42 No god but God
Bakr’s first act after accepting Muhammad’s message was to spend his
wealth buying and freeing the slaves of his fellow merchants until he
had almost nothing left. Through Abu Bakr, the message was dis-
persed throughout the city, for as Ibn Hisham testifies, he was not the
sort to keep such things to himself, but “showed his faith openly and
called others to God and his apostle.”
One should, at this point, pause for a moment to consider several
remarkable aspects of Muhammad’s movement in Mecca. While his
message had eventually reached nearly every sector of society—from
the weak and unprotected whose rights he advocated, to the Meccan
elite whom he preached against—the most surprising feature of his
movement during those early years is that its followers consisted pri-
marily of what Montgomery Watt has called “the most influential
families in the most influential clans.” These were young men, the
majority under thirty years old, who felt the same discontent with
Meccan society as Muhammad did. And yet, they were not all men: a
great many of Muhammad’s earliest followers were women, many of
whom risked their lives in rejecting the traditions of their fathers, hus-
bands, and brothers to join his movement.
Regardless, Muhammad’s reticence during those first few years
kept this a small group of about thirty to forty people who referred to
themselves as Muhammad’s Companions, for at this point, that was all
they were. As far as everyone else in Mecca was concerned, Muham-
mad’s message and his Companions were best ignored.
Both al-Tabari and Ibn Hisham state that even after Muhammad
began preaching publicly, the Quraysh “did not withdraw from him or
reject him in any way.” Why would they? It was one thing to grow
wealthy off the subjugation of the poor and the unprotected, but it
was another matter entirely to defend such practices. Besides, there
was nothing in Muhammad’s message that directly threatened their
way of life either religiously or financially. As long as Muhammad’s
movement did not affect the economic status quo, the Quraysh would
have been happy to allow him and his Companions to continue pray-
ing in secret and meeting clandestinely to talk about their grievances.
Muhammad, however, was never one to be ignored.