Alasan yang membuat wanita jatuh cinta pada Islam

Banyak alasan yang membuat kaum wanita jatuh
cinta kepada Islam.  Banyak ‘kejutan’ dan respon yang mengungkapkan
tentang “ketertindasan” yang dialami kaum wanita di “negara-negara Islam
konservatif” terkait masalah jilbab. Sudah ribuan buku dan tulisan yang
membahas tentang hal ini.

Namun meskipun demikian, kita tak bisa
memungkiri ada ribuan atau bahkan jutaan wanita yang lebih memilih untuk
menutup auratnya dengan jilbab (red: hijab) meskipun ia tengah berada dalam
komunitas masyarakat yang bebas.

Mengapa permasalahan tentang wanita yang
mengenakan hijab terus diwacanakan? Pendapat tentang sepotong “kain” yang mampu
menindas kaum wanita adalah opini yang konyol dan mengada-ada. Pada
kenyataannya, kebanyakan dari kaum wanita merasa bahwa jilbab (hijab) telah
dibebaskan pada mereka dalam banyak cara.

Para perempuan Muslim tidak lagi tunduk pada
degradasi seksual perempuan dalam masyarakat jika mereka memakai jilbabnya.
Pernahkah Anda mendengar seorang wanita waras meminta untuk ditindas atau
rusak? Pastilah tak ada seorang pun yang berpikir demikian. Percayalah inilah
yang dirasakan oleh para perempuan Muslim di seluruh dunia.

Tentu saja Islam tidak melulu tentang
jilbab. Jilbab adalah suatu aplikasi aktual terhadap keimanan dan ketaatan
kepada Allah.  Meskipun demikian, kewajiban akan pemakaian hijab adalah
bersifat fardhu ‘ain bagi kaum Hawa.

Iman Islam didasarkan pada beberapa prinsip,
yang pertama dan paling penting adalah konsep Allah yang Esa. Agung dan Kekal,
Tak Terbatas dan Maha Perkasa, Maha Penyayang dan Pengasih, Pencipta dan
Penyedia. Allah tidak memiliki ayah maupun ibu, tidak anak-anak juga. Dia
bukanlah ayah dari siapa pun. Tidak ada yang sama dengan-Nya. Ia adalah Allah
seluruh umat manusia, bukan dari suku atau ras tertentu.

Konsep ini jelas sangat menarik bagi orang
yang mempelajari Islam karena itu adalah logis, sederhana dan adil. Dalam dunia
yang kompleks dan sering ceroboh, kesederhanaan sangat menarik bagi wanita. Hal
pertama yang menonjol tentang Islam adalah konsep Allah yang Esa, Tauhid.

Selain itu, –yang mungkin menarik bagi kaum
wanita– adalah Islam banyak membahas permasalahan terkait wanita. Meskipun
tidak hanya terbatas tentang hal itu (wanita). Islam sendiri membahas
permasalahan yang terkait dengan seluruh umat manusia, kaum muda, tua, sakit
dan orang tak berdaya, dan orang kaya dan kuat. Islam bahkan membahas mengenai
kaum non muslim.

Islam juga berlaku di zaman modern. Hal-hal
yang ditulis 1400 tahun yang lalu masih bisa diterapkan untuk saat ini dan masa
yang akan datang. Hebatnya, banyak permasalahan terkait wanita ditunjukan
solusinya melalui Quran dan Sunnah (kehidupan dan ajaran Nabi Muhammad shallalahu alaihi wa salam).

Banyak para wanita yang bertanya-tanya
tentang hikmah di balik banyaknya jumlah istri Rasulullah Nabi Muhammad shallalahu alaihi wa salam.
Setiap salah satu dari istri beliau memainkan peran tertentu dalam Islam dan
sering disebut kembali ketika mencari penyelesaian masalah oleh perempuan.

Sebagai contoh, istri pertama Rasulullah shallalahu alaihi wa salam,
Khadijah (ra.) yang jauh lebih tua dari beliau 15 tahun, seorang wanita bisnis
kaya. Dalam hal ini terdapat tauladan bagaimana ketika seorang Muslim menikahi
seorang wanita yang usia jauh di atasnya dan dengan kekayaan yang lebih besar
darinya. Rasulullah SAW memberikan contoh dan tauladan bagaiman menempatkan
diri sebagai seorang suami.

