Umar's acceptance of Islam had brought weakness into the body of the Quraysh, for he entered this religion with the same zeal with which he had once opposed it. He did not enter Islam in secret; rather it was proclaimed openly before the crowd, and for that he was prepared to fight them. He did not want the Muslims to hide and creep about in the clefts of the mountains around Mecca in order to worship far from the harassment of the Quraysh. Indeed he went on opposing the Quraysh until later he and the Muslims were able to worship within the Ka'bah. Here the Quraysh realised that the suffering endured by Muhammad and his Companions would never change the resolve of those who accepted the religion of Allah, who then sought refuge with Umar and Hamzah, or in Abyssinia, or with whoever was able to protect them.
The Quraysh then made further plans, arranging their next steps. Once agreed, they drew up a written pact by mutual consent to impose a total boycott on Banu Hashim and Banu Abd'l-Muttalib: not to intermarry with them and not to trade with them in anything at all. This charter of agreement was then hung inside the Ka'bah as a form of ratification and registration for the Ka'bah. In their estimation, a negative policy — a policy of letting people go hungry and carrying out a boycott like this — would give a more effective result than a policy of violence and torture, even though they did not stop the violence and torture either. The blockades carried out by the Quraysh against the Muslims and against Banu Hashim and Banu Abd'l Muttalib had gone on for two or three years, with the hope that in the meantime Muhammad would be abandoned by his own people. In this way he and his teaching would no longer be dangerous.
But it turned out that Muhammad himself only held ever more firmly to Allah's guidance, as did his family, and those who had already believed became ever more resolute in upholding it and upholding the religion of Allah. The spreading of the call of Islam beyond the borders of Mecca could not be prevented either. So the message spread out among Arab society and the tribes, so that this new religion, which had at first been confined within the circle of Mecca's mountains, now echoed across the whole peninsula. The Quraysh grew ever more intent on working out how to fight a man who had broken their customs and insulted their gods, how to stop his teaching from spreading among the Arab tribes — tribes that could not live without Mecca, just as Mecca could not live without them, in trade, in the import and export business to and from that capital city.
The Quraysh poured all their efforts into fighting a man they considered to have broken their customs, broken their beliefs and the beliefs of their ancestors. With patience and persistence over many years, what they did to try to destroy this new teaching was truly beyond what we can imagine. Muhammad was threatened, and his family and clan elders were threatened. He was mocked, and his teaching was mocked. He was ridiculed, and those who became his followers were ridiculed too. Their poets were brought in to mock him, to slander him. He was harassed, and those who became his followers were reviled and tortured. He was offered bribes, offered kingship, offered everything a man could desire. His companions in struggle were driven from their homeland, their trade and their livelihood frozen. He and his Companions were threatened with war and all its terrible consequences.
Finally, the blockade: to be left to starve to death if possible.
But despite all this, Muhammad remained steadfast. In the finest manner he continued to call people to the truth, the very reason he had been sent by God to mankind, as a bringer of good news and warning. Had the time not come for the Quraysh to lay down their weapons and trust al-Amin, the man they had known since childhood, since his early youth, as an honest man who never lied?! Or had they already sought some other means besides the weapons of war mentioned, and then imagined that in this way they would win the war, so that the position of their idols could be preserved as their centre of worship as they supposed, and Mecca too could be preserved as a museum of idols and a sanctified place because the idols would remain there in Mecca?!
No! The time had not yet come for the Quraysh to submit and surrender. They were now at the peak of their anxiety that Muhammad's call would soon spread among the Arab tribes after first spreading in Mecca.
