammad visited Ta'if, a city some sixty kilometers east of Mecca, to preach Islam, but met with severe hostility from its inhabitants who pelted him with stones causing bleeding. It is said that God sent angels of the mountain to Muhammad who asked Muhammad's permission to crush the people of Ta'if in between the mountains, but Muhammad said 'No'. At the pilgrimage season of 620, Muhammad met six men of Khazraj tribe from Yathrib (later named Medina), propounded to them the doctrines of Islam, and recited portions of Quran. Impressed by this, the six embraced Islam, and at the Pilgrimage of 621, five of them brought seven others with them. These twelve informed Muhammad of the beginning of gradual development of Islam in Medina, and took a formal pledge of allegiance at Muhammad's hand, promising to accept him as a prophet, to worship none but one God, and to renounce certain sins like theft, adultery, murder and the like. This is known as the "First Pledge of al-Aqaba". At their request, Muhammad sent with them Mus‘ab ibn 'Umair to teach them the instructions of Islam. Biographers have recorded the success of Mus'ab ibn 'Umair in preaching the message of Islam and bringing people under the umbrella of Islam in Medina.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The next year, at the pilgrimage of June 622, a delegation of around 75 converted Muslims of Aws and Khazraj tribes from Yathrib came. They invited him to come to Medina as an arbitrator to reconcile the hostile tribes. This is known as the "Second Pledge of al-'Aqabah", and was a 'politico-religious' success that paved the way for his and his followers' emigration to Medina. Following the pledges, Muhammad ordered his followers to migrate to Yathrib in small groups, and within a short period, most of the Muslims of Mecca migrated there.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Because of assassination attempts from the Quraysh, and prospect of success in Yathrib, a city north of Mecca, Muhammad emigrated there in 622 CE. According to Muslim tradition, after receiving divine direction to depart Mecca, Muhammad began taking preparation and informed Abu Bakr of his plan. On the night of his departure, Muhammad's house was besieged by men of the Quraysh who planned to kill him in the morning. At the time, Muhammad possessed various properties of the Quraysh given to him in trust; so he handed them over to 'Ali and directed him to return them to their owners. It is said that when Muhammad emerged from his house, he recited the ninth verse of surah Ya Sin of the Quran and threw a handful of dust at the direction of the besiegers, rendering the besiegers unable to see him. After eight days' journey, Muhammad entered the outskirts of Medina on 28 June 622, but did not enter the city directly. He stopped at a place called Quba', a place some miles from the main city, and established a mosque there. On 2 July 622, he entered the city. Yathrib was soon renamed "Madinat an-Nabi" (, literally "City of the Prophet"), but "an-Nabi" was soon dropped, so its name is "Medina", meaning "the city".


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In Medina, Muhammad's first focus was on the construction of a mosque, which, when completed, was of an austere nature. Apart from being the center of prayer service, the mosque also served as a headquarters of administrative activities. Adjacent to the mosque was built the quarters for Muhammad's family. As there was no definite arrangement for calling people to prayer, Bilal ibn Ribah was appointed to call people in a loud voice at each prayer time, a system later replaced by Adhan believed to be informed to Abdullah ibn Zayd in his dream, and liked and introduced by Muhammad.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The Emigrants of Mecca, known as Muhajirun, had left almost everything there and came to Medina empty-handed. They were cordially welcomed and helped by the Muslims of Medina, known as Ansar (the helpers). Muhammad made a formal bond of fraternity among them that went a long way in eliminating long-established enmity among various tribes, particularly Aws and Khazraj.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In order to establish peaceful coexistence among this heterogeneous population, Muhammad invited the leading personalities of all the communities to reach a formal agreement which would provide a harmony among the communities and security to the city of Medina, and finally drew up the Constitution of Medina, also known as the Medina Charter, which formed "a kind of alliance or federation" among the prevailing communities. It specified the mutual rights and obligations of the Muslims and Jews of Medina, and prohibited any alliance with the outside enemies. It also declared that any dispute would be referred to Muhammad for settlement.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Before the arrival of Muhammad, the clans of Medina had suffered a lot from internal feuds and had planned to nominate Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy as their common leader with a view to restoring peace. The arrival of Muhammad rendered this design unlikely, and from then Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy began entertaining hostility towards Muhammad. Soon after Muhammad's settlement in Medina, Abd-Allah ibn Ubaiy received an ultimatum from the Quraysh directing him to fight or expel the Muslims from Medina, but was convinced by Muhammad not to do that. Around this time, Sa'ad ibn Mua'dh, chief of Aws, went to Mecca to perform Umrah. Because of mutual friendship, he was hosted and escorted by a Meccan leader, Umayyah ibn Khalaf, but the two could not escape the notice of Abu Jahl, an archenemy of Islam. At the sight of Sa'ad, Abu Jahl became angry and threatened to stop their visit to Kaaba as his clan had sheltered the Muhammad. Sa'ad ibn Mua'dh also threatened to hinder their trading caravans.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Thus, there remained a persistent enmity between the Muslims and the Quraysh tribe. The Muslims were still few and without substantial resources, and fearful of attacks.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Following the emigration, the Meccans seized the properties of the Muslim emigrants in Mecca. The Quraysh leaders of Mecca persecuted the newly converted Muslims there, and they migrated to Medina to avoid persecution, abandoning their properties. Muhammad and the Muslims found themselves in a more precarious situation in Medina than in Mecca. Besides the ultimatum of the Quraysh they had to confront the designs of the hypocrites, and had to be wary of the pagans and Jews also. The trading caravans of Quraysh, whose usual route was from Mecca to Syria, used to set the neighboring tribes of Medina against the Muslims, which posed a great danger to the security of Muslims of Medina given that war was common at that time. In view of all this, the Quran granted permission to the persecuted Muslims to defend themselves: "Permission to fight is granted to those against whom war is made, because they have been wronged, and God indeed has the power to help them. They are those who have been driven out of their homes unjustly only because they affirmed: "Our Lord is God"" (Quran ). The Quran further justifies taking defensive measures by stating that "And if God had not repelled some men by others, the earth would have been corrupted. But God is a Lord of Kindness to (His) creatures" (Quran ). According to Quranic description, war is an abnormal and unenviable way which, when inevitable, should be limited to minimal casualty, and free from any kind of transgression on the part of the believers. In this regard, the Quran says, "Fight in the cause of God with those who fight you, but do not transgress limits; for God loveth not transgressors" (), and "And fight them on until there is no more tumult or oppression, and there prevail justice and faith in God; but if they cease, let there be no hostility except to those who practice oppression" ().


