Muhammad
Meccan Opposition
The extant major collections of Sira traditions are almost unanimous in
presenting the first emigration to Abyssinia and the boycott of the
Hashimites as being directly a result of the Meccan opposition to
Muhammad's message. However, as with many other developments in
Muhammad's Meccan ministry before the Hijra, the chronology of these
events is still a matter of discussion among Islamic and Western scholars.
As opposed to the witness of the Sira traditions, Qur'anic evidence not only
seems to shed more light on the circumstances regarding the Meccans’
increased opposition, but it also implies that at least some of the events of
this period probably did not take place in the manner which many traditions
relate.
Although Qur'an 54 is generally thought to be the first sura of what is
known as the second Meccan period, it seems that the passage 51:24f
preceded it.^1
Qur'an 51:24fQur'an 51:24fQur'an 51:24fQur'an 51:24f gives the narrations about certain prophets, who were either
warned of punishments, or were warners themselves (vv. 24-49), and
Muhammad is later compared with them (vv. 50-55). The narrative of
Abraham's guests is said to have come to Muhammad (v. 24), and the
notion that the angels did not eat the food offered them by Abraham (vv.
26-28), not only contradicts the Biblical account, but seem^2 s to have Jewish
legends as its ultimate source. The description of the puni^3 shment of the
"sinful people" (v. 32, i.e. of Sodom and Gomorrah) in which only one
house of "Muslims" (Lot's house) was spared (v. 36), parallels the implied
judgment of the Meccans and the deliverance of Muhammad's followers.
The usage of the term "Muslim" here is, of course, an anachronism, and the
narration of Lot's having left the city could have served as an example for
the early Muslims from the lower classes to emigrate to Abyssinia. The
brief story of Moses and Pharaoh (vv. 38f) contains an obvious allusion to
Muhammad's own circumstances in that Pharaoh says Moses is a
"magician" or "possessed." The narrations of the `Ad, Thamud a^4 nd Noah
then follow (vv. 41f), and for the Biblical figures at least, a chronological
sequence was not followed. In v. 51 an early statement for Monotheism can