Only one weapon remained to them now, one that had from the start been their mainstay and strength — the weapon of propaganda: propaganda with all its implications of argument, disputation, abuse, the spreading of rumours, and the tendency to belittle the opponent's argument by considering one's own reasoning superior. Propaganda against the faith and the bearer of the faith, accompanied by accusations levelled at him. Propaganda that was not confined to Mecca alone — indeed for Mecca itself it was no longer as necessary compared with the other inland regions and their tribes, the whole peninsula and all its inhabitants. Through threats, inducements, terror and torture, propaganda was no longer needed within Mecca. But for the thousands of people who came to Mecca every year it was still needed. They came for trade and pilgrimage. They gathered at the markets of 'Ukaz, Majanna and Dhul-Majaz, after which they would go on pilgrimage while slaughtering sacrifices, hoping for blessing and forgiveness.
Therefore, from the time hostility between the Quraysh and Muhammad reached its peak, it occurred to them to devise a means of propaganda against Muhammad. They thought about this all the more once the pilgrims were invited to worship only Allah, the One, without associating partners with Him. This had occurred to them since the very first years of his prophethood. At the outset, since the beginning of his prophetic mission, he was a prophet, until revelation came commanding him to warn his close family. After he had warned the Quraysh families, and some of them accepted Islam, while many others remained stubborn and wanted to think it over first, he still had the duty to call his own people, the whole of Arab society, before then carrying on his duty to call the whole of mankind.
After it occurred to them to invite the people who came on pilgrimage from the various Arab tribes to worship Allah, several men from among the Quraysh came to confer and held a meeting at the house of al-Walid bin'l-Mughira: their purpose being that in facing the matter of Muhammad they should not contradict one another, and should not give conflicting accounts of what they ought to say to the Arabs who came for the pilgrimage season. Some suggested simply saying that Muhammad was a soothsayer. But al-Walid rejected this suggestion, for what Muhammad said was not the muttering of a soothsayer. Another suggested that Muhammad was a madman. Al-Walid rejected this suggestion too, for the signs of such a claim were not apparent. Another suggested that Muhammad be called a sorcerer. Here too al-Walid rejected it, for Muhammad did not perform the secret arts of a diviner or anything a sorcerer would do.
After the discussion, al-Walid finally suggested that the Arab pilgrims be told that he (Muhammad) was a bewitching speaker, that what he said was an enchantment that would divide a man from his parents, from his brother, from his wife and family. And what was alleged to the visiting Arabs would seem borne out, for the people of Mecca had indeed been struck by division and hostility. Whereas before that, the people of Mecca had been an example of the strongest solidarity and bond.
During that pilgrimage season, the Quraysh promptly went out to meet the pilgrims, warning them not to listen to that man and his bewitching speech. They warned them not to suffer the calamity that had befallen the people of Mecca, and not to become the spark of sedition that would set the whole Arabian peninsula ablaze.
But propaganda of this sort could not stand alone; nor could it counter the bewitching message that people had already come to believe. If indeed truth was what that bewitching message brought, what harm was there in believing it? Was it not the case that whenever people acknowledge their own weakness and declare their opposition, that in itself is a powerful form of propaganda? Alongside that propaganda, the Quraysh needed another kind. For that propaganda the Quraysh would find their man in Nadr b. Harith. This man Nadr was the devil of the Quraysh, a man who had once gone to Hira and studied the stories of the Persian kings, their religious rules, their teachings on good and evil, and on the origin of the universe. Every time, in a gathering, Muhammad called people to Allah and warned them of the fates that had befallen earlier nations who opposed the worship of Allah, Nadr would come and take Muhammad's place in that gathering. Then he would tell the Quraysh about history and religion, saying: In what way does Muhammad tell his stories better than I do? Does Muhammad not simply recite the stories of the ancients, as I too recite them? So the Quraysh spread Nadr's tales, telling them further as propaganda against Muhammad's warning and call to them. [
Meanwhile, at Marwa, Muhammad often sat with a Christian slave said to be named Jabr. The Quraysh accused Muhammad of having been taught most of what he brought by this Jabr. If anyone wished to abandon the beliefs of their ancestors, then Christianity would be the more worthy choice. So this was the accusation the Quraysh spread as rumour. It was for this that the word of God came:
"We indeed know that they say: it is a man who teaches him. The language of the one they allege is foreign, whereas this is clear Arabic." (Qur'an: 16: 103)
With propaganda of this kind and its like, the Quraysh fought Muhammad once more, hoping it would prove more effective than the harassment he had already faced and the torment his followers had already endured. But the strength of the truth, in its clear and simple form as expressed through Muhammad's words, surpassed anything they said. Day by day it spread further still among the Arabs. Tufail b. 'Amr ad-Dausi, a nobleman and scholarly poet, upon arriving in Mecca was promptly approached by the Quraysh, warning him against Muhammad and his bewitching words, which they said sought to divide a man from his family, even from himself. They feared what had happened in Mecca would befall them as well. So it was best not to invite him and not to listen to him speak.
