12. Karen ArmstrongKabah. This expressed his longing to bring the Arabs into
the monotheistic family.
Muhammad acquired a small following and eventually
some seventy families had converted to Islam. At first, the
most powerful men in Mecca ignored the Muslims, but by
616 they had become extremely angry with Muhammad who,
they said, reviled the faith of their fathers, and was obviously
a charlatan, who only pretended to be a prophet. They were
particularly incensed by the Quran's description of the Last
Judgement, which they dismissed as primitive and irrational.
Arabs did not believe in the after life and should give no cre-
dence to such "fairy tales."' But they were especially con-
cerned that in the Quran this Judaeo-Christian belief struck
at the heart of their cut-throat capitalism. On the Last Day,
Arabs were warned that the wealth and power of their tribe
would not help them; each individual would be tried on his or
her own merits: why had they not taken care of the poor?
Why had they accumulated fortunes instead of sharing their
money? Those Quraysh who were doing very well in the new
Mecca were not likely to look kindly on this kind of talk, and
the opposition grew, led by Abu al-Hakam (who is called Abu
Jahl, "Father of Lies," in the Quran), Abu Sufyan, an ex-
tremely intelligent man, who had once been a personal friend
of Muhammad, and Suhayl ibn Amr, a devout pagan. They
were all disturbed by the idea of abandoning the faith of their
ancestors; all had relatives who had converted to Islam; and
all feared that Muhammad was plotting to take over the lead-
ership of Mecca. The Quran insisted that Muhammad had no
political function but that he was simply a nadhir, a "warner,"^9
but how long would a man who claimed to receive instruc-
tions from Allah accept the rulings of more ordinary mortals
like themselves?
Relations deteriorated sharply. Abu Jahl imposed a boycott
on Muhammad's clan, forbidding the Quraysh to marry or