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That would spell economic ruin for the people of Makkah; it would
also be the end of their hegemony over the Arabs. Hence the verse
in the chapter of the Quran entitled, “
Al-Waqi’ah
” (‘The Event’): Do
you make its denial your means of livelihood (56:82). The allusion is
to the Quraysh’s notion that, by denying the Prophet Muhammad,
and the monotheistic religion he taught, they thought they were
saving themselves from financial ruin.
Once the Prophet started to preach his message, his person
became the subject of general curiosity. According to the historian
Abu Ya’ala, people who saw him used to ask one another: ‘Is this
the man?’ He might be travelling among a large number of people
in a caravan, but he would be singled out for mention. Anyone who
came to Makkah would, among other things, take back news of
the Prophet. ‘Muhammad, the son of Abdullah, has laid claim to
prophethood and the son of Abu Qahafa (Abu Bakr) has become
his follower,’ they would say. The Quraysh used to call the Prophet
Muzammam,
meaning blameworthy, instead of Muhammad,
meaning praiseworthy, and accusedhimof insulting their ancestors.
Once, as the Prophet’s biographer Ibn Hisham has related, when
the Prophet noticed the litter which his fellow Quraysh had put in
the street on which he was passing, he said in dismay: ‘What bad
neighbours the Banu Abd Manaf are.’
(Tahzeeb Seerat Ibn Hisham,
p. 86)
While the Prophet’s uncle, Abu Talib, was alive, his enemies
were unable to take any action against him, for, according to tribal
custom, aggression against the Prophet would have amounted
to aggression against his whole tribe—the Banu Hashim. Before
he accepted Islam, Umar ibn Khattab once set off with a sword
in hand with the intention of killing Muhammad, on whom be
peace. It was only sufficient for someone to say to him, ‘How are
you going to live with the Banu Hashim if you kill Muhammad?’
for Umar to change his mind. The same question faced anyone, in
fact, who sought to harm the Prophet. Persecution in Makkah was
mostly directed against slaves who had become Muslim—people