That day Tufail went to the Ka'bah. Muhammad was there. When he heard Muhammad's words, they turned out to be very fine words indeed. "Come what may, I am a man of learning, a poet," he said to himself. "I can tell what is good from what is bad. What harm is there in my listening for myself to what this man has to say! If it proves good I shall accept it; if bad I shall leave it."
He followed Muhammad to his house. There he told him what had crossed his mind. Muhammad presented Islam to him and recited verses of the Qur'an to him. The man promptly accepted Islam and declared that truth by pronouncing the words of the Shahadah.
When he later returned to his own people he called them to accept Islam. Some of them accepted at once, while others were slower. Meanwhile, in the following years most of them came to accept Islam. After the conquest of Mecca, and once the political order had begun to take a definite shape, they too joined the Prophet.
The story of Tufail ad-Dausi is nothing more than a single example among many. Those who accepted Muhammad's call were not only idol-worshippers. While he was still in Mecca, twenty Christians once came to him, after hearing the news. They questioned him and listened to his words. They too accepted, believed, and trusted him. This too was what made the Quraysh grow ever more furious, so that they too were reviled.
You are a failed delegation. You were all sent by your fellow believers to find out about that man. Before you had even truly come to know who he is, you have already abandoned your religion and simply believed whatever he says.
But the Quraysh's words did not make that delegation withdraw from following Muhammad, nor did they cause them to abandon Islam. Indeed their faith in Allah grew stronger than when they had still been in the Christian faith. They had already surrendered themselves to God before they had even listened to Muhammad.
But what happened within Muhammad himself was even more remarkable than that. The Quraysh who opposed him most fiercely began to ask themselves: was it true that he was calling people to the true religion? And was what he promised and warned them of also true?
Abu Sufyan b. Harb, Abu Jahl b. Hisham and al-Akhnas b. Shariq went out one night wishing to listen to Muhammad while he was reciting the Qur'an in his house. Each of them took his own place to listen, and none of them knew where the others were. Muhammad, who was accustomed to rising in the middle of the night, was that night too reciting the Qur'an calmly and peacefully. With his sweet voice, the sacred verses resounded into their ears and their hearts.
But once dawn came, those who had been listening dispersed to their own homes. On the road, when they happened to meet, each blamed the other: This must not happen again. If the ignorant people were to see us doing this, it would weaken our position and they would side with Muhammad.
But on the second night, each of them was seized by the same feeling as the night before. Unable to resist, as though their feet carried them back to the very same place, they went again to listen to Muhammad reciting the Qur'an. Near dawn, as they returned home, they met one another again and again blamed each other. But this did not stop them from going once more on the third night.
After they finally realised that in facing Muhammad's call they felt weak, they made a pact not to repeat this behaviour again. What they had heard from Muhammad left such an impression on their souls that they kept asking one another's opinion about what they had heard. In their hearts arose a feeling of fear. They feared they would grow weak, given that each of them was a leader of his people, so that they worried their people too would grow weak and become followers of Muhammad as well.
