The confrontation did not result in much trouble at the beginning; but soon the Makkan chiefs realized that the message of Islam was steadily gaining recruits from the people who belonged to their various clans. The message heralded a fundamental change to the social order that, at the time, gave the chiefs their privileges and kept the slaves, the poor and the weak at their mercy, as Islam advocated an equitable distribution of wealth. Most importantly, it threatened the religious authority that the Quraysh exercised over the entire Arabian Peninsula. The Quraysh elders could not take the Prophet personally to task, because he was protected by his clan, and the elders did not want a feud to occur within their community. They tried to negotiate some arrangements that would silence the message of Islam, but Muhammad would accept no compromise, and the negotiations broke down more than once. Every time this occurred, the breakdown ushered in a period of persecution of the weaker elements, who became Muslims. The atmosphere in Makkah became much tenser: the threat of a bloody confrontation increased, as hardliners among the unbelievers became far more vocal, advocating the need to put an effective stop to the call to Islam. In 615 CE, two years after having gone public, the Prophet advised many of his followers to immigrate to Abyssinia, a country “ruled by a just king, where you may have a safe haven.”1
A total of eighty-three men and nineteen women immigrated to Abyssinia, where they were given asylum by Negus, its king. These represented about half the Muslim community in Makkah at the time. This immigration is often described by Muslim (and other) historians as a flight from persecution. However, a careful look at the names of the immigrants and their standing with their clans shows that they were not the target of the Quraysh campaign of persecution. They belonged to the most distinguished families and clans in Makkah and enjoyed the full protection of their clans. Thus, they could not come to any physical harm. Rather, those who bore the brunt of that campaign of persecution stayed in Makkah. The immigration was indeed a strategic measure, aiming at establishing a new base for Islam, where it could be advocated among the local population without fear of any harm. Some of those immigrants stayed in Abyssinia, on the Prophet’s orders, for fifteen years. They could have joined the Muslims in Madinah after the Prophet and his Companions settled there in 622 CE. Although some of them did, the more distinguished figures (including the Prophet’s own cousin, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib) remained in Abyssinia until the Prophet finally recalled them in 629. When they returned, they brought with them a large delegation of Abyssinian Muslims, who visited Madinah and pledged loyalty to the Prophet.
This immigration to Abyssinia might have averted an immediate danger that might have engulfed the entire Muslim community in Makkah. The Makkan chiefs remained hostile to Islam. They were unwilling to listen to its message, and administered harsh treatment to its advocates. However, they no longer felt that Islam represented a threat to their established order. The Prophet understood that his message was addressed to all mankind, not merely the Makkan society. Hence, he needed to bring it to others. His immediate target was the rest of the Arabian tribes. This group was not difficult to reach, as Makkah was the centre of an annual pilgrimage, where contingents from all tribes came over to perform the pilgrimage rituals, to venerate the major idols and to offer worship at the Kaʿbah. The pilgrimage had continued to be the focus of the life of the people of Makkah ever since the Prophets Abraham and Ishmael built it many centuries earlier. However, the Quraysh had distorted most of its rituals and introduced some weird practices: such as walking around the Kaʿbah naked. The presence of people from various tribes afforded an opportunity for the Prophet to address them and explain the message of Islam to them. Moreover, people came to Makkah at all times to visit the holy place and worship there. Some brought with them some goods to sell.
The Prophet sought to meet any visitor to Makkah and explain Islam to them. The idea of God’s Oneness was generally acceptable to the Arabs, even though the concept of God had long been twisted and distorted. The idols they worshipped in addition to God did not have a clear status in the thinking of the Arabs: they thought of them as partners with God, or assistants to Him, and they assumed that the idols would bring people closer to God. Indeed, the very concept of God was blurred in their minds. He was distant and vague. Therefore, the clear Islamic concept of God’s Oneness and the rejection of all partners appealed to many. However, there were some constraints that made most people hesitate or refrain from accepting Islam.
During the pilgrimage season, the Prophet went to the camps of different tribes and explained his message to them. Generally speaking, their response was hostile. The Quraysh mounted a counteroffensive, sending some of its most eloquent speakers to address the different tribes and warn them against listening to Muhammad. They made it clear that the Quraysh would consider any positive response to Islam as a hostile action and threatened military retaliation against any tribe that offered Muhammad such response. The Quraysh speakers also harped on the idea that had strong appeal in tribal society: that as Muhammad was the son of the Quraysh and they knew him well, they would have embraced his idea without hesitation, had it been any good. In the tribal system of Arabia, the tribe was always the benefactor of any of its sons or daughters who had something good to offer. If they stood solidly against someone, that person’s chances of success were heavily curtailed. Therefore, most of those tribes were more willing to listen to the Quraysh speakers and take their advice, rather than listen to the Prophet.
Moreover, the Quraysh started an effective smear campaign against the Prophet himself, describing him as a liar, a poet, a madman and a sorcerer. When they realized that using so many descriptions had become counterproductive, they held a conference to agree on what to say to pilgrim delegations. The conference reviewed all these options, realizing that none held much credibility. Ultimately, they agreed to say that he was a “sorcerer who had come up with vague recitations that generated discord between man and wife, and between brothers within the same family.” Most tribes listened to these arguments by the Quraysh and wanted nothing to do with the Prophet. They felt that they had more interests with the Quraysh than with an individual whose claims to receive revelations from on high could not be proven. Although some tribes were willing to listen to him, and were impressed with the superb beauty of the Qur’ān as he recited its passages and with the values it preached, they were unwilling to commit themselves, as they felt that they could be taking on something bigger than they could cope with.
Nevertheless, the Prophet continued to use the pilgrimage season as a platform to address the Arab people. He was certain that his message was a true message from God and it was to ultimately triumph. He was encouraged by the fact that individual converts continued to trickle in. No matter what verbal abuse the Quraysh hurled against him and his message, he continued to preach it undeterred. However, it was extremely painful to him to see the weaker elements among his followers being subjected to torture and physical pressure in attempts to turn them away from Islam. Indeed, some of those who belonged to higher families were imprisoned and tortured by their own families.
This overall situation continued to deteriorate. The hardliners among the Quraysh had been able to wrestle the initiative and impose biting sanctions on the Muslim community, and they wanted to expand this. They managed to carry the entire Quraysh with them in imposing a total economic and social boycott against the Hāshimite clan. They wrote down terms that specified that no one in the Quraysh would have any commercial dealings with any Hāshimite, not even selling them food, and that no marriage with them would be agreed upon until they handed Muhammad to the Quraysh to kill. The Hāshimites would not agree to such humiliation, and both the Muslims and the unbelievers among them endured the boycott with fortitude. Not everybody in the Quraysh were happy with the boycott, but they had to go ahead with it so as not to breach the traditions of their tribal society. Hence, the boycott lasted three years, until five people from different clans of the Quraysh successfully plotted its abrogation.
The ninth year of the Prophet’s mission was approaching its end when the boycott was ended. However, there was no sign that the Quraysh would moderate its stance of opposition to Islam. Abū Ṭālib continued to protect the Prophet, although he decided not to become a Muslim. However, Abū Ṭālib had reached old age, and a few months later he became ill. A number of the chiefs of the clans went to him, requesting him to negotiate some accommodation between them and the Prophet. The Prophet insisted that he could not change God’s message: they had to believe in God’s Oneness and that Muhammad was God’s Messenger. This was