��32 No god but God
political or economic but also religious. Consider that the Hanifs,
whom the traditions present as severely critical of the insatiable greed
of their fellow Meccans, nevertheless maintained an unshakable loy-
alty to the Quraysh, whom they regarded as “the legitimate agents of
the Abrahamic sacredness of Mecca and the Ka‘ba.”
With the demise of the tribal ethic, Meccan society became
strictly stratified. At the top were the leaders of the ruling families of
Quraysh. If one was fortunate enough to acquire enough capital to
start a small business, one could take full advantage of the city’s reli-
gio-economic system. But for most Meccans, this was simply not pos-
sible. Especially for those with no formal protection—such as orphans
and widows, neither of whom had access to any kind of inheritance—
the only option was to borrow money from the rich at exorbitant
interest rates, which inevitably led to debt, which in turn led to crush-
ing poverty and, ultimately, to slavery.
AS A N ORPHAN, Muhammad must have understood all too well the
difficulty of falling outside Mecca’s religio-economic system. Fortu-
nately for him, his uncle and new guardian, Abu Talib, was also the
Shaykh of the Banu Hashim—a small, not very wealthy, yet presti-
gious clan within the mighty tribe of Quraysh. It was Abu Talib who
kept Muhammad from falling into the debt and slavery that were the
fate of so many orphans in Mecca by providing him with a home and
the opportunity to eke out a living working for his caravan.
There is no question that Muhammad was good at his job. The
traditions go to great lengths to emphasize his success as a skillful
merchant who knew how to strike a lucrative deal. Despite his lowly
status in Meccan society, he was widely known throughout the city as
an upright and pious man. His nickname was al-Amin, “the trustwor-
thy one,” and he was on a few occasions chosen to serve as Hakam in
small disputes.
Muhammad was also, it seems, a striking man. He is described as
broad-chested, with a full beard and a hooked nose that gave him a
stately appearance. Numerous accounts speak of his wide black eyes
and the long thick hair he kept tied behind his ears in plaits. And yet,
as honest or skilled as he may have been, by the turn of the seventh