The Muslims paid no head and continued with their prayers...

The Muslims paid no head and continued with their prayers, but when the infidels resorted to molest some physically, Sa'd got annoyed and attacked them with a stick or a camel's bone which he found there, and broke one person's head. This was the first blood shed in defence of the Muslims, by a man who was later to become one of the commanders of the Army of Islam. However, this was an incident not war.

During all those 13 years in Mecca, the Prophet prudently paid heed to the political conditions. This point merits attention and understanding, since in those conditions prevailing in Arabia a lone man would be subjected to molestation and even his life would be in danger. But a person who had a family to rely on, or belonged to a tribe that supported him, no one dared hurt him. This was a particular condition then existing.

With regard to the prophet, so long as Abu-Talib lived, he had his support and of the Bani-Hashim tribe and those of the tribe of Quraish with whom mutual relations existed. When Abu-Talib died, in the tenth or eleventh year of his prophethood, the conditions became difficult for the Prophet. Abu-Lahab became the head of the family of Bani-Hashim and he was from the first opposed to the Prophet, and thus the Prophet was left without any political support. What could he do?

He went here and there and contacted various groups to secure political support for himself. However, by that time the number of Muslims had risen to between 60 to 80, even more including these who had migrated to Abyssinia.

The infidels regarded the Prophet and his followers as a tribe in their own right political and military potential but the Prophet himself did not consider this situation satisfactory and sought stronger support elsewhere[^72] to make up for the lost support of the Bani-Hashim.

When his contacts with a number of tribes produced, he began to prepare himself for migrating to Medina, and after some negotiations with the tribes of Aus and Khazraj of Medina during Hajj, he finally decided to undertake this epic journey. Thus so long as the Prophet had not succeeded in creating a new political institution as well as a strong political base that could sustain itself in Arabia, he sought support from other dependable sources.

In the interval between the demise of Abu-Talib and the migration to Medina, which was not a long one, he was still protected by his relatives.