If "the believers are naught but brothers" (Quran...

If "the believers are naught but brothers" (Quran, 49:10) was acted upon, the entire family, clan, and tribal unity would be undermined and replaced by religious unity..." (Islam - A Way of Life) The hostility of the Umayyads to Muhammed and Islam was marked by unrestrained vehemence, partly because it was atavistic. Their reflexes were conditioned by generations of heathenism.

They symbolized die-hard opposition to Muhammed when he was in Makka, and they spearheaded an implacable war against Islam when he migrated to Medina. "...the core of the opposition, the Umayyads, remained adamant in its hostility (to Muhammed)..." (Islam - A Way of Life) But there were also a few individuals who found a strong appeal in these new ideas which Muhammed was introducing, collectively called Islam. In fact, they found them so attractive that they accepted them.

They abjured their idols and they began to worship Allah - their Creator. Islam held special appeal for the depressed classes in Makka; for those who were "poor and weak." Muslim historians have noted that the first followers of the apostles and the prophets of the past also, were invariably "poor and weak." When members of these classes became Muslim, they also became aware that as pagans they were despised and rejected by the highly class-conscious and race-conscious aristocracy of Makka but Islam gave them a new self-esteem.

As Muslims they found a new pride in themselves. Most of the early converts to Islam were "poor and weak." But there were a few rich Muslims also like Hudhayfa bin Utba, and Arqam bin Abil-Arqam. And all those men whom Abu Bakr brought into Islam, such as Uthman, Talha, Zubayr, Abdur Rahman bin Auf, Saad bin Abi Waqqas and Abu Obaidah Aamir ibn al-Jarrah, were also rich. They were members of various clans of the Quraysh.

We may assume that at the beginning, the pagan aristocrats of Makka witnessed the efforts of Islam to win recognition, more with amusement than with irritation, not to speak of the hatred and the hysteria which gripped them a little later. But as the movement began to gather momentum, they sensed that the ideas which Muhammed was broadcasting, were really "dangerous," and that there was nothing "funny" about them.

They argued that their forefathers had worshipped idols for countless generations; therefore idolatry was right, and they were not going to abandon it because Muhammed was denouncing it. But Muhammed was not content merely with denouncing their idolatry.