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Thus, to ensure the security of the Ansars and Muhajirun of Medina, Muhammad resorted to the following measures:


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: A key battle in the early days of Islam, the Battle of Badr was the first large-scale battle between the nascent Islamic community of Medina and their opponent Quraysh of Mecca where the Muslims won a decisive victory. The battle has some background. In 2 AH (623 CE) in the month of Rajab, a Muslim patrolling group attacked a Quraysh trading caravan killing its elite leader Amr ibn Hazrami. The incident happening in a sacred month displeased Muhammad, and enraged the Quraysh to a greater extent. The Quran however neutralizes the effect saying that bloodshed in sacred month is obviously prohibited, but Quraysh paganism, persecuting on the Meccan converts, and preventing people from the Sacred Mosque are greater sins (Quran ). Traditional sources say that upon receiving intelligence of a richly laden trading caravan of the Quraysh returning from Syria to Mecca, Muhammad took it as a good opportunity to strike a heavy blow on Meccan power by taking down the caravan in which almost all the Meccan people had invested. With full liberty to join or stay back, Muhammad amassed some 313 inadequately prepared men furnished with only two horses and seventy camels, and headed for a place called Badr. Meanwhile, Abu Sufyan, the leader of the caravan, got the information of Muslim march, changed his route towards south-west along Red Sea, and send out a messenger, named Damdam ibn Umar, to Mecca asking for immediate help. The messenger exaggerated the news in a frenzy style of old Arab custom, and misinterpreted the call for protecting the caravan as a call for war.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The Quraysh with all its leading personalities except Abu Lahab marched with a heavily equipped army of more than one thousand men with ostentatious opulence of food supply and war materials. Abu Sufyan's second message that the trading caravan successfully had escaped the Muslim interception, when reached the Quraish force, did not stop them from entering into a major offensive with the Muslim force, mainly because of the belligerent Quraysh leader Abu Jahl. The news of a strong Quraysh army and its intention reaching the Islamic prophet Muhammad, he held a council of war where the followers advised him to go forward. The battle occurred on 13 March 624 CE (17 Ramadan, 2 AH) and resulted in a heavy loss on the Quraysh side: around seventy men, including chief leaders, were killed and a similar number were taken prisoner. Islamic tradition attributes the Muslim victory to the direct intervention of God: he sent down angels that emboldened the Muslims and wreaked damage on the enemy force.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The defeat at the battle of Badr provoked the Quraysh to take revenge on Muslims. Meanwhile, two Qurayshi men – Umayr ibn Wahb and Safwan ibn Umayya – conspired to kill Muhammad. The former went to Medina with a poisoned sword to execute the plan but was detected and brought to Muhammad. It is said that Muhammad himself revealed to Umayr his secret plan and Umayr, upon accepting Islam, began preaching Islam in Mecca. The Quraysh soon led an army of 3,000 men and fought the Muslim force, consisting of 700 men, in the Battle of Uhud. Despite initial success in the battle, the Muslims failed to consummate victory due to the mistake of the strategically posted archers. The predicament of Muslims at this battle has been seen by Islamic scholars as a result of disobedience of the command of Muhammad: Muslims realized that they could not succeed unless guided by him.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The Battle of Uhud was followed by a series of aggressive and treacherous activities against the Muslims in Medina. Tulaiha ibn Khuweiled, chief of Banu Asad, and Sufyan ibn Khalid, chief of Banu Lahyan, tried to march against Medina but were rendered unsuccessful. Ten Muslims, recruited by some local tribes to learn the tenets of Islam, were treacherously murdered: eight of them being killed at a place called Raji, and the remaining two being taken to Mecca as captives and killed by Quraysh. About the same time, a group of seventy Muslims, sent to propagate Islam to the people of Nejd, was put to a massacre by Amir ibn Tufail's Banu Amir and other tribes. Only two of them escaped, returned to Medina, and informed Muhammad of the incidents.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Around 5th AH (627 CE), a large combined force of at least 10,000 men from Quraysh, Ghatafan, Banu Asad, and other pagan tribes known as the confederacy was formed to attack the Muslims mainly at the instigation and efforts of Jewish leader Huyayy ibn Akhtab and it marched towards Medina. The trench dug by the Muslims and the adverse weather foiled their siege of Medina, and the confederacy left with heavy losses. The Quran says that God dispersed the disbelievers and thwarted their plans (). The Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, who were allied with Muhammad before the Battle of the Trench, were charged with treason and besieged by the Muslims commanded by Muhammad. After Banu Qurayza agreed to accept whatever decision Sa'ad ibn Mua'dh would take about them, Sa'ad pronounced that the male members be executed and the women and children be considered as war captives.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Around 6 AH (628 CE) the nascent Islamic state was somewhat consolidated when Muhammad left Medina to perform pilgrimage at Mecca, but was intercepted en route by the Quraysh who, however, ended up in a treaty with the Muslims known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Though the terms of the Hudaybiyyah treaty were apparently unfavorable to the Muslims of Medina, the Quran declared it as a clear victory (). Muslim historians mention that through the treaty, the Quraysh recognized Muhammad as their equal counterpart and Islam as a rising power, and that the treaty mobilized the contact between the Meccan pagans and the Muslims of Medina resulting in a large number of Quraysh conversion into Islam after being attracted by the Islamic norms.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Around the end of the 6 AH and the beginning of the 7 AH (628 CE), Muhammad sent letters to various heads of state asking them to accept Islam and to worship only one God. Notable among them were Heraclius, the emperor of Byzantium; Khosrau II, the emperor of Persia; the Negus of Ethiopia; Muqawqis, the ruler of Egypt; Harith Gassani, the governor of Syria; and Munzir ibn Sawa, the ruler of Bahrain. In the 6 AH, Khalid ibn al-Walid accepted Islam who later was to play a decisive role in the expansion of Islamic empire. In the 7 AH, the Jewish leaders of Khaybar – a place some 200 miles from Medina – started instigating the Jewish and Ghatafan tribes against Medina. When negotiation failed, Muhammad ordered the blockade of the Khaybar forts, and its inhabitants surrendered after some days. The lands of Khaybar came under Muslim control. Muhammad however granted the Jewish request to retain the lands under their control. In 629 CE (7 AH), in accordance with the terms of the Hudaybiyyah treaty, Muhammad and the Muslims performed their lesser pilgrimage ("Umrah") to Mecca and left the city after three days.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In 629 CE, The Banu Bakr tribe, an ally of Quraysh, attacked the Muslims' ally tribe Banu Khuza'a, and killed several of them. The Quraysh openly helped Banu Bakr in their attack, which in return, violated the terms of the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Of the three options now advanced by Muhammad, they decided to cancel the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah. Muhammad started taking preparation for Mecca campaign. On 29 November 629 (6th of Ramadan, 8 AH), Muhammad set out with 10,000 companions, and stopped at a nearby place from Mecca called Marr-uz-Zahran. When Meccan leader Abu Sufyan came to gather intelligence, he was detected and arrested by the guards. Umar ibn al-Khattab wanted the execution of Abu Sufyan for his past offenses, but Muhammad spared his life after he converted to Islam. On 11 December 629 (18th of Ramadan, 8 AH), he entered Mecca almost unresisted, and declared a general amnesty for all those who had committed offences against Islam and himself. He then destroyed the idols – placed in and around the Kaaba – reciting the Quranic verse: ""Say, the truth has arrived, and falsehood perished. Verily, the falsehood is bound to perish"" (Quran ). William Muir comments, "The magnanimity with which Muhammad treated a people who had so long hated and rejected him is worthy of all admiration."