Sementara itu, kenyataan lain bagi perempuan
adalah fakta bahwa seorang suami dan ayah, serta saudara dan paman diperintahkan
untuk melindunginya. Ini merupakan hukum alam terkait seorang wanita. Seorang
gadis tumbuh menjadi wanita yang aman ketika ia memiliki keluarga yang
melindunginya. Ketika dia melihat pria di sekelilingnya yang kuat, berani dan
terhormat ia pun mampu mengembangkan harga diri yang kuat.

Ketika dia tumbuh dan menikah dan menjadi
seorang ibu, pasti dia ingin perlindungan suaminya untuk dirinya sendiri dan
keturunannya. Jika kita menyangkal bahwa perempuan adalah seperti halnya
laki-laki yang mampu dan berperan sama sebagai pelindung, pada dasarnya kita
menyangkal hakikat seorang wanita dan menurunkan posisi manusia. Manusia
memiliki tempat dan peran dalam keluarga dan begitu juga perempuan.

Beberapa aspek lain dalam Islam yang menarik
bagi wanita, misalnya hak untuk bekerja, hak untuk memiliki properti, hak untuk
warisan dan seterusnya. Meskipun semua hal-hal ini penting untuk seorang
wanita, hal tersebut mungkin tidak terlalu menarik bagi wanita saat ini karena
mereka telah mendapatkannya sekarang.

Namun apa yang mengesankan adalah bahwa
mereka diberi hak-hak ini 1400 tahun yang lalu saat sejarah perempuan dalam
masyarakat Barat dimarjinalkan sebagai “kelompok masyarakat” dengan intelektual
lebih rendah dari pria, tetapi juga sumber utama dari penindasan dan kejahatan.
Tetapi dalam Islam, sejak kedatangannya wanita telah mendapatkan tempat yang
mulia.

Faktor terakhir yang paling menarik bagi
seorang wanita terhadap Islam adalah kedudukan seorang istri, ibu dan keluarga.
Islam mendudukkan keluarga dan pernikahan dalam status yang tinggi. Ibu
mendapatkan posisi tertinggi di “mata” Islam. Ada banyak contoh dalam Al Quran,
salah satunya dalam surat Luqmaan 31:14-15:

“Dan Kami perintahkan kepada manusia (berbuat
baik) kepada dua orang ibu-bapanya; ibunya telah mengandungnya dalam keadaan
lemah yang bertambah-tambah, dan menyapihnya dalam dua tahun . Bersyukurlah
kepada-Ku dan kepada dua orang ibu bapakmu, hanya kepada-Kulah kembalimu”.

“Dan
jika keduanya memaksamu untuk mempersekutukan dengan Aku sesuatu yang tidak ada
pengetahuanmu tentang itu, maka janganlah kamu mengikuti keduanya, dan
pergaulilah keduanya di dunia dengan baik, dan ikutilah jalan orang yang
kembali kepada-Ku, kemudian hanya kepada-Kulah kembalimu, maka Ku-beritakan
kepadamu apa yang telah kamu kerjakan. “

Istri diberi berdiri sangat tinggi dan
mempunyai ‘kedudukan’ yang sama dengan laki-laki sebagai manusia. seperti yang
tersurat dalam Al-Nisa 4:19.

“Hai orang-orang yang beriman, tidak halal
bagi kamu mempusakai wanita dengan jalan paksa dan janganlah kamu
menyusahkan mereka karena hendak mengambil kembali sebagian dari apa yang telah
kamu berikan kepadanya, terkecuali bila mereka melakukan pekerjaan keji yang
nyata. Dan bergaullah dengan mereka secara patut. Kemudian jika kamu tidak
menyukai mereka, (maka bersabarlah) karena mungkin kamu tidak menyukai sesuatu,
padahal Allah menjadikan padanya kebaikan yang banyak.“

Dan
Nabi shallalahu alaihi wa salam
berkata: “Dan perlakukan wanita dengan kebaikan, dan perlakukan wanita dengan
kebaikan.”

Dari
Abu Hurairah ra ia berkata : Rasulullah shallalahu alaihi wa salam bersabda,
“Orang mukmin yang paling sempurna imannya adalah yang paling baik diantara
mereka akhlaqnya, dan yang paling baik diantara kamu sekalian adalah orang yang
paling baik terhadap istri mereka”. [HR. Tirmidzi]

“Sebaik-baik
di antara kalian adalah orang yang paling baik terhadap istrinya, dan aku
adalah orang yang paling baik diantara kalian terhadap istriku.” Diriwayatkan oleh al-Tirmidhi, 3895;
digolongkan sebagai shahih oleh al-Albani dalam Shahih Al-Jami ‘, 3314.