What objection could they have to becoming followers of Muhammad? He did not expect wealth from them, did not wish to become their leader, their king, or a ruler over them. Besides that, he was a man of true humility, who deeply loved his people, was loyal to them, and greatly wished to guide them. His feelings were so delicate that if he thought he might wrong a poor or weak person he felt afraid. Whenever he suffered, his heart only found peace once he felt he had been forgiven. Was it not the case that one day, while he was with al-Walid bin'l-Mughira, one of the Quraysh leaders whose conversion was hoped for, blind Ibn Umm Maktum happened to pass by and asked to be taught the Qur'an? He pressed so insistently that Muhammad felt irritated by him, being occupied with al-Walid at the time. He left the blind man with a frowning face.
But once he was alone again, deep in his heart he weighed what he had just done, asking himself: Was I
wrong?
Suddenly revelation came, with the following verses:
"He frowned and turned away. Because there came to him the blind man. And what would make you know that perhaps he might be purified? Or that he might receive admonition and the admonition would benefit him? As for one who considers himself self-sufficient. To him you give attention. And not upon you is any blame if he will not be purified. But as for he who came to you striving [for knowledge]. While he fears [Allah]. From him you are distracted. No! Indeed, it is a reminder. So whoever wills may remember it. In honoured pages. Exalted and purified. In the hands of scribes. Noble and dutiful." (Qur'an: 80: 1-16)
If that was indeed the matter, what still stood in the way of the Quraysh becoming his followers and supporting his call? Especially once their hearts had softened, once they had let go of the past and no longer clung to the worn-out inheritance that had made their souls rigid, and once they saw that Muhammad's teaching was perfect and full of majesty?
But! Was it truly the case that all those years had made people forget the rigidity of their souls, their conservative attitude towards a worn-out past? This can happen among exceptional people, in whose hearts there is always a longing for perfection. In their lives, they are still willing to examine truths they had previously believed, in order then to cast aside whatever falsehood still clings to them, however high the level of culture that person has attained. Their hearts and minds are like a crucible for smelting metal, always seething, receiving every new idea thrown into it, then melting it down and refining it. Whatever is tainted is discarded, and what remains is what is good, true and beautiful. Such people seek truth about anything, anywhere, from anyone. Because in every nation, in every age, these people form a chosen core, their number is always small. They always meet opposition, coming above all from the wealthy, from those of standing and those in power. They fear that every kind of renewal will devour their wealth, will strip away their standing and power. Besides living in this way, there is another reality, already quite plain, that they do not recognise. To them, everything is true if it can increase their strength, and untrue if it can raise the slightest doubt. The wealthy consider that morality is true when it can add to their fortune, and untrue when it stands in its way. Religion is true when it can open a path for their desires, and untrue when it becomes an obstacle to those desires. Those who hold rank, those who hold power, are in this matter no different from the wealthy.
In their opposition to every renewal they feared, they incited ordinary people whose livelihood depended on them to turn against the one advocating renewal. They asked the common people to help sanctify ancient structures already eaten by decay, once the spirit that had once dwelt within them had fled. They turned these strongholds into stone temples, to give the common, innocent people the impression that the holy spirit they wrapped in white cloth still remained in its majesty within those temples. Generally the common people defended them, because what mattered to them was seeing to their own livelihood. It was not easy for them to understand that truth cannot bear to remain confined within temple walls, however beautiful and majestic that place may be, and that the nature of truth is always to break free and fill the human soul. To truth, there is no difference between the soul of a master and the soul of a slave. Nor is there any law, however harsh, that can stand in its way.
How could one expect from them — those who once came in secret to listen to the recitation of the Qur'an — that they would come to believe in it, simply because he rebuked those who committed many transgressions, because he made no distinction between a poor blind man and a man overflowing with wealth, except by the purity of his soul. To all mankind he proclaimed that:
"Indeed, the most noble of you in the sight of Allah is the most righteous of you." (Qur'an, 49: 13)
Even if Abu Sufyan and his companions still clung to the beliefs of their ancestors, it was not because it was grounded in faith or in any truth that existed, but because they had already grown too attached to the old ways they had established. Then fate favoured them too. They held on only because of the rank and wealth they had already amassed, and it was for that alone that they fought to the death.
