Events from the Prophet’s Life
in Makkah and Madinah
The Prophet’s wife Khadijah, his freed slave, Zayd, his cousin Ali, and his childhood friend Abu Bakr were the first converts to Islam. In the first stage, the Prophet was asked to spread the message of Islam quietly to avoid arousing any hostility. Abu Bakr, being an influential merchant, was able to bring some of his friends, also rich merchants, into the fold of Islam. In the second stage the Prophet received the command from God to spread the message publicly.
There was one main reason for the Quraysh to oppose the Prophet, and to keep him from spreading his message. Makkah was a centre of pilgrimage because of the Kabah, which housed 360 idols of the neighbouring tribes and nations. Since Islam believed in one God, the Quraysh feared that once the concept of one God became popular, the tribes would stop visiting the Kabah to pay homage to the idols. This would deprive them of the respect they commanded as guardians of the Kabah. Besides, the prosperity of Makkah depended mainly on these idols, for trade flourished side by side with the pilgrimage.
But all the Makkans were not hostile. There were people who gave serious thought to the message of the Quran and gradually began to accept Islam. About 200 people from Makkah as well as the neighbouring settlements entered the fold of Islam. As many more members joined the nascent Islamic community, the opposition of the chieftains of Quraysh intensified. They created an environment of hostility for the Muslims, persecuting the slaves or those from weaker sections and threatening the rich of boycott of their business or creating hurdles in their trade.
The Prophet continued to convey the message of Islam to the people coming from outside Makkah. During the years 620-621 AD, several men from the tribe of Khazraj of Yathrib (later came to be known as Madinah) accepted Islam during their pilgrimage to Makkah. They requested the Prophet to send Musab ibn Umayr, a companion of the Prophet, to Yathrib to convey the message of Islam to the inhabitants. There the divine message was immediately well received, and within a year, a number of people converted to Islam as a result of Musab’s preaching. Now the Muslims began to emigrate to Yathrib in large numbers to escape persecution at the hands of the Quraysh. The Prophet along with Abu Bakr migrated to Madinah in total secrecy, as men from the Quraysh had decided to kill him.
The people of Madinah accepted the Prophet as their leader. The spiritual mission of Islam continued here. However, when the Makkans came to know of the firm foothold Muslims had acquired in Madinah, they decided to nip Islam in the bud. Consequently, they launched armed offensive against Madinah causing Muslims to engage in war for defence. The Quran refers to war in some of its verses, but these relate to defensive war only. Launching an offensive against another group is absolutely unlawful in Islam, and so are all other kinds of war such as proxy war and guerilla war. The Quranic principle of war is stated in this verse, “Permission to fight is granted to those who are attacked.” (22:39)
Three battles thus ensued between the Muslims and their Makkans opponents: the Battle of Badr in 624 AD, the Battle of Uhud in 624 AD and the Battle of Trench in 627 AD. These battles should rightfully be called skirmishes since each last for less than a day. Seeing the loss of life and hurdles in his constructive spiritual movement, the Prophet entered into extensive negotiations with the leaders of the Quraysh of Makkah and thus signed a ten-year no-war pact in 628 AD, known in history as the Treaty of Hudaybiyah. This peace treaty normalized relations between the people of Makkah and Madinah, who began to interact and mix freely in a secure environment. The result was that many people from Makkah embraced Islam as they gained knowledge about it. Finally, in 630 AD, when the Quraysh broke away from the peace pact the Prophet and Muslims conducted a peaceful march to Makkah, leading to the city with its inhabitants coming under the fold of Islam.
