This minor event culminated in a disaster in which many lives were lost.

This minor event culminated in a disaster in which many lives were lost.[^61] These kinds of calamities have been termed Ayyam al-`Arab on which numerous books have been written. Of course, on some occasions, camels would be paid to the family of the diseased one as blood money. In every tribe, it was up to the elderly people to solve such conflicts. Solutions were offered, but not imposed and the tribes would accept such peaceful solutions due to their involvement in the tiring wars.

If the murderer's tribe submitted the murderer to the other tribe who had lost a member, wars could be prevented. However, such submission was not honorable. Therefore, they preferred to punish the wrongdoer. In the conceptualization of the desert dweller, keeping one’s face was the very essence of ethics. These desert rules and regulations were carried out in the cities of Hijaz, i.e. ta’if, Mecca and Medina.

This is because these citizens resembled the desert dwellers in many ways: they were independent and free, as they obeyed nobody whatsoever.

However, these prestige-keeping behaviors which manifested themselves in extremity within the desert were somehow moderated in Mecca due to the respect that they showed towards the Kaaba and because of the trade, contracts which were held in that holy place.[^62] The Holy Qur'an has condemned this sort of revenge-taking and stipulated justice as the basis for the protection of people.

It emphasized the fact that Muslims should maintain justice even if this justice might endanger themselves or their parents. O You who believe! Be maintainers and justify bearers of witness of Allah's sake, though it may be against your own selves or your parents or near relatives; if he be rich or poor, Allah in nearer to them both in compassion; therefore do not follow your low desires, lest you deviate; and if you swerve or turn aside, then surely Allah is aware of what you do.

(4:135) Manslaughter and Plunder The desert-dwelling Arab did not show any love or sympathy towards anybody outside his own tribe. This kind of affection did not go beyond one's own family and tribe the members of which were close relatives. An Arab's field of thinking and understanding was within the narrow range of the tribe. The desert-dwelling Arab, like extremist nationalists of our time, cared for his own interests and those of his close relatives.