Saat ini keberadaan sebuah keluarga seolah
berada di ambang kehancuran. Hal ini terjadi karena adanya  persimpangan
semua perbatasan peradabaan sekuler atas. Keluarga tidak lagi dinilai sebagai
wadah dalam membentuk generasi berperadaban, tetapi konsep tentang berkeluarga
seolah menjadi momok yang dikoar-koarkan tentang beban berat yang hendak
dipikul terkait permasalahan ekonomi dan kebebasan.

Opini tentang pernikahan adalah pasung bagi
kaum wanita adalah wacana konyol yang digemboskan oleh kaum feminisme, karena
pada faktanya Islam mengatur tentang setiap adab dalam perkawinan dimana wanita
diposisikan dengan kedudukan yang mulia dalam hubungan perkawinan dan keluarga.

Tentunya semua wanita menginginkan
kemenangan bagi anak-anak mereka dan keluarga. Masyarakat dan kehidupan mungkin
telah berubah dalam banyak cara, namun dalam banyak hal esensi keberadaan
manusia masih sama.

Kisah berikut adalah contoh moral yang
sangat baik tentang bagaimana Islam memandang perempuan. Orang-orang Yunani
Iliad karya Homer dan kami memiliki Mu’tasim.

Seorang wanita Muslim diserang oleh orang
Romawi di kota Roma. Dia tidak diperkosa seperti saudari kita di Palestina. Dia
tidak dibunuh seperti saudara kita di Bosnia. Bayinya tidak diambil dari
perutnya, seperti saudara muslim di Bosnia ketika mereka dipotong hidup-hidup.
Tidak ada yang seperti itu yang terjadi padanya.

Pelecehan yang terjadi padanya ‘hanyalah’
disibakkannya kerudung penutup kepalanya oleh tentara Romawi, kemudian
 dia berteriak minta keadilan agar haknya dilindungi oleh Penguasa Muslim
ketika itu, “Ya Mu’tasim”. Dan teriakan itu sampai di telinga Khalifah Mu’tasim
Billah.

Dalam suatu riwayat disebutkan Mu’tasim
menyuruh adzan keenam yang bertujuan untuk mengumpulkan semua umat Islam di masjid.
Dan mereka berkata, “Ada apa?”. Mu’tasim menjawab bahwa “Sebuah laporan telah
saya dengar, seorang saudari Muslim dilecehkan kehormatannya di sebuah kota
Romawi.”

Ia berkata “Wallahi, aku akan mengirim
tentara yang begitu besar sehingga saat mencapai rombongan tentara pertama yang
berangkat telah mencapai sana (kota tempat wanita tersebut tinggal, Roma),
rombongan tentara lain baru akan meninggalkan pangkalan kami. Dan saya akan
mengirimkan tentara ke kota itu.”

Ini adalah respon menentukan dari seorang
Khalifah, ketika kehormatan seorang saudari tersentuh. Bahkan kisah ini terus
dan tetap menjadi kisah dalam sejarah moral yang tetap sama. Dan hal ini juga
adalah alasan mengapa wanita mencintai Islam! Wallahua’lam.

Sumber:
Arrahmah.Com

10 Pintu Terbesar yang Dimasuki Syetan

Pintu-pintu
tersebut tidak bisa terjaga kecuali jika seseorang mengetahui pintu-pintu tadi.
Setan tidak bisa terusir dari pintu tersebut kecuali jika seseorang mengetahui
cara setan memasukinya. Cara setan untuk masuk dan apa saja pintu-pintu tadi
adalah sifat seorang hamba dan jumlahnya amatlah banyak. Pada saat ini kami
akan menunjukkan pintu-pintu tersebut yang merupakan pintu terbesar yang setan
biasa memasukinya. Semoga Allah memberikan kita pemahaman dalam permasalah ini.

