36 • 3 THE PROPHET OF MECCArevelations, which now were becoming known as the Quran, repeatedly
called Abraham a Muslim, a man who submitted to God's will. He wanted
the Jews to acknowledge that Adam, Noah, Abraham, and other prophets
had lived prior to the emergence of Judaism as a distinct religion. He had
brought into Islam some Jewish practices (as he understood them), such as
fasting on Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) and facing Jerusalem dur¬
ing Muslim worship. The Jews were not convinced. Even the Medinans who
converted to Islam, called ansar ("helpers"), grew tired of supporting the
Meccan emigrants, who showed no aptitude for farming, the economic ba¬
sis of their oasis. The emigrants were cut off from commerce, which they
did know how to conduct, so long as pagan Mecca controlled the caravan
routes and paid protection money to the nearby bedouin tribes.
If Muhammad was ever to lead Medina's Jews and ansar, the emigrants
would have to find ways to support themselves. The Quran suggested that
they might raid the Meccan caravans:
To those against whom war is made
Permission is given [to those who fight] because they are wronged;
and surely God is able to help them. (QURAN, 22:39)Perhaps, in time, they would control enough of the trade route between
Syria and Mecca to compete with the Meccans. But this was not easy to
achieve, for the caravans were armed and had the support of many of the
bedouin tribes. Being a few generations removed from bedouin life,
Muhammad and his men knew little about raiding techniques. But raid
they did, and after a few fiascoes, they hit the Meccans hard enough to
hurt. To do this, they attacked even during the month in which pagan
Arabs were forbidden to raid because of their traditional pilgrimage to
Mecca. This shocked many Arabs, but a Quranic revelation supported
their stance:
They will question you about the holy month and fighting in it,
Say "Fighting in it is wrong, but to bar from God's way,
and disbelief in Him,
and the sacred Ka'ba, and to expel its people from it—
that is more wicked in God's sight;
and persecution is more wicked than killing!' (QURAN, 2:213)The pagan Meccans did not agree. In the second year after the hijra—
March 624, to be exact—the Muslims were zeroing in on a rich Umayyad