It was a threat, a threat in several ways, to their social order, to their age-old traditions, and an economic threat because of the importance of the pilgrimage shrine of the Kaaba in Mecca.

 

As Muhammad's following increased, the social fabric of the caravan city began to unravel. Business suffered as pilgrims and traders, worried for their safety, left town. The tribal leaders decided Muhammad and his message must be removed permanently. 

 

They didn