Pintu pertama:

Ini
adalah pintu terbesar yang akan dimasuki setan yaitu hasad (dengki) dan tamak.
Jika seseorang begitu tamak pada sesuatu, ketamakan tersebut akan membutakan,
membuat tuli dan menggelapkan cahaya kebenaran, sehingga orang seperti ini
tidak lagi mengenal jalan masuknya setan. Begitu pula jika seseorang memiliki
sifat hasad, setan akan menghias-hiasi sesuatu seolah-olah menjadi baik
sehingga disukai oleh syahwat padahal hal tersebut adalah sesuatu yang mungkar.



Pintu kedua:

Ini
juga adalah pintu terbesar yaitu marah. Ketahuilah, marah dapat merusak akal.
Jika akal lemah, pada saat ini tentara setan akan melakukan serangan dan mereka
akan menertawakan manusia. Jika kondisi kita seperti ini, minta perlindunganlah
pada Allah.

Pintu ketiga:

Yaitu
sangat suka menghias-hiasi tempat tinggal, pakaian dan segala perabot yang ada.
Orang seperti ini sungguh akan sangat merugi karena umurnya hanya dihabiskan
untuk tujuan ini.

Pintu keempat:

Yaitu
kenyang karena telah menyantap banyak makanan. Keadaan seperti ini akan
menguatkan syahwat dan melemahkan untuk melakukan ketaatan pada Allah. Kerugian
lainnya akan dia dapatkan di akhirat.

Pintu kelima:

Yaitu
tamak pada orang lain. Jika seseorang memiliki sifat seperti ini, maka dia akan
berlebih-lebihan memuji orang tersebut padahal orang itu tidak memiliki sifat
seperti yang ada pada pujiannya. Akhirnya, dia akan mencari muka di hadapannya,
tidak mau memerintahkan orang yang disanjung tadi pada kebajikan dan tidak mau
melarangnya dari kemungkaran.

Pinta keenam:

Yaitu
sifat selalu tergesa-gesa dan tidak mau bersabar untuk perlahan-lahan. Padahal
terdapat sebuah hadits dari Anas, di mana Rasulullah shallallahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam bersabda,

“Sifat
perlahan-lahan (sabar) berasal dari Allah. Sedangkan sifat ingin tergesa-gesa
itu berasal dari setan.” (Hadits ini diriwayatkan oleh Abu Ya’la dalam
musnadnya dan Baihaqi dalam Sunanul Qubro. Syaikh Al Albani dalam Al Jami’ Ash
Shoghir mengatakan bahwa hadits ini hasan)

Pintu ketujuh:

Yaitu
cinta harta. Sifat seperti ini akan membuat berusaha mencari harta bagaimana
pun caranya. Sifat ini akan membuat seseorang menjadi bakhil (kikir), takut
miskin dan tidak mau melakukan kewajiban yang berkaitan dengan harta.



Pintu kedelapan:

Yaitu
mengajak orang awam supaya ta’ashub (fanatik) pada madzhab atau golongan
tertentu, tidak mau beramal selain dari yang diajarkan dalam madzhab atau
golongannya.

Pintu kesembilan:

Yaitu
mengajak orang awam untuk memikirkan hakekat (kaifiyah) dzat dan sifat Allah
yang sulit digapai oleh akal mereka sehingga membuat mereka menjadi ragu dalam
masalah paling urgen dalam agama ini yaitu masalah aqidah.



Pintu kesepuluh:

Yaitu
selalu berburuk sangka terhadap muslim lainnya. Jika seseorang selalu berburuk
sangka (bersu’uzhon) pada muslim lainnya, pasti dia akan selalu merendahkannya
dan selalu merasa lebih baik darinya. Seharusnya seorang mukmin selalu mencari
udzur dari saudaranya. Berbeda dengan orang munafik yang selalu mencari-cari
‘aib orang lain.

Mudah-mudahan
info ini bermanfaat bagi kita semua, khususnya bagi diri saya pribadi.