Besides this tendency, envy and fierce rivalry were also what kept the Quraysh from becoming followers of the Prophet. Before Muhammad's coming, Umayya b. Abi'sh-Shalt had indeed once spoken of a prophet who would appear among Arab society, and he himself had a strong desire to become a prophet. His feeling of envy burned in his chest when it turned out that revelation never came to him. So he refused to become a follower of the one he considered his rival. Moreover, since as a poet his verses were full of thought, one day the Prophet, peace be upon him, remarked when his verse was recited before him: "Umayya's verse has come to believe, but his heart still disbelieves."
Or as al-Walid bin'l-Mughira said: "Revelation was sent down to
Muhammad, not to me, even though I am the head and leader of the Quraysh. Nor to Abu Mas'ud 'Amr b. 'Umair ath-Thaqafi, the leader of Thaqif. We are the great men of two cities."
It was for this that the word of God gave a sign:
"And they say, 'Why was this Qur'an not sent down to a great man from the two cities?' Do they distribute the mercy of your Lord? It is We who have distributed among them their livelihood in this worldly life." (Qur'an 43: 13-32)
After Abu Sufyan, Abu Jahl and Akhnas had listened for three nights in a row to the recitation of the Qur'an, as in the story above, Akhnas then went to meet Abu Jahl at his house. "Abu'l-Hakam, what do you think about what we have heard from Muhammad?" he asked Abu Jahl.
"What did you hear?" said Abu Jahl. "We have long competed for honour with the family of 'Abd Manaf. They gave feasts, so did we; they took on responsibility, so did we; they gave gifts, so did we, so that we were equal and matched them stride for stride in that race. Then all of a sudden they say: 'Among us there is a prophet who receives revelation from heaven.' When shall we ever come across the like of that? No! We will never believe it and we will never accept it as true.
So what truly had a deep effect on the souls of those Bedouin people was envy, rivalry, and mutual opposition. In this matter it would be quite wrong for anyone to try to close their eyes to it or fail to assess it as it truly is. It is enough for us to point out how great is the power of desire in every person's soul. To overcome its influence indeed requires a lengthy training, a training of the soul that places the rule of reason above the pull of desire; our souls and minds must be lofty enough to see that the truth coming from an opponent, even from an enemy, is the very same truth that comes from a close friend. One must be convinced that with the truth one possesses, one's wealth is already greater than buried treasure, greater than the greatness of Alexander (the Great), and greater than the kingdom of an emperor. Not many people can reach this level unless God has already opened their heart to that truth.
Beyond that, to reach a higher level of understanding, people have been blinded by worldly wealth, by the fleeting pleasure of life they feel. For the sake of worldly interest, in pursuit of that fleeting moment, they wage war and fight. Nothing can stop them from sinking their claws and teeth into the throat of truth, goodness, and lofty moral understanding. Then that perfection, so sacred in meaning, will be trampled underfoot by them, feet already soiled.
What are we to think of those Quraysh Arabs who saw Muhammad's followers growing more numerous by the day? They feared that the truth already proclaimed would one day come to master them, to master those who had already been loyal to them, and would then spread on to the Arabs across the whole peninsula. Before that could happen, they felt they must cut that man's throat first if they could. First they had to carry out propaganda, boycott, blockade, torture and violence against their great enemies.
The third reason for their refusal to become followers of Muhammad was that they were greatly afraid of the Resurrection and the torment of Hell on the Day of Reckoning to come. We have already seen a society so absorbed in living for pleasure, in excess of every kind. They regarded trade and usury as perfectly ordinary. To the wealthy among them, there was nothing considered shameful, nothing to be avoided. Besides that, by offering sacrifices all their wrongdoing and sins could be redeemed. It was enough for a person to gamble his fate with a qidh (divining arrow) before Hubal, before undertaking any action. The sign given by the arrow was the command that came from Hubal. So that his wrongdoing and sins would be forgiven by the idols, it was enough for him to slaughter an animal for those idols. He could justify committing murder, robbery, wrongdoing; he was not forbidden from practising fornication, so long as he was able to bribe those gods with offerings and sacrifices.
