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MUHAMMAD & ISLAM
Stories not told before
Long time ago, a tiny spot in the sandy soil of the Arabian Peninsula, became a focal point of all the Pagan nomads of the desert: It had on its bosom the House of God, also known as the Ka’aba, along with a well the pagans called Zumzum, which supplied them water, when they needed it the most.
The pagans were a deeply religious people. They held the view that there was a god to look after each aspect of their lives. Consequently, they believed that there was a god who gave them life. They also believed that the same god gave them sustenance and protected them from all hazards of their lives. Hence they called him al-Rahman. They further believed that there were other gods who rained water from the sky and made them successful in their battles.
There was a tribe, called Quraish, among the pagans, which was intelligent and enterprising. Its members preferred sedentary life to a nomadic life. To draw their sustenance from their nomadic brethren’s religious devotions as well as to satisfy their own religious needs, the members of the Quraish tribe set themselves around the House of God with the aim of catering to the religious needs of their nomadic brethren. They had the inside and outside of the House of God staked with three hundred and sixty idols, which all the pagans venerated and worshipped.
Over a period of time, the spot first came to be known as Bakka[1] and then Mecca. The Quraish tribe was its virtual occupants due to the fact that some of its powerful members perpetually controlled the supervision, and the religious rites, of the House of God.
The members of the Quraish tribe consisted of three groups. One was the priestly class, which controlled the House of God, and sustained itself on the income that the House generated from the pilgrims. The second group consisted of a small number of the Quraish people who engaged themselves in trade. The third group was large, and it consisted of the people who earned their living by supplying water and other services to the pilgrims. This occupation of theirs did not guarantee them a regular income; when they had a large number of pilgrims, they earned a good living, but when the number of the pilgrims declined, so did their income. Those people can be compared with our modern-day day laborers; they get paid only when they are employed for an active service.
Over 1,400 years ago, there lived in Mecca a man by the name of Abdullah. He belonged to the third group of the Quraish people. Amina was his wife. Because he did not have a consistent income, his household often suffered from deprivations. Many a times, the couple had to go to bed without food. Recurring poverty took its toll; the couple fought frequently and argued on their financial condition as well as on what was going to happen to them in future.
[1] 3:96