Sumber
: Kaskus

The Prophet Muhammad: Muhammad’s Years in Mecca

Spiritual
Awakening

Any explanation of such an unprecedented development must include an analysis not only of Muhammad’s individual genius but also of his ability to articulate an ideology capable of appealing to multiple constituencies. His approach to the role of prophet allowed a variety of groups to conceptualize and form a single community. Muhammad was, according to many students of social behaviour, particularly well placed to lead such a social movement; in both ascribed and acquired characteristics he was unusual. Although he was a member of a high-status tribe, he belonged to one of its less well-placed clans. He was fatherless at birth; his mother and grandfather died when he was young, leaving him under the protection of an uncle. Although he possessed certain admirable personality traits to an unusual degree, his commercial success derived not from his own status but from his marriage to a much older woman, a wealthy widow named Khadijah. During the years of his marriage, his personal habits grew increasingly atypical. He began to absent himself in the hills outside Mecca to engage in the solitary spiritual activity of the hanifs. At age 40,
while on retreat, he saw a figure, whom he later identified as the angel Gabriel, who asked him to “recite” (iqra’
), then overwhelmed him with
a very strong embrace. Muhammad told the stranger that he was
not a reciter. But the angel repeated his
demand and embrace three times before the verses of the Qur’an, beginning with “Recite in the Name of thy Lord, who created,”
were revealed.
Although a few individuals, including his wife Khadijah, recognized his experience as that of a
messenger of God, the
contemporary religious life of most of the Meccans and the surrounding Arabs did not prepare them to share in this recognition easily.

Arabs did recognize several other types of
intermediaries with the sacred.
Some of the kings of the Yemen are said to have had priestly functions. Tribal leaders, sheikhs, in protecting their tribes’ hallowed
custom (Sunnah), had a spiritual dimension. Tribal Arabs also had their kahins, religious
specialists who delivered oracles in ecstatic rhymed prose (saj‘) and read omens. And they also had their sha‘irs,
professionally trained oral poets who defended the group’s honour, expressed its identity, and
engaged in verbal duels
with the poets of other groups. The power of the recited word was well established; the poets’
words were even
likened to arrows that could wound the unprotected enemy. Because Muhammad’s utterances seemed similar, at least in form, to those
of the kahins, many of his hearers naturally assumed that he was one of the
figures with whom they
were more familiar. Indeed, Muhammad might not even have attracted attention had he not sounded like other holy men. But, by eschewing any
source other than the
one supreme being, whom he identified as Allah (“God”) and whose message he regarded as
cosmically significant and
binding, he was gradually able to distinguish himself from all other intermediaries. Like many successful leaders, Muhammad
broke through existing
restraints by what might be called transformative conservatism. By combining familiar leadership roles
with a less familiar
one, he expanded his authority; by giving existing practices a new history, he reoriented them;
by assigning a new
cause to existing problems, he resolved them. His personal characteristics fit his historical
circumstances perfectly.

Public Recitations

Muhammad’s first vision was followed by a brief
lull, after which he began to hear messages frequently, entering a special physical state to
receive them and returning to normalcy to deliver them orally. Soon he
began publicly to recite warnings of an imminent reckoning by Allah
that disturbed the Meccan leaders. Muhammad was one of their own, a man
respected for his personal qualities. Yet weakening kinship ties
and increasing social diversity were helping him attract followers from many
different clans and also from among tribeless persons, giving all of
them a new and potentially disruptive affiliation. The
fundamentals of his message, delivered often in the vicinity of the
Ka‘bah itself, questioned the very reasons for which so many
people gathered there. If visitors to the Ka‘bah assumed, as
so many Arabs did, that the deities represented by its
idols were all useful and accessible in that place, Muhammad spoke, as had Axial Age
figures before, of a placeless and timeless deity that not only had created
human beings, making them dependent on him, but would also bring them to account at an
apocalypse of his own making. In place of time or chance, which the Arabs
assumed to govern their destiny, Muhammad installed a final
reward or punishment based on individual actions. Such
individual accountability to an unseen power that took no account whatsoever of kin
relationships and operated beyond the Meccan system could, if
taken seriously, undermine any authority the Quraysh had acquired.
Muhammad’s insistence on the protection of the weak, which echoed Bedouin values, threatened the
unbridled amassing of wealth so important to the Meccan oligarchy.

Efforts to Reform Meccan Society

Yet Muhammad also appealed to the town
dweller by describing the human being as a member of a polis
(citystate) and by suggesting ways to overcome the inequities that such an environment
breeds. By insisting that an event of cosmic significance was occurring
in Mecca, he made the town the rival of all the greater cities with
which the Meccans traded. To Meccans who believed that what went on in their town and
at their shrine was hallowed by tribal custom, Sunnah, Muhammad replied
that their activities in fact were a corrupt form of a practice
that had a very long history with the God of whom he spoke. In Muhammad’s view, the Ka‘bah
had been dedicated to the aniconic worship of the one God (Allah) by
Abraham, who fathered the ancestor of the Israelites, Ishaq
(Isaac), as well as the ancestor of the Arabs, Isma‘il (Ishmael). Muhammad asked his
hearers not to embrace something new but to abandon the traditional in
favour of the original. He appealed to his fellow Quraysh not to reject the Sunnah of their ancestors
but rather to appreciate and fulfill its true nature. God should be
worshipped not through offerings but through prayer and recitation of his messages, and his
house should be emptied of its useless idols.

