not those who have lost the way.^8
The Qur’an continues with a far longer sura, followed by others (114 in all) of
gradually decreasing length. For Muslims the Qur’an covers the gamut of human
experience—the sum total of history, prophecy, and the legal and moral code by
which men and women should live—as well as the life to come.
Banning infanticide, Islam gave girls and women new dignity. It allowed for
polygyny, but this was limited to four wives at one time, all to be treated equally. It
mandated dowries and offered some female inheritance rights. At first women even
prayed with men, though that practice ended in the eighth century. The nuclear
family (newly emphasized, as was happening around the same time at Byzantium as
well; see p. 44) became more important than the tribe. In Islam there are three
essential social facts: the individual, God, and the ummah, the community of the
faithful. There are no intermediaries between the divine and human realms, no
priests, Eucharist, or relics.
A community of believers coalesced around Muhammad as God’s prophet. They
adhered to a strict monotheism, prepared for the final Day of Judgment, and carried
out the tasks that their piety demanded—daily prayers, charity, periods of fasting,
and so on. Later these were institutionalized as the “five pillars” of Islam.^9 The early
believers’ idea of the righteous life included living in the world, marrying, and having
children. For them, virtue meant mindfulness of God in all things. They could take
moderate—though not excessive—pleasure in God’s bounty. Their notions of
righteousness did not call for the asceticism.
At Mecca, where Quraysh tribal interests were bound up with the Ka’ba and its
many gods, Muhammad’s message was unwelcome. But it was greeted with
enthusiasm at Medina, an oasis about 200 miles to the northeast of Mecca. Feuding
tribes there invited Muhammad to join them and arbitrate their disputes. He agreed,
and in 622 he made the Hijra, or flight from Mecca to Medina. There he became not
only a religious but also a secular leader. This joining of the political and religious
spheres set the pattern for Islamic government thereafter. After Muhammad’s death,
the year of the Hijra, 622, became the year 1 of the Islamic calendar, marking the
establishment of the Islamic era.
Muhammad consolidated his leadership by asserting hegemony over three
important groups: the Jews, the Meccans, and the nomads. At Medina itself he took
control by ousting and sometimes killing his main competitors, the Jewish clans of the