Now Muhammad came bringing verses so terrifying that they felt their hearts would burst from dread, for God was always watching over them. On the Day Hereafter they would be raised again as a new creation, and that nothing would help them then except their own deeds.
"When there comes the Deafening Blast. On the Day a man will flee from his brother. And his mother and his father. And his wife and his children. Every man, that Day, will have enough to make him indifferent to others. Some faces, that Day, will be radiant. Laughing, rejoicing at good news. And other faces, that Day, will have upon them dust. Blackness will cover them. Those are the disbelievers, the wicked ones." (Qur'an, 80: 33-42)
And that dreadful sound did come.
"On the Day the sky will be like molten metal. And the mountains will be like wool. And no close friend will ask about his close friend. They will be shown each other. The criminal will wish that he could be ransomed from the punishment of that Day by his children. And his wife and his brother. And his nearest kindred who shelter him. And whoever is on earth entirely — then it would save him. No! Indeed, it is the Flame of Hell. Removing the skin of the head. It invites he who turned his back and went away. And collected [wealth] and hoarded it." (Qur'an, 70: 8-18)
"That Day you will be exhibited [for judgment]; not hidden among you is anything concealed. Then as for one who is given his record in his right hand, he will say, 'Here, read my record! Indeed, I was certain that I would be meeting my account.' So he will be in a pleasant life. In an elevated garden. Its clusters [of fruit] hanging near. [They will be told], 'Eat and drink in satisfaction for what you did in the days past.' But as for he who is given his record in his left hand, he will say, 'Oh, I wish I had not been given my record. And had not known what is my account. Oh, I wish it had been the end. My wealth has not availed me. Gone from me is my authority.' [Allah will say], 'Seize him and shackle him. Then into the Hellfire drive him. Then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits insert him. Indeed, he did not used to believe in Allah, the Most Great. Nor did he encourage the feeding of the poor. So there is not for him here this Day any devoted friend. Nor any food except from the discharge of wounds. None will eat it except the sinners.'" (Qur'an, 69: 18-37)
Have people read this? Have they heard it? Do they not feel dread, feel fear? This is only a small part of what Muhammad once warned his people about. We read it now, and even before this we have read it, heard it, again and again. Every image of Hell found in the Qur'an comes alive again in our minds when we read it once more.
"... Every time their skins are roasted through We will replace them with other skins so they may taste the punishment." (Qur'an, 4: 56)
Feeling this dread, one can easily imagine just how the Quraysh, and especially their wealthy men, must truly have felt when hearing words like these, for before they received this warning of punishment, they had already felt themselves far away and safe from it, under the protection of their gods and idols.
So too, one can easily imagine how their fervour flared up in denying Muhammad, in mounting opposition and insult against him. They had indeed never understood the meaning of the Day of Resurrection, nor had they ever acknowledged what they heard. None of them imagined that after leaving this life, a person would receive recompense for all the deeds of his lifetime. But what they truly feared in their lives, in this present world, was illness, was calamity befalling their wealth, their offspring, their standing and their power. Life now, to them, was the whole purpose of living. Their whole attention was directed only to accumulating every kind of pleasure and rejecting everything they feared. To them, the Hereafter was a hidden matter still veiled. In their hearts they already sensed that if their deeds were evil, that unseen world might well bring calamity upon them. So they waited for a sign of good or a sign of ill fortune. At once they would consult their fate through the game of arrows, by shaking pebbles, and by reading the flight of birds and slaughtering sacrifices. All of this served as a charm against everything they feared in their lives to come.
By contrast, everything concerning recompense after death, concerning the Day of Resurrection when the trumpet is blown, concerning the Paradise prepared for the righteous and the Hellfire for the wrongdoers — all of this had truly never crossed their minds.
