The Keeper of the Keys 45of the heavens and the earth required no intermediaries whatsoever,
but could be accessed by anyone. Thus, the idols in the sanctuary, and
indeed the sanctuary itself, insofar as it served as a repository for the
gods, were utterly useless. And if the Ka‘ba was useless, then there was
no more reason for Mecca’s supremacy as either the religious or the
economic center of the Hijaz.
This message the Quraysh could not ignore, especially with the
pilgrimage season fast approaching. They tried everything to silence
Muhammad and his Companions. They went to Abu Talib for help,
but the Shaykh of Hashim, though he would never accept Muham-
mad’s message himself, refused to withdraw his protection from his
nephew. They poured contempt on Muhammad and abused those of
his Companions who did not have the good fortune of being pro-
tected by a Shaykh. They even offered Muhammad all the freedom,
support, power, and money he wanted to continue his movement in
peace, so long as he ceased insulting their forefathers, mocking their
customs, dividing their families, and, above all, cursing the other gods
in the sanctuary. But Muhammad refused, and as the time came for
the pilgrims to gather once again at Mecca with their prayers and
their merchandise, the anxiety of the Quraysh reached new heights.
The Quraysh knew that Muhammad intended to stand at the
Ka‘ba and deliver his message personally to the pilgrims gathering
from all over the Peninsula. And while this might not have been the
first time a preacher had condemned the Quraysh and their practices,
it was certainly the first time such condemnation was coming from a
successful and well-known Qurayshi businessman—that is, “one of
their own.” Recognizing this as a threat that could not be tolerated,
the Quraysh embarked on a strategy to preempt Muhammad’s plan by
sitting “on the paths which men take when they come to the fair” and
warning everyone who passed that “a sorcerer, who has brought a
message by which he separates a man from his father, or from his
brother, or from his wife, or from his family” awaited them at the
Ka‘ba and should be ignored.
The Quraysh did not really believe that Muhammad was a sor-
cerer; they freely admitted that his recitations came with “no spitting
and no knots,” rituals that were apparently associated with sorcery.
But they were absolutely earnest in their conviction that Muhammad