Islam Pt. 2

History Pt. 2:
The words given to Muhammad in his trances are now known as al-Qur’an (English: the reading). For the next three years, Muhammad preached to his family and his close friends. The other Meccans began to think that he was a little mad.

The first Muslim, other than Muhammad was his wife, Khadijah. The second was his cousin and adopted son Ali. The third was his servant Zeyd. Another important early convert was his friend Abu Bakr.

At the end of the three years, Muhammad received the command, "Arise and warn," which began his career in public proselytization. Many poor and oppressed people became Muslims.

Muhammad’s tribe, Qureysh, became angry that people were turning to Muhammad’s preaching and away from the idols in the temple Ka’bah. Qureysh began persecuting many of Muhammad’s followers, especially the poorest ones. They would have killed Muhammad, but they feared retaliation from his family’s clan. They contented themselves with ridiculing his teachings and persecuting his followers. The persecution grew so bad that Muhammad encouraged his followers to leave Mecca and go to Abyssinia, a Christian nation.

The Ka’bah was the destination for a yearly pilgrimage. All the people in Arabia would come, so the Qureysh had a major financial interest in its success. They became worried that the preaching of Muhammad and his growing group of followers would interfere. To avoid this, they offered this compromise to Muhammad: We will accept your religion and make you king if you will declare that our gods are intercessors to Allah. Muhammad rejected the compromise.

Qureysh then went to see Muhammad’s uncle, Abu Talib. They offered him this deal: If we are allowed to kill Muhammad without ramifications, we will give you the best of our young men to replace him, as well as whatever else you want. Abu Talib refused, and the anger of Qureysh grew to a further extreme when one of their own, Omar, became a follower of Muhammad.

Eventually they grew so angry that they drew up a document that completely ostracized Muhammad, his clan, and all his followers from the rest of the Meccan community. The document was kept in the Ka’bah. For the next three years, Muhammad and his group lived secluded in his stronghold right outside Mecca. He only ventured out to preach at the time of the pilgrimage.