AVOIDING CONFRONTATION

During the thirteen years’ period in Makkah, the majority continued to oppose the Prophet, while only a small number of people supported him. When the Makkans found that mere opposition was not enough to extirpate his mission from Makkah, they resolved to remove him from their path by killing him. They unanimously decided that all the leaders of Makkah should attack him together and thus put an end to the movement of monotheism forever.

This was a very precarious situation. One apparent option was for the Prophet to confront them with the support of his Companions. However, he judged the matter by its likely outcome. Since in those circumstances armed confrontation was not going to yield the desired result, the Prophet followed the principle of avoidance and migrated to Madinah from Makkah.

The way of the Prophet of Islam was not to follow a collision course at a time of strife or controversy, but to move away from the point of conflict. Such a course enables one to conserve one’s energies in order to utilize them more fruitfully at a later stage.