THE HIJRA 21notion, any limit. There is only God and all the rest is God's creation: this
was the message he was delivering to anyone who would listen.
Mecca's business leaders came to feel threatened by Mohammed be-
cause they were making good money from religious tourism; if this only-
one-god idea took hold, they feared, the devotees of all the other gods
would stop coming to Mecca and they'd be ruined. (Today, ironically, over
a million people come to Mecca each year to perform the rites of pilgrim-
age at the Ka'ba, making this the biggest annual gathering on earth!)
Besides, Mecca profited from drinking dens, gambling, prostitution,
and other such attractions, and the tribal power brokers could not tolerate
a man railing against the very entertainments that brought in their wealth,
even if he had merely a smattering of followers, many of them powerless
poor people and slaves. Well, for one thing, not all his followers were poor
people and slaves: they included the wealthy and respected merchants Abu
Bakr and Othman, and soon they even included the physically imposing
giant Omar, who started out as one of Mohammed's most bitter enemies.
The trend looked disturbing.
For nearly twelve years, Mohammed's uncle Abu Talib defended him
against all criticism. According to most Muslims, Abu Talib never converted
to Islam himself, but he stood up for his nephew out of personal loyalty and
love, and his word had weight. Khadija also backed her husband unstint-
ingly, which gave him precious comfort. Then, in the course of a single dev-
astating year, both these major figures in Mohammed's life died, leaving
God's Messenger exposed to his enemies. That year, seven elders of the
Quraysh tribe decided to have Mohammed killed while he slept, thereby get-
ting rid of the troublemaker before he could do real damage to the economy.
One of Mohammed's several uncles spearheaded the plot. In fact, all seven
plotters were related to Mohammed, but this didn't soften their resolve.
Fortunately, Mohammed caught wind of the plot and worked out how
to foil it with help from two dose companions. One was his cousin Ali,
now a strapping young man, who would soon marry Mohammed's daugh-
ter Fatima and become the Messenger's son-in-law. Another was his best
friend, Abu Bakr, Mohammed's first follower outside his immediate family
circle and his closest adviser, soon to become Mohammed's father-in-law.
The Prophet had already been in contact with delegates from Yathrib,
another town near the Red Sea coast, some 250 miles north of Mecca. It