El desempleo

• During first 3 years of preaching, there was no opposition from the Quraish because preaching was in secret.

Introduction:

• At first, people made quips about Muhammad (PBUH) who had ‘brought news from the Heavens’.

• Main persecutors were Abu Jahl, Abu Lahab and his wife, Abu Sufyan, Walid bin Mughaira and Atba bin Rabi.

• Quraish respected their ancestors and were ready to die for them and their beliefs. Thus, they did not want to leave the 360 idols that their ancestors had worshipped. When Muhammad (PBUH) told them that their ancestors were in grave trouble because of polygamy and idol-worship, the Quraish grew violent.

Religious Causes:

• Even though Quraish believed in prophets, they suspected that Muhammad (PBUH) only sought glory and power for himself by becoming the King of Arabia through religion. • Islam and the Quraish’s moral values were diametrically opposite.

Moral Causes:

• Islam preached modesty, while the Quraish were used to lavishness, Islam promulgated equality of men and women, while the Quraish treated their women like chattels, Islam enjoined loyalty to one faith, while the Quraish wanted loyalty only to the clan or tribe. • Embracing Islam meant discarding the practices of drinking, adultery, gambling, murder

• The class conscious rich Quraish could not reconcile with the slogan of equality of all humans raised by Muhammad (PBUH).

Social Causes:

• If Islam ruled, the high and the low, the master and the slave, the rich and the poor, black and white all would be on equal footing.

• The most powerful clan of the Quraish ruled Makkah, i.e. at that time, Banu Makhzum ruled with the help of Banu Umayya. Islam wanted a capable and competent man to rule the kingdom, not a tribe.

Political Causes:

• If Islam was allowed to expand, the present Makkan rulers would no doubt have to relinquish their rule. They had an intense fear of power shifting from their hands into the hands of the Muslims. That is why the ruling tribes were the most hostile towards Islam. • In ancient times, politics and wealth went hand in hand.

• The leading families feared that loss of political power would mean loss of wealth.

• Banu Umayya could not bear that anybody from Banu Hashim, the tribe to which the Holy Prophet (PBUH) belonged, should have supremacy on them. They were also of the view that the Holy Quran should have been sent to someone who possessed wealth and authority in Makkah.

• By talking about social justice and equality, Muhammad (PBUH) struck at the roots of the then big business, high finance and monopolistic economy and other facets of the capitalistic/mercantile practices. It is because of this that to the new rich and the privileged, he appeared as a lunatic, a revolutionary, a disrupter of law and a magician.

Economic Causes:

• The Byzantine & Persian Empires flanking the Arabian Peninsula were constantly at each other’s throat. As a result thereof, Makkah had become the hub of transit trade between Asia & Europe. As vital economic interest of the Quraish was at stake, they just could not afford any disruption in the status quo or the balance of power and the smooth flow of trade on the caravan routes, which, otherwise, they apprehended would happen if the momentum being gained by the Muslims was not effectively checkmated in time.

• The first and most to suffer at the hands of the Quraish were the converted slaves. They were beaten, roasted on hot desert sand, laid on their backs on burning coals, tortured and kept enclosed for days in dark, small rooms. Some were even butchered in cold blood.

The persecutions:

Slave Remarks

Hazrat Bilal Made to lie on his back in chains on the scorching desert sands by his master.

and their son Hazrat Ammar. while their son was treated with utmost cruelty. Hazrat Khabbab Treated with cruelty and barbarity.

• As regards their own clansmen and kinsmen, the prosecutors were milder but more organized. Each Quraishite family was responsible for punishing its men and women. Hazrat Usman bin Affan and Hazrat Zubair bin al-Awwam were tortured by their uncles while Hazrat Saad ibn al-Waqqas was tortured by his relatives.

• Muhammad (PBUH) was tortured psychologically and physically:

I. People who had called him “the truthful” and “the trustworthy” tried to defame his character by openly calling him a liar.

II. Men and women threw rubbish on him as he was walking on the street and strew his path with thorns.

III. Once, when Muhammad (PBUH) was praying in the Kaaba, a wicked Quraishite threw a camel’s innards on him as he was prostrating before Allah.

• The Quraish tried to tempt him to stop preaching Islam. They sent Utba bin Rabia with the following lures:

I) Wealth uncountable. II) Lordship of Makkah.

III) A beautiful damsel of his choice and liking.

• However, the Prophet recited to him a few verses of the Quran. Utba bin Rabia went back impressed and told the Quraish that it was best for them that they did not attack Muhammad (PBUH) anymore because if he succeeded in his ‘plan’, Muhammad (PBUH) would only pave the way for their future lordship over Arabia, and if he failed, it would cost them nothing.

• Next, the Quraish asked Abu Talib to restrain his nephew or give him up to them. The aged man asked Muhammad (PBUH) not to bring disaster on his family and his clan, the Banu Hashim. Muhammad (PBUH) replied:

“O my uncle! If they placed the sun on my right hand and the moon on my left to force me to renounce my work, verily I would not desist therefrom, until God made manifest His cause, or I

perished in the attempt.”