But Muhammad was not content merely with denouncing their idolatry.

But Muhammad was not content merely with denouncing their idolatry. Far more dangerous and frightening to the all-grasping Umayyads, were his ideas of economic and social justice which threatened to pull down the fortress of their privileges; to dismantle the peccant system of their monopolies, to demolish the old structure of authority and hierarchy; and to smash all the fossilized institutions of the past.

They, therefore, made it clear that privilege was something they were not going to relinquish - at any cost - come hell or high-water. But the one idea that the self-selected elite of the Quraysh found most outrageous was the "notion"…