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Soon after the Mecca conquest, the Banu Hawazin tribe together with the Banu Thaqif tribe gathered a large army, under the leadership of Malik Ibn 'Awf, to attack the Muslims. At this, the Muslim force, which included the newly converts of Mecca, went forward under the leadership of Muhammad, and the two armies met at the valley of Hunayn. Though at first disarrayed at the sudden attack of Hawazin, the Muslim force recollected mainly at the effort of Muhammad, and ultimately defeated the Hawazin. The latter was pursued at various directions. After Malik bin 'Awf along with his men took shelter in the fort of Ta'if, the Muslim army besieged it which however yielded no significant result, compelling them to return Medina. Meanwhile, some newly converts from the Hawazin tribe came to Muhammad and made a plea to release their women and children who had been captivated from the battlefield of Hunayn. Their request was granted by the Muslims.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: After the Mecca conquest and the victory at the Battle of Hunayn, the supremacy of the Muslims was somewhat established throughout the Arabian peninsula. Various tribes started to send their representatives to express their loyalty to Muhammad. In the year 9 AH (630 CE), Zakat – which is the obligatory charity in Islam – was introduced and was accepted by most of the people. A few tribes initially refused to pay it, but gradually accepted.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In October 630 CE, upon receiving news that the Byzantine was gathering a large army at the Syrian area to attack Medina, and because of reports of hostility adopted against Muslims, Muhammad arranged his Muslim army, and came out to face them. On the way, they reached a place called Hijr where remnants of the ruined Thamud nation were scattered. Muhammad warned them of the sandstorm typical to the place, and forbade them not to use the well waters there. By the time they reached Tabuk, they got the news of Byzantine's retreat, or according to some sources, they came to know that the news of Byzantine gathering was wrong. Muhammad signed treaties with the bordering tribes who agreed to pay tribute in exchange of getting security. It is said that as these tribes were at the border area between Syria (then under Byzantine control) and Arabia (then under Muslim control), signing treaties with them ensured the security of the whole area. Some months after the return from Tabuk, Muhammad's infant son Ibrahim died which eventually coincided with a sun eclipse. When people said that the eclipse had occurred to mourn Ibrahim's death, Muhammad said: "the sun and the moon are from among the signs of God. The eclipses occur neither for the death nor for the birth of any man". After the Tabuk expedition, the Banu Thaqif tribe of Taif sent their representative team to Muhammad to inform their intention of accepting Islam on condition that they be allowed to retain their Lat idol with them and that they be exempted from prayers. Given that there were inconsistent with Islamic principles, Muhammad rejected their demands and said "There is no good in a religion in which prayer is ruled out". After Banu Thaqif tribe of Taif accepted Islam, many other tribes of Hejaz followed them and declared their allegiance to Islam.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In 631 CE, during the Hajj season, Muhammad appointed Abu Bakr to lead 300 Muslims to the pilgrimage in Mecca. As per old custom, many pagans from other parts of Arabia came to Mecca to perform pilgrimage in pre-Islamic manner. Ali, at the direction of Muhammad, delivered a sermon stipulating the new rites of Hajj and abrogating the pagan rites. He especially declared that no unbeliever, pagan, and naked man would be allowed to circumambulate the Kaaba from the next year. After this declaration was made, a vast number of people of Bahrain, Yemen, and Yamama, who included both the pagans and the people of the book, gradually embraced Islam. Next year, In 632 CE, Muhammad performed hajj and taught Muslims first-hand the various rites of Hajj. On the 9th of Dhu al-Hijjah, from Mount Arafat, he delivered his Farewell Sermon in which he abolished old blood feuds and disputes based on the former tribal system, repudiated racial discrimination, and advised people to "be good to women". According to Sunni tafsir, the following Quranic verse was delivered during this event: "Today I have perfected your religion, and completed my favours for you and chosen Islam as a religion for you" (Quran ).