In fact they had already heard all this within the Jewish and Christian religions. But they had never heard it presented with such power and terror as they heard through the revelation to Muhammad, which warned them of eternal torment in the belly of Hell, so dreadful to the heart merely to hear it described — if they remained as they were, revelling and racing to amass wealth by oppressing the weak, consuming the wealth of orphans, letting poverty persist and practising usury without restraint. Especially if a person could see with the eye of conscience the path humankind treads, with such narrow steps, throughout life towards death, and then after the resurrection to come, with all its joys and sorrows.
By contrast, the Paradise God promised, as vast as the heavens and the earth, where no idle talk would ever be heard, nor any sinful act — there would be only the greeting of "peace." All that pleases the heart, that delights the eye, is what is there. But the Quraysh doubted all this. And what added further to their doubt was that they craved only what was immediate. They wanted to see that pleasure made real in this worldly life. They could not bear to wait until the Day of Reckoning, for they simply did not believe in that Day of Reckoning at all.
It may seem strange to some how the hearts of these Arabs could remain so tightly closed to accepting the notion of the afterlife and its recompense. Yet the struggle between good and evil had already raged throughout human history since the world began, never ceasing, never still. The ancient Egyptians, thousands of years before Muhammad's prophethood, equipped their dead with every provision for the afterlife; in their shrouds they placed the "Book of the Dead," complete with hymns and reminders. On their temples too were carved images of scales, reckoning, repentance and punishment. The people of India pictured the happy soul in Nirvana. While the reincarnation of a wicked spirit was depicted in the form of beings tormented for thousands, even millions of years until swallowed up by truth, so as to become pure. Then it would return again to do good, longing to attain Nirvana.
So too the Magians of Persia. They did not deny the struggle between good and evil, the God of Darkness and the God of Light. Likewise the religion brought by Musa, and the religion brought by Christ, both alike depicted the existence of eternal life, of God's favour and His wrath. Now consider the Arabs. Had none of this ever reached them? They were traders who, in their travels, had come into contact with all of these religions. How could they not know of it? How could it not possibly have shaped some particular understanding within them? They were people of the desert interior who had constant dealings with the boundless open wilderness. It was easier for them to picture spirits present within this existence, manifesting by day in blazing light or at dusk as darkness fell. Spirits both good and evil, spirits they believed dwelt within their idols, which would bring them closer to God.
So of course they too had some concept of the unseen world around them. Yet, being a trading people, their souls leaned more towards what was tangible. Also, because of their fondness for pleasure and for drinking intoxicants, they entirely rejected the notion of recompense in the life to come. Whatever a person obtained in his life, good or bad, was in their view simply the consequence of his own deeds. And there was no further recompense after this life. It was for this reason that the revelation containing warning and good news, in the early part of the prophetic mission, mostly came down in Mecca; because he wished to save the souls of the very people among whom Muhammad had been sent. It was only fitting, then, that he should remind them of the sin and error they had committed. It was only fitting, too, that he should wish to raise them up from the depths of idol worship to the worship of Allah, the One, the All-Powerful.
For the spiritual salvation of his family and of all mankind, Muhammad and the believers were willing to bear every kind of torment and sacrifice, to bear suffering of body and soul, and then to leave their homeland, moving away from the hostility of their own kin, as we have briefly seen above. And it was as though Muhammad's love for them only grew deeper, his longing to save them only greater, each time he endured suffering and torment even greater than theirs. The Resurrection and the Day of Reckoning are verses that had to be impressed upon them in order to help them from the disease of paganism and the mire of sin that had overtaken them. In those first years, revelation never ceased to warn them and open their eyes.
Yet despite all this they remained resolute in their refusal to acknowledge it, continued to reject it, until at last they were driven to wage all-out war. The danger and calamity of that war only subsided once Islam achieved victory, once Allah raised it above every other religion.
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