Tribal Rivalry and Envy One of the dire spin-offs of the...

Tribal Rivalry and Envy One of the dire spin-offs of the tribal structure was intense struggle among the tribes, and God, the Exalted, points to this issue in some surah s of the Qur’an such as Surah at-Takathur [^16] and Surah as-Saba’ .[^17] Since the period of jahiliyyah , there had been a power struggle between the Banu Hashim and the rest of Quraysh tribes.

On the event of digging the Zamzam well by ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the entire Quraysh tribes rallied together against the Banu Hashim and they were not ready to allow the honor of digging the Zamzam well to go to ‘Abd al-Muttalib alone.[^18] Therefore, Abu Jahl used to say: We used to compete with the Banu Hashim over the possession of nobility. They fed people; we fed them too. They gave riding animals to people; we also gave. They gave money; we also gave.

It was to such an extent that we closely competed with each other, and we became like two racing horses. Then, they said: “There emerged from among us a prophet who receives revelation from heaven.” Now, how could we compete with him? By God! We shall never believe in him or recognize him. ^19 Umayyah…