In the 7th Century AD, a new religion called Islam was born in _________.

Correct — D. Islam began in Arabia in the early 7th century, in the trading towns of Mecca and Madinah in the Hijaz, on the western side of the peninsula.

Prophet Muhammad received there the revelations that became the Quran, and his migration from Mecca to Madinah — the Hijra, in 622 CE — is the event from which the Islamic calendar counts its years.

Every other Muslim region on the map, including the three offered here, was reached later, outward from that base.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  South Africa — South Africa met Islam only in the colonial period, largely through people the Dutch brought to the Cape from Southeast Asia — a thousand years and half a world away from the 7th-century Hijaz.
• (b)
  Indonesia — Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country today, and that is precisely the trap. The faith reached the archipelago centuries later, carried along Indian Ocean trade routes.
• (c)
  Malaysia — Malaysia likewise received Islam by sea trade, with the port of Melaka a major centre of it. Adopting a religion early is still not the same as being its birthplace.

Islam is the youngest of the three Abrahamic faiths, after Judaism and Christianity, and the one whose founding century is fixed most precisely.

Arabia in the 600s was a tribal trading society, and Mecca was already a pilgrimage centre before the new faith reshaped it. The Kaaba stands there, and it is the direction Muslims face in prayer.

Two dates anchor the chronology: the Hijra of 622 CE, year one of the Hijri calendar, and the Prophet's death in 632 CE, after which the community expanded rapidly out of the peninsula.

Key facts

• Islam arose in Arabia in the 7th century CE, in Mecca and Madinah.
• The Hijri calendar counts from the Hijra, the migration to Madinah in 622 CE.
• Indonesia today has the world's largest Muslim population but received Islam through later trade contact.

Common traps

• Choosing Indonesia because it has the most Muslims today
• Confusing where a religion is largest with where it began
• Mixing Hijri years with CE years and landing in the wrong century

No directly related past PYQ was found.