In their initial rejection of his appeal, Muhammad’s Meccan opponents took the first step
toward accepting the new idea:
they attacked it. For it was their rejection of him, as well as his subsequent rejection by many Jews
and Christians, that
helped to forge Muhammad’s followers into a community with an identity of its own and capable of ultimately incorporating its
opponents. Muhammad’s disparate following was exceptionally vulnerable, bound together not by kinship ties but by a
“generic” monotheism that involved being faithful (mu’min) to the message God was sending through their leader. Their vulnerability was mitigated by the absence of
formal municipal discipline, but their opponents within the Quraysh could apply informal pressures ranging from harassment and
violence against the
weakest to a boycott against Muhammad’s clan, members of which were persuaded by his uncle Abu Talib to remain loyal even though
most of them were not his followers. Meanwhile, Muhammad and his closest associates were thinking about reconstituting
themselves as a separate
community in a less hostile environment. In about 615, some 80 of his followers made an emigration (Hijrah) to Abyssinia, perhaps
assuming that they would be welcome in a place that had a history of hostility to the Meccan oligarchy and that worshipped
the same God who

had
sent Muhammad to them, but they eventually returned without establishing a permanent community. During the next decade, continued rejection
intensified the group’s identity and its search for another home. Although the boycott against Muhammad’s clan began to disintegrate, the deaths of his wife and his uncle,
about 619, removed an important source of psychological and social support. Muhammad had already begun to preach and attract
followers at market
gatherings outside Mecca; now he intensified his search for a more hospitable environment. In 620, he met with a delegation of
followers from Yathrib, an oasis about 200 miles (320 km) to the northeast. In the next two years their support grew into an offer of protection.

Islamic history / edited by Laura S.
Etheredge. Britannica Educational Publishing

(a trademark
of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.): New
York.

The City Of Mecca : Centre Of Trade And Religion

Although
the 6th-century client states were the largest Arab polities
of their day, it was not from them that a permanently
signifi cant Arab state arose. Rather, it emerged among
independent Arabs living in Mecca at the junction of
major north–south and west–east routes, in one of the less naturally favoured Arab settlements of the Hejaz (al-Hijaz). The
development of a trading town
into a city-state was not unusual, but, unlike many other western Arabian settlements, Mecca was
not centred on an oasis or located in the hinterland of any non-Arab power. Although it had enough well water and springwater to provide
for large numbers of camels, it
did not have enough for agriculture; its economy depended on long-distance as well as
shortdistance trade.

Mecca Under the
Quraysh Clans

Sometime after the year 400 CE Mecca had come under the control of a group of Arabs who
were in the process of becoming sedentary; they were known as Quraysh and were led by a man remembered as Qusayy ibn Kilab (called al-Mujammi‘, “the Unifier”).
During the generations before Muhammad’s birth in about 570, the several clans of the Quraysh fostered a development in Mecca that seems to have been occurring in
a few other Arab towns as well.
They used their trading connections and their relationships with their Bedouin cousins to make their town a regional centre whose
influence radiated in many directions. They designated Mecca as a quarterly haram, a safe haven from the intertribal warfare and raiding that was endemic among the Bedouin. Thus, Mecca became an attractive site for
large trade fairs that coincided
with pilgrimage (Arabic: hajj) to a local shrine, the Ka‘bah. The Ka‘bah housed
the deities of visitors as well
as the Meccans’ supra-tribal creator and covenant-guaranteeing deity, called Allah. Most Arabs probably viewed this deity as one
among many, possessing
powers not specific to a particular tribe; others may have identified this figure with the God of the Jews and Christians.

The building activities of the Quraysh threatened one non-Arab power enough to invite
direct interference: the Abyssinians are said to have invaded Mecca in the year of Muhammad’s birth. But the Byzantines
and Sasanians were distracted
by internal reorganization and renewed conflict; simultaneously the Yemeni kingdoms were declining. Furthermore, these shifts
in the international balance of power may have dislocated existing tribal connections enough to make Mecca an attractive
new focus for supra-tribal
organization, just as Mecca’s equidistance from the major powers protected its independence and neutrality.

The Meccan link between shrine and market has a broader significance in the history
of religion. It is reminiscent of changes that had taken place with the emergence of complex societies across the settled world several millennia earlier. Much of the
religious life of the tribal Arabs had the characteristics of small-group, or “primitive,” religion, including the sacralization
of group-specific natural objects and phenomena and the multifarious presence of spirit beings, known among the Arabs as jinn. Where more-complex settlement patterns had developed, however, widely shared deities had already
emerged, such as the “trinity” of
Allah’s “daughters” known as al-Lat, Manat, and al-‘Uzza. Such qualified simplification and
inclusivity, wherever they
have occurred in human history, seem to have been associated with other fundamental changes— increased settlement, extension and
intensification of trade, and the emergence of lingua francas and other cultural commonalties, all of which had been occurring in
central Arabia for
several centuries.

New Social Patterns Among the Meccans and Their Neighbours

The sedentarization of the Quraysh and their efforts
to create an
expanding network of cooperative Arabs generated social stresses that demanded new patterns of behaviour. The ability of the Quraysh
to solve their problems was affected by an ambiguous relationship between sedentary and migratory Arabs. Tribal Arabs could go
in and out of
sedentarization easily, and kinship ties often transcended lifestyles. The sedentarization of the
Quraysh did not involve
the destruction of their ties with the Bedouin or their idealization of Bedouin life. Thus,
for example, did
wealthy Meccans, thinking Mecca unhealthy, often send their infants to Bedouin foster mothers.
Yet the settling of
the Quraysh at Mecca was no ordinary instance of sedentarization. Their commercial success produced a society unlike that of the Bedouin and
unlike that of many
other sedentary Arabs. Whereas stratification was minimal among the Bedouin, a hierarchy based on wealth appeared among the Quraysh.
Although a Bedouin group
might include a small number of outsiders, such as prisoners of war, Meccan society was markedly diverse, including non-Arabs as well
as Arabs, slave as well as free. Among the Bedouin, lines of protection for in-group members were clearly drawn; in Mecca,
sedentarization and
socioeconomic stratification had begun to blur family responsibilities and foster the growth of an oligarchy whose economic objectives could
easily supersede other motivations and values. Whereas the Bedouin acted in

and
through groups and even regularized intergroup raiding and warfare as a way of life, Meccans needed to act in their own interest and to minimize
conflict by institutionalizing new, broader social alliances and interrelationships.

The market-shrine complex encouraged surrounding tribes to put aside their conflicts
periodically and to visit and worship the deities of the Ka‘bah; but such worship, as in most complex societies, could
not replace either the particularistic worship of small groups or the competing religious practices of other regional
centres, such as al-Ta’if.

Very little in the Arabian environment favoured the formation of stable large-scale
states. Therefore, Meccan efforts at centralization and unification might well have been transient, especially because
they were not reinforced by any stronger power and because they depended almost entirely on the prosperity of a trade route that had
been formerly
controlled at its southern terminus and could be controlled elsewhere in the future, or exclude Mecca entirely. The rise of the Meccan
system also coincided with the spread of the confessional religions, through immigration, missionization, conversion, and foreign
interference. Alongside
members of the confessional religions were unaffiliated monotheists, known as hanifs, who distanced themselves from the Meccan religious system by repudiating the old gods but
embracing neither Judaism nor Christianity. Eventually in Mecca and elsewhere a few individuals came to envision the
possibility of effecting supra-tribal association through a leadership role common to the confessional religions, that
is, prophethood or messengership. The only such individual who succeeded in effecting broad social changes was a member of the Hashim (Hashem) clan of Quraysh named
Muhammad ibn ‘Abd Allah
ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib. One of their own, he accomplished what the Quraysh had started, first by

working
against them, later by working with them. When he was born, around 570, the potential for pan-Arab
unification seemed nil, but
after he died, in 632, the first generation of his followers were able not only to maintain pan-Arab unification but also to
expand far beyond the peninsula.

Islamic history / edited by Laura S.
Etheredge. Britannica Educational Publishing

(a trademark
of Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.): New
York.