Exposure of Quraysh's Trade to Danger

the caravans of quraysh were protected by escorts of the people of makkah who were related to many muhajirun as members of the same tribe, the same house and clan, and often the same family. it was not easy, therefore, for them to decide to enter into an engagement in which members of the same tribe, clan, and family would kill one another and then expose to retaliation all their fellow tribesmen on each side, in fact to expose the whole of makkah and madinah at once to the lex talionis of the desert. hardly any change affected the inability and unwillingness of muslims and others to launch a civil war which both parties had ably struggled to avert for thirteen long years, from the commission of muhammad to prophethood to the day of his emigration to madinah. the muslims knew too well that the covenant of al `aqabah was a defensive one which both al aws and al khazraj had undertaken to protect muhammad. these tribes of madinah have never agreed either with muhammad nor with anyone else to commit aggression on anyone. it is not possible, therefore, to accept the view of the earliest historians, who did not begin to write the history of the prophet until two centuries or so after his death, that the first raids and expeditions had actually been intended for fighting. hence, we must understand these events in a more reasonable way to harmonize with what we know to have been the policy of the muslims in this early period of madinah, and to be consistent with the prophet's policy of common understanding, mutual friendship, and co-operation to obtain religious freedom for all.

it is more likely, therefore, that these early expeditions had only psychic objectives, and were meant to press home to the quraysh the realization that their own interest demanded that they come into some kind of understanding with the muslims. the muslims were, after all, their own people, compelled to migrate from their own city to escape the persecution so far inflicted. rather than to bring war and hostility, these expeditions were intended to put an end to the old hostility, to guarantee to the muslims the freedom they sought for calling men to their religion, and to ensure for makkah the security it needed for its caravans to al sham. this trade, in which both makkah and ta'if were involved and which makkah used to carry on with the south as well as with the north, had built up large interests and businesses. some caravans consisted of two thousand camels or more, and carried a load whose value amounted to fifty thousand dinars.[a dinar is a golden coin, equivalent to twenty silver dirhims. -tr.]. according to the estimates of the orientalist, sprenger, the annual exports of makkah amounted to 250,000 dinars or 160,000 gold pounds. if the quraysh could be made to realize that this precious trade and wealth were exposed to danger by their own sons who had migrated to madinah, perhaps they might be inclined to reach an understanding with the muslims in order to grant them the freedom to preach their faith, visit makkah, and perform the pilgrimage, which was all they really sought. such an understanding was not possible, however, unless the quraysh were brought to realize that their emigrant sons were capable of impeding that trade and inflicting some material harm. to my mind, this explains the return of hamzah and his riders without battle after their encounter with abu jahl ibn hisham on the seacoast when majdiy ibn `amr al juhani intervened between him and the quraysh. it also explains the fact of the small numbers of riders which the muslims sent on these expeditions in the direction of the trade routes of makkah. otherwise, it would be unreasonable that the muslims go out to war in such small numbers. this also explains muhammad's alliances of peace which he concluded with the tribes settled along the routes of these caravans while quraysh persisted in its hostility toward the muhajirun. apparently, muhammad had hoped that the news of these alliances would reach the quraysh and cause them to reconsider their position and, perhaps, open the road to some understanding.