The Life of the Prophet ﷺ: The First Revelations (Continued) (1)

The early revelations repeated these themes several times. The verses and chapters revealed in Makkah, which are found towards the end of the Qur’an, tended to be short and to the point. This worked well for the nascent Muslim community, which was still unknown to the rest of the city. When around fellow believers, the Muslims would discuss the latest revelations among themselves and teach each other. When around non-Muslims, they had to hide their conversion and beliefs. After all, these new ideas would threaten the established social order of Makkah. Social, economic and tribal equality flew directly in the face of the wealthy and powerful members of the Quraysh. Social revolution is rarely welcomed by those in positions of power.

Even if Muhammad [ﷺ] had not advocated any change in society, the new beliefs alone were a threat to the economic and social position of the polytheists. Because of the Ka’ba, Makkah was a religious centre for arabs throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Once a year, Arabs would travel to Makkah for a pilgrimage and to honour the hundreds of idols kept around the Ka’ba. This mean big business for the Quraysh. Trade was a natural byproduct of the pilgrimage: with people from so many distant lands in the same place at the same time, a natural market evolved which made Makkah a religious, economic and political focal point of Arabia. And as the facilitators of this trade, the Quraysh stood to make huge profits.

Muhammad’s [ﷺ] message, however, denied the important of the idols, emphasising the unity of God. Without idols, there would be no pilgrimage. With no pilgrimage, there would be no business. This was not a scenarios that was pleasing to the Quraysh, and the early followers of Muhammad [ﷺ] knew that. for this reason, there could be no mention of this new religion around the leaders of the tribe. The Muslim community was still small and weak enough that it could not yet come into open ideological conflict with those in positions of power. Especially considering the fact that most of the early converts were those who were considered the lowest class of society. Slaves, servants, and the poor made up a large proportion of the early Muslim community, attracted by the equality of all people before God and the egalitarian nature of the new religion, where wealth and social status did not determine a person’s worth.