Prophet Muhammad’s (pbuh) Opposition in Mecca

After Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) began preaching Islam in Mecca, it caused a conflict between him and the governors of Mecca. Meccan society, which was a society of tradesmen and women who were tolerant to other beliefs and religions, conducted of a deadly war against Islam. The harsh reaction of the Jahiliyyah community to Islam cannot be understood within a paradigm that labels revelation and Muslims as the supreme good, and the Meccan infidels as supreme evil. Such cliché approaches render the activities, goals, opposition and struggle of Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) incomprehensible. It was Prophet Muhammad’s purpose to reform the corrupt religious understandings of Mecca and to re-establish the structure of government which justified itself through these corrupt religious understandings. On the part of the Meccan infidels, the reason of war on Islam was not differences in understanding religion, but the escalating risk of a spreading revolution with the new Muslim community and Prophet Muhammad as their leader. Prophet Muhammad questioned the Meccan governing body that justified itself with idolatry; defines being a Muslim as rejecting the idols and the governing body of Mecca. This was the meaning of the life-or-death situation on the part of the Meccans