Muslim Studies

position, having occupied a quite insignificant status even within his own family. How was the reputation of such a man to recruit voluntary followers among the unruly tribes of the desert? Even his identity as a city-dweller — for such was Muhammad — might have repelled them. The Bedouin did not perceive in Muhammad’s character those high qualities that his peers were accustomed to admiring in their Shaykhs A tribal leader or elder; in Bedouin culture, a Shaykh was chosen for their wisdom, generosity, and bravery, not necessarily for religious piety.. Muhammad, who tended to impress many of the unbelieving city-dwellers with the transcendental matters one heard from his mouth, held no authority whatsoever in the eyes of the "son of the desert." The Bedouin found nothing venerable in him, for he had no understanding of a person’s character as a Messenger of God Arabic: Rasul Allah. The Bedouin understood the role of a poet or a soothsayer, but the concept of a divinely commissioned prophet was alien to their world..

This sentiment is illustrated by several stories that arose in later times from an understanding of the Bedouin character. During their march toward Mecca, the Prophet's company encountered a desert Arab from whom they requested information. To give their questions more weight, they informed him that the "Messenger of God" was among them. "If you are the Messenger of God," the Bedouin then said to Muhammad, "then tell me: what is inside the womb of this camel mare here?"¹ Only prophecies of such a kind could have inspired respect in him for a man capable of providing them. Sermons about the Last Judgment, about God's will, and other transcendental matters did not impress the son of the desert. Furthermore, every Arabian tribe was far too filled with self-admiration for its members to readily acknowledge a man as the "best of men" who could not be credited with many of those virtues that the Arab regarded as the pinnacle of perfection. The Arab sought such a man first and foremost within his own tribe, among the heroes of his past or present. Abû Rabîʿ from the tribe of Ganijj still said in the second half of the 1st century The 1st century of the Islamic calendar (AH), corresponding to the 7th century CE.:

"The most excellent among people are the Arabs; among these, the Moḍar tribes; among these, the Qaysites; among these, the clan of Jâṣur; among these, the family of Ganijj; and among the Ganijj, I myself am the most excellent. Therefore, I am the most excellent among men."²

Imagine, then, how the ancestors of these people must have felt at the time of Muhammad's appearance!

Muhammad complains in his revelations about the difficulties that the conversion of the desert-dwellers caused him. "The Arabs, the inhabitants of the desert, are more stubborn in unbelief and hypocrisy A reference to the Quran, Surah At-Tawbah (9:97). (than...

1. Ibn Hishâm p. 433.     2) Al-Mubarrad p. 352.