The City of the Prophet 59“super-tribe,” or what the historian Marshall Hodgson more accu-
rately describes as a “neo-tribe”: that is, a radically new kind of social
organization, but one that was nonetheless based on the traditional
Arab tribal paradigm.
As was the case with all tribal Shaykhs, Muhammad’s primary function
as head of the Ummah was to ensure the protection of every member
in his community. This he did through the chief means at his disposal:
the Law of Retribution. But while retribution was maintained as a
legitimate response to injury, Muhammad urged believers toward for-
giveness: “The retribution for an injury is an equal injury,” the Quran
states, “but those who forgive the injury and make reconciliation will
be rewarded by God” (42:40). Likewise, the Constitution of Medina
sanctions retribution as the principal deterrent for crime, but with the
unprecedented stipulation that the entire community may be “solidly
against [the criminal], and may do nothing except oppose him,” a
stark reversal of tribal tradition and a clear indication that Muham-
mad was already beginning to lay the foundations of a society built on
moral rather than utilitarian principles. But this was only the begin-
ning.
To further his egalitarian ideals, Muhammad equalized the blood-
worth of every member of his community, so that no longer could one
life be considered more or less valuable (pecuniarily speaking) than
another. This was yet another innovation in the Arabian legal system,
for while an injury to a victim’s eye in pre-Islamic Arabia would have
required an equal injury to the criminal’s eye, no one would have con-
sidered a Shaykh’s eye to be worth the same amount as an orphan’s.
But Muhammad changed all that, and not without seriously disrupt-
ing the social order. The traditions recount a particularly amusing
story about an aristocratic tribesman named Jabalah ibn al-Ayham
who was struck in the face by a humble man from the Muzaynah, a
modest tribe in Arabia. Expecting that a stern penalty would be
imposed on the lowly offender—one that would signify his inferior
status in society—al-Ayham was shocked to learn that all he could
expect as retribution was the opportunity to strike the humble man
back. So outraged was he by this “injustice” that al-Ayham immedi-
ately abandoned Islam and became a Christian.