Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
10. The Prophet in Makkah
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shoulder this responsibility in the case of the
Prophet. When a group from one tribe felt inclined
to take pity upon the Prophet, one of their elders
rebuked them: “His own tribe has expelled him and
you intend to grant him protection. What do you
want to do? Wage war upon the whole of the Arab
nation?”
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He knew that to offer refuge to a person
who had been disowned by his own tribe was to
declare war against that tribe.
It was the Quraysh that had expelled him, and the
Quraysh were masters of the entire Arab peninsula.
To grant asylum to one expelled by them was to
declare war on every Arab tribe—on everyone who
looked up to the Quraysh as their leaders and
guardians of the Holy Ka’bah. That was why, when
the Ansar were swearing allegiance to the Prophet,
Abu’l Haytham ibn al-Tayyihan warned them: “If
you take him with you the whole Arab nation will
descend upon you with one accord.”
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Added to this there was the fact that Arab border
tribes had made pacts with neighbouring foreign
powers. These tribes were afraid of repercussions if
they took a controversial personality like the