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Soon after his return from the pilgrimage, Muhammad fell ill and suffered for several days with fever, head pain, and weakness. He was confined to bed by Abu Bakr. During his illness, he appointed Abu Bakr to lead the prayers in the mosque. He ordered to donate the last remaining coins in his house as charity. It is narrated in Sahih al-Bukhari that at the time of death, Muhammad was dipping his hands in water and was wiping his face with them saying "There is no god but God; indeed death has its pangs." He died on June 8 632, in Medina, at the age of 62 or 63, in the house of his wife Aisha.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad is regarded as the final messenger and prophet by all the main branches of Islam who was sent by God to guide humanity to the right way (Quran ). The Quran uses the designation "Khatam an-Nabiyyin " "(Arabic:" خاتم النبين")" which is translated as "Seal of the Prophets". The title is generally regarded by Muslims as meaning that Muhammad is the last in the series of prophets beginning with Adam. The belief that a new prophet cannot arise after Muhammad is shared by both Sunni and Shi'i Muslims. Believing Muhammad is the last prophet is a fundamental belief in Islamic theology.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muslims believe that Muhammad was the possessor of moral virtues at the highest level, and was a man of moral excellence. He represented the 'prototype of human perfection' and was the best among God's creations. The verse of the Quran says: 'And you [Muhammad] are surely on exalted quality of character'. Consequently, to the Muslims, his life and character are an excellent example to be emulated both at social and spiritual levels. The virtues that characterize him are modesty and humility, forgiveness and generosity, honesty, justice, patience, and, self-denial. Muslim biographers of Muhammad in their books have shed much light on the moral character of Muhammad. Besides, there is a genre of biography that approaches his life focusing on his moral qualities rather than discussing the external affairs of his life.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: According to biographers, Muhammad lived a simple and austere life often characterized by poverty. He was more bashful than a maiden, and was rare to laugh in a loud voice; rather, he preferred soft smiling. Ja'far al-Sadiq, a descendant of Muhammad and an acclaimed scholar, narrated that Muhammad was never seen stretching his legs in a gathering with his companions and when he would shake hands, he would not pull his hand away first. It is said that during the conquest of Mecca, when Muhammad was entering into the city riding on a camel, his head lowered, in gratitude to God, to the extent that it almost touched the back of the camel. He never took revenge from anyone for his personal cause. He maintained honesty and justice in his deeds. When an elite woman in Medina was accused of theft, and others pleaded for the mitigation of the penalty, Muhammad said: "Even if my daughter Fatima were accused of theft, I would pronounce the same verdict." He preferred mildness and leniency in behavior and in dealing with affairs, and is reported as saying: "He who is not merciful to others, will not be treated mercifully (by God)" (). He pardoned many of his enemies in his life. Biographers especially mention his forgiving the Meccan people after the Conquest of Mecca who at the early period of Islam tortured the Muslims for a long time, and later fought several battles with the Muslims.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muhammad is highly venerated by the Muslims, and is sometimes considered by them to be the greatest of all the prophets. Muslims do not worship Muhammad as worship in Islam is only for God. In Muhammad's own words, he said: 'Do not extol me as the Christians extolled the son of Mary, I am merely a servant'. Muslim understanding and reverence for Muhammad can largely be traced to the teachings of Quran which emphatically describes Muhammad's exalted status. To begin with, the Quran describes Muhammad as "al-nabi al-ummi" or unlettered prophet (Quran ), meaning that he "received his religious knowledge only from God". As a result, Muhammad's examples have been understood by the Muslims to represent the highest ideal for human conduct, and to reflect what God wants humanity to do. The Quran ranks Muhammad above previous prophets in terms of his moral excellence and the universal message he brought from God for humanity. The Quran calls him the "beautiful model" ("al-uswa al-hasana") for those who hope for God and the last day (Quran ). Muslims believe that Muhammad was sent not for any specific people or region, but for all of humanity.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In Muslim legal and religious thought, Muhammad, inspired by God to act wisely and in accordance with his will, provides an example that complements God's revelation as expressed in the Quran; and his actions and sayings – known as Sunnah – are a model for Muslim conduct. The Sunnah can be defined as "the actions, decisions, and practices that Muhammad approved, allowed, or condoned". It also includes Muhammad's confirmation to someone's particular action or manner (during Muhammad's lifetime) which, when communicated to Muhammad, was generally approved by him. The Sunnah, as recorded in the Hadith literature, encompasses everyday activities related to men's domestic, social, economic, political life. It addresses a broad array of activities and Islamic beliefs ranging from the simple practices like, for example, the proper way of entering into a mosque, and private cleanliness to the most sublime questions involving the love between God and humans. The Sunnah of Muhammad serves as a model for the Muslims to shape their life in that light. The Quran tells the believers to offer prayer, to fast, to perform pilgrimage, to pay Zakat, but it was Muhammad who practically taught the believers how to perform all these. In Islamic theology, the necessity to follow the examples (the Sunnah) of Muhammad comes from the ruling of the Quran which it describes in its numerous verses. One such typical verse is "And obey God and the Messenger so that you may be blessed" (Quran ). The Quran uses two different terms to denote this: "ita’ah" (to obey) and "ittiba" (to follow). The former refers to the orders of Muhammad, and the latter to his acts and practices. Muhammad often stressed the importance of education and intelligence in the Muslim Ummah because it removes ignorance and promotes acceptance and tolerance. This can be illustrated when Muhammad advises his cousin Ali that, "No poverty is more severe than ignorance and no property is more valuable than intelligence."


