Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
10. The Prophet in Makkah
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its inhabitants would suffer immense losses. So
there were many people with a vested interest in
the continuance of polytheistic practices. They
feared that if monotheism were to spread in the
land, Makkah would suffer drastically; the area
would be reduced to the uncultivable valley that it
basically was.
Added to this, the Quraysh, due to their position as
patrons of the Ka’bah, had come to lord over tribes
far and wide. Their caravans used to travel east and
west, far beyond the boundaries of the peninsula. In
accordance with long-standing pacts, they used to
do business with tribes as far afield as Persia,
Abyssinia and the Byzantine Empire. The Quraysh
thought that their accepting Muhammad as a
prophet could only result in neighbouring tribes—
in fact all the polytheists of Arabia—breaking off
the commercial agreements they had made with the
Quraysh. That would also be the end of their
hegemony over the Arabs. This is the meaning of
the verse in the
surah
of the Qur’an entitled,
al-
Waqi’ah
(The Event): “And have you made denial
your means of livelihood.”
33
The allusion is to the
Quraysh’s notion that, by denying the Prophet