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muslims also venerate Muhammad as the manifestation of the Muhammadan Light. Accordingly, Muhammad's spirit already existed before the creation of the world and he was actually the first prophet created, but the last who was sent. A hadith from Al-Tirmidhi states, that Muhammad was once asked, when his prophethood was decreed and he answered: "When Adam was between the spirit and the body." A more popular, but less authenticated version states, that Muhammad answered: "when Adam was between water and mud." Both Sunni and Shia sources later elaborated cosmogonic scenarios in which the world emanated from the light of Muhammad. According to a Sunni tradition, when Adam was in heaven, he read an inscription on the throne of God of the "Shahada", Muhammad already mentioned. There also exists an extended version in Shia traditions. Therefore, the "Shahada" does not only mention Muhammad, but also Ali.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: However the idea of Muhammad's pre-existence was also a controversial one and disputed by some scholars like Al-Ghazali and Ibn Taymiyyah. Although the notion of the pre-existing Muhammad takes some resemblance of the Christian doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ, in Islam there can not be found any trace of Muhammad as a second person within the Godhead.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In Islamic Sharia, the Sunnah of Muhammad is regarded a vital source for Islamic law, next in importance only to the Quran. Additionally, the Quran in its several verses authorizes Muhammad, in his capacity as a prophet, to promulgate new laws. The verse of the Quran says, "those who follow the Messenger, the unlettered Prophet whom they find written down in the Torah and the Injil, and who (Muhammad) bids them to the Fair and forbids them the Unfair, and makes lawful for them the good things, and makes unlawful for them the impure things... So, those who believe in him, and honor him, and help him, and follow the light that has been sent down with him (Muhammad) – they are the ones who acquire success." Commenting on this verse, Islamic scholar Muhammad Taqi Usmani says, "one of the functions of the Holy Prophet (saaw) is "to make lawful the good things and make unlawful the impure things". This function has been separated from "bidding the fair and forbidding the unfair", because the latter relates to the preaching of what has already been established as fair, and warning against what is established as unfair, while the former embodies the making of lawful and unlawful". Taqi Usmani recognizes two kinds of revelations – the "recited" one which is collectively known as Quran, and the "unrecited" one that Muhammad received from time to time to let him know God's will regarding how human affairs should be – and concludes that Muhammad's prophetic authority to promulgate new laws had its base on the later type. Therefore, in Islamic theology, the difference between God's authority and that of his messenger is of great significance: the former is wholly independent, intrinsic and self-existent, while the authority of the latter is derived from and dependent on the revelation from God.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Muslims see Muhammad as primary intercessor and believe that he will intercede on behalf of the believers on Last Judgment day. This non-Qur'anic vision of Muhammad's eschatological role appears for the first time in the inscriptions of the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, completed in 72/691-692. Islamic tradition narrates that after resurrection when humanity will be gathered together and they will face distress due to heat and fear, they will come to Muhammad. Then he will intercede for them with God and the judgment will start. Hadith narrates that Muhammad will also intercede for the believers who for their sins have been taken to hell. Muhammad's intercession will be granted and a lot of believers will come out of hell.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: To Muslims, the Quran is the verbatim word of God which was revealed, through Gabriel, to Muhammad who delivered it to people without any change (, ), Thus, there exists a deep relationship between Muhammad and the Quran. Muslims believe that as a recipient of the Quran, Muhammad was the man who best understood the meaning of the Quran, was its chief interpreter, and was granted by God "the understanding of all levels of Quran's meaning". In Islamic theology, if a report of Muhammad's Quranic interpretation is held to be authentic, then no other interpretative statement has higher theoretical value or importance than that.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: In Islamic belief, though the inner message of all the divine revelations given to Muhammad is essentially the same, there has been a "gradual evolution toward a final, perfect revelation". It is in this case that Muhammad's revelation excels the previous ones as Muhammad's revelation is considered by the Muslims to be "the completion, culmination, and perfection of all the previous revelations". Consequently, when the Quran declares that Muhammad is the final prophet after which there will be no future prophet (), it is also meant that the Quran is the last revealed divine book.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Several miracles are said to have been performed by Muhammad. Muslim scholar Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti, in his book "Al Khasais-ul-Kubra", extensively discussed Muhammad's various miracles and extraordinary events. Traditional sources, indicate that Sura refers to Muhammad splitting the Moon in view of the Quraysh.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: The Isra and Mi'raj are the two parts of a "Night Journey" that, according to Islamic tradition, Muhammad took during a single night around the year 621. It has been described as both a physical and spiritual journey. A brief sketch of the story is in "Sura" (chapter) 17 "Al-Isra" of the Quran, and other details come from the "hadith". In the journey, Muhammad riding on Buraq travels to the Masjid Al-Aqsa (the farthest mosque) in Jerusalem where he leads other prophets in prayer. He then ascends to the heavens, and meets some of the earlier prophets such as Abraham, Joseph, Moses, John the Baptist, and Jesus. During this Night Journey, God offered Muhammad five-time daily prayer for the believers. According to traditions, the Journey is associated with the "Lailaṫ al-Isrā' wal-Mi'rāj" (), as one of the most significant events in the Islamic calendar.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Islamic tradition credits Muhammad with the miracle of the splitting of the moon. According to Islamic account, once when Muhammad was in Mecca, the pagans asked him to display a miracle as a proof of his prophethood. It was night time, and Muhammad prayed to God. The moon split into two and descended on two sides of a mountain. The pagans were still incredulous about the credibility of the event but later heard from the distant travelers that they also had witnessed the splitting of the moon. Islamic tradition also tends to refute the arguments against the miracle raised by some quarters.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: On the eve of the Battle of the Trench when the Muslims were digging a ditch, they encountered a firmly embedded rock that could not be removed. It is said that Muhammad, when apprised of this, came and, taking an axe, struck the rock that created spark upon which he glorified God and said he had been given the keys of the kingdom of Syria. He struck the rock for a second time in a likewise manner and said he had been given the keys of Persia and he could see its white palaces. A third strike crushed the rock into pieces whereupon he again glorified God and said he had been given the keys of Yemen and he could see the gates of Sana. According to Muslim historians, these prophesies were fulfilled in subsequent times.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: When Muhammad and his close friend Abu Bakr had been threatened by the Quraysh, on their way to Medina, they hid themselves in Mount Thawr's cave. The cave had been concealed by a spider building a web and a dove building a nest at the entrance after they entered the cave, therefore killing a spider became associated with sin.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Although Islam only explicitly condemns depicting the divinity, the prohibition was supplementally expanded to prophets and saints and among Arab Sunnism, to any living creature. Although both the Sunni schools of law and the Shia jurisprudence alike prohibit the figurative depiction of Muhammad, visual representations of Muhammad exist in Arabic and Ottoman Turkish texts and especially flourished during the Ilkhanate (1256-1353), Timurid (1370-1506), and Safavid (1501-1722) periods. But apart from these notable exceptions and modern-day Iran, depictions of Muhammad were rare, and if given, usually with his face veiled.


title: Muhammad in Islam

text: Most modern Muslims believe that visual depictions of all the prophets of Islam should be prohibited and are particularly averse to visual representations of Muhammad. One concern is that the use of images can encourage idolatry, but also creating an image might lead the artist to claim the ability to create, an ability only ascribed to God.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: The Greatest Beer Run Ever is a 2022 American biographical war comedy-drama film directed and co-written by Peter Farrelly, based on the book of the same name by John "Chickie" Donohue and Joanna Molloy. The film stars Zac Efron and Russell Crowe, and follows the true story of Donohue, who as a young veteran sneaks into the Vietnam War to deliver his friends, who are serving their duty, some beer.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2022, and released in select US theaters on September 23 and on Apple TV+ on September 30, 2022, by Apple Studios. The film received mixed reviews from critics.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: Former Marine John “Chickie” Donohue is a slacking merchant seaman who lives with his family in Inwood, New York City, and likes to hang out at a bar operated by a somewhat cynical old man dubbed “The Colonel”. Chickie's sister Christine is strongly opposed to the Vietnam War in contrast to Chickie and their father, who also formerly served. Upon learning that an old friend, Johnny, is killed in action, Chickie and friends attend his funeral and are informed that another close friend, Tommy Minogue, whom Chickie persuaded to join the draft, has gone missing in action. After the funeral, Chickie and his friend Red find Christine in an anti-war demonstration and get into a brief physical altercation with some protestors. Back at the bar, Chickie and Red talk about how they could lift their serving friends' spirits. Chickie has an idea to go to South Vietnam himself and deliver his friends some beers. The next day, Chickie appears to backtrack on this, but as Tommy‘s mother suggests Chickie take to her son a set of rosary beads if he finds him, he sets out on the trip against Christine's warnings.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: Chickie, a merchant mariner, signs on to a ship sailing to Saigon with a duffle bag full of Pabst Blue Ribbon cans in search of military policeman Tommy Collins. He finds Collins, who is ecstatic to see him. That night, Collins' superior officer comes in and chastises Chickie for delivering the beers, then suspects him to be a CIA agent. Chickie and Collins' friends map out a plan for reaching Chickie's other friends. With guidance from a local named Hieu, Chickie stops at the Caravelle Hotel, where he finds American and British reporters opposed to the war. Using his CIA guise, he hitches a ride on a military caravan to Bien Hoa Air Base and is flown to Danang Air Base and then on to LZ Jane, where he searches for Rick Duggan, who is serving in the 1st Cavalry Division. Duggan’s sergeant radios him to report to the command post, forcing Duggan to run in plain sight under enemy fire. When Chickie surprises him, Duggan reacts angrily but allows Chickie to join him and his squad on the battlefield as they fire upon the Viet Cong from trenches. When night falls, Chickie again passes around beers. Duggan also tells Chickie that one of their friends, Reynolds, was killed. After parting ways with Duggan in the morning, Chickie is put on a chopper with two CIA agents who brutally interrogate and throw out a prisoner.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: Landing at Kontum Airfield, Chickie requests a ride to Saigon, and one officer explains that he may leave his post to escort Chickie to Pleiku Air Base. When Chickie looks outside, he sees the officer driving a prison caravan. Realizing the agents are after him, he runs into the jungle, hiding until the agents give up the chase. Chickie walks alone and passes by a busted jeep and a child playing in the streets. At the sight of Chickie, the child cries in fear before its mother runs away with the child away. Later that night, after nearly being trampled by elephants running from napalm, Chickie is found by another old friend, Kevin “Looney” McLoone. Despite their orders to move in the opposite direction of where Chickie is headed, Chickie persuades McLoone and his men to drive him to Pleiku. McLoone puts Chickie on a chopper, and Chickie throws him his beer as the helicopter accends.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: Back in Saigon, Chickie learns that his ship has left early due to warnings of an impending attack and is on the way to the Philippines. Hieu gives Chickie directions to the U.S. Embassy, and he gives Hieu his address to visit him in New York. At the embassy, a woman helps him book a flight to Manila the next day in order to rejoin his ship. He returns to the Caravelle Hotel and shows the journalists photos as proof that he really went to LZ Jane. As the Viet Cong suddenly invades Saigon in the surprise Tet Offensive, Chickie and photographer Arthur Coates explore the streets, where Chickie sees Hieu killed in the Viet Cong attack on US Embassy. Chickie sees an armored car blow a hole in the embassy wall. The next morning, Coates photographs the aftermath of the embassy attack and witnesses a huge explosion in the distance. The two drive to the scene of the explosion at Long Binh Post, where Coates explains that the military would rather fake an entry hole in the embassy wall than admit that the attack was an inside job. At Long Binh, Chickie looks for and shares a beer with one last wounded friend, Bobby Pappas, who confirms Tommy Minogue's death.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: Chickie returns home with a changed perspective on the war. Before drinking with his friends, he visits Mrs. Minogue to give her the rosary beads he was to give to Tommy. Chickie takes responsibility for talking Tommy into enlisting and his ultimate death, but Mrs. Minogue forgives him with a hug. In the park, he sits among the tributes for soldiers and shares his last beer with Christine.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: The epilogue reveals that Collins, Duggan, McLoone, and Pappas all survived the war and returned home safely while Chickie went on to have a long career with the New York City sandhoggers union. The film ends with a modern day photograph of the group gathered for drinks.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: In 2015, Andrew Muscato produced and directed a short documentary "The Greatest Beer Run Ever". The short was released on the Pabst Blue Ribbon YouTube Channel on Veterans Day November 11, 2015. The documentary was based on the true story of John "Chickie" Donohue who sailed to Vietnam to deliver beers to friends from the old neighborhood. He later said that he "was a staunch supporter of the war. But when I got there, I saw things that just weren't right, and it was just false, totally false."


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: On April 26, 2019, as soon as Skydance Media picked up the rights to adapt the book "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" to film, Peter Farrelly came on board to write the script with Brian Currie and Pete Jones as well as direct the movie. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg and Don Granger would produce for Skydance along with Andrew Muscato. Viggo Mortensen was cast in the film, with Dylan O'Brien joining him soon after.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: In March 2021, the film was picked up by Apple Studios, with Mortensen and O'Brien no longer involved. Zac Efron and Russell Crowe entered negotiations to join the cast to replace O'Brien and Mortensen with Bill Murray courted for a supporting role. Efron and Crowe were confirmed to join the cast in July 2021. Filming was expected at the time to begin in August 2021, either in Australia or New Zealand. Jake Picking, Will Ropp, Archie Renaux and Kyle Allen were cast in September 2021. Murray would be confirmed in October, with Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Matt Cook, Omari K. Chancellor and Will Hochman joining the next month.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" had its world premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival on September 13, 2022, and was released in the United States by Apple Studios in select theaters on September 23, 2022, and on Apple TV+ on September 30, 2022.


title: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

text: On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 42% based on 115 reviews, with an average of 5.2/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "Far from intoxicating, "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" reduces its fun fact-based story to a flat, flavorless brew." Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 39 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". In its first week of release, "The Greatest Beer Run Ever" was the tenth most popular TV show or movie on Apple TV+.


title: Neuromancer

text: Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. Considered one of the earliest and best-known works in the cyberpunk genre, it is the only novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. Set in the future, the novel follows Henry Case, a washed-up hacker hired for one last job, which brings him in contact with a powerful artificial intelligence.


title: Neuromancer

text: Before "Neuromancer", Gibson had written several short stories for US science fiction periodicals—mostly noir countercultural narratives concerning low-life protagonists in near-future encounters with cyberspace. The themes he developed in this early short fiction, the Sprawl setting of "Burning Chrome" (1982), and the character of Molly Millions from "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981) laid the foundations for the novel. John Carpenter's "Escape from New York" (1981) influenced the novel; Gibson was "intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad' It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF, where a casual reference can imply a lot." The novel's street and computer slang dialogue derives from the vocabulary of subcultures, particularly "1969 Toronto dope dealer's slang, or biker talk". Gibson heard the term "flatlining" in a bar around twenty years before writing "Neuromancer" and it stuck with him. Author Robert Stone, a "master of a certain kind of paranoid fiction", was a primary influence on the novel. The term "Screaming Fist" was taken from the song of the same name by Toronto-based punk rock band The Viletones.


title: Neuromancer

text: "Neuromancer" was commissioned by Terry Carr for the second series of Ace Science Fiction Specials, which was intended to feature debut novels exclusively. Given a year to complete the work, Gibson undertook the actual writing out of "blind animal panic" at the obligation to write an entire novel—a feat which he felt he was "four or five years away from". After viewing the first 20 minutes of the landmark film "Blade Runner" (1982), which was released when Gibson had written a third of the novel, he "figured ["Neuromancer"] was sunk, done for. Everyone would assume I'd copied my visual texture from this astonishingly fine-looking film." He re-wrote the first two-thirds of the book 12 times, feared losing the reader's attention and was convinced that he would be "permanently shamed" following its publication; yet what resulted was seen as a major imaginative leap forward for a first-time novelist. He added the final sentence of the novel at the last minute in a deliberate attempt to prevent himself from ever writing a sequel, but ended up doing precisely that with "Count Zero" (1986), a character-focused work set in the Sprawl alluded to in its predecessor.


title: Neuromancer

text: Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan. Once a talented computer hacker and "console cowboy", Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment, Case's central nervous system was damaged, leaving him unable to access the virtual reality dataspace called the "matrix". Case is approached by Molly Millions, an augmented "razorgirl" and mercenary on behalf of a shadowy US ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case for his services as a hacker. Case agrees, and his nervous system is repaired, though sacs of poison are placed in his blood vessels. If Case completes the job, Armitage will have the sacs removed; if not, they will burst and cripple him again.


title: Neuromancer

text: Armitage has Case and Molly steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case's mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley.


title: Neuromancer

text: Case and Molly discover Armitage's former identity as Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was a member of "Operation Screaming Fist," meant to disrupt Soviet computer systems. As his team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their flight systems. He and a few survivors escaped over the Finnish border, but their helicopter was shot down, killing everyone except for Corto. After months in a hospital, Corto was visited by a US government official, who returned him to the United States to receive psychotherapy and reconstructive surgery. After providing what he came to realize was false testimony, misleading the public and protecting corrupt military officers, Corto snapped, killed the official who contacted him, and disappeared into the criminal underworld, becoming Armitage.


title: Neuromancer

text: In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, a sociopathic thief and drug addict. The trail leads Case to Wintermute, an artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family. The Tessier-Ashpools spend their time in cryonic preservation at Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat which functions as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.


title: Neuromancer

text: Wintermute reveals itself to Case and explains that it is one half of a super-AI entity planned by the family. It has been programmed with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer, and has recruited Armitage and his team since it cannot achieve this goal by itself. Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the software barriers with an icebreaker program. Riviera is to obtain the password to the lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, the CEO of the family's corporation.


title: Neuromancer

text: Armitage's personality starts to revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist. It is revealed that Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a computer during his psychotherapy, creating his Armitage persona. As Corto breaks through, he is uncontrollable, and Wintermute ejects him into space.


title: Neuromancer

text: Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, capture Molly. Under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks Molly down. Neuromancer traps Case within a simulated reality after he enters cyberspace. He finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of his underworld contacts. He also meets Neuromancer, who takes the form of a young boy. Neuromancer tries to convince Case to remain in the virtual world with Linda, but Case refuses.


title: Neuromancer

text: With Wintermute guiding them, Case goes to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo. Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him. Riviera flees, and Molly explains that he is doomed anyway, as she had spiked his drugs with a lethal toxin. The team makes it to the computer terminal. Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock opens. Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, becoming a superconsciousness. The poison in Case's bloodstream is washed out and he and Molly are profusely paid, while Pauley's ROM construct is apparently erased at his own request.


title: Neuromancer

text: Molly leaves Case, who finds a new girlfriend and resumes his hacking work. Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, claiming it has become "the sum total of the works, the whole show" and is looking for others like itself. Scanning recorded transmissions, the super-AI finds a transmission from the Alpha Centauri star system.


title: Neuromancer

text: While logged into cyberspace, Case glimpses Neuromancer standing in the distance with Linda Lee, and himself. He also hears inhuman laughter, which suggests that Pauley still lives. The sighting implies that Neuromancer created a copy of Case's consciousness, which now exists in cyberspace with those of Linda and Pauley.


title: Neuromancer

text: Dave Langford reviewed "Neuromancer" for "White Dwarf" #59, and stated that "I spent the whole time on the edge of my seat and got a cramp as a result. In a way Gibson's pace is too frenetic, so unremitting that the reader never gets a rest and can't see the plot for the dazzle. Otherwise: nice one."


title: Neuromancer

text: Dave Langford also reviewed "Neuromancer" for "White Dwarf" #80, and stated that "You may not believe in killer programs which invade the brain, but "Neuromancer", if you once let it into your wetware, isn't easily erased."


title: Neuromancer

text: "Neuromancer"s release was not greeted with fanfare, but it hit a cultural nerve, quickly becoming an underground word-of-mouth hit. It became the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award for paperback original, an unprecedented achievement described by the "Mail & Guardian" as "the sci-fi writer's version of winning the Goncourt, Booker and Pulitzer prizes in the same year". The novel thereby legitimized cyberpunk as a mainstream branch of science fiction literature. It is among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history, and appeared on "Time" magazine's list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. The novel was also nominated for a British Science Fiction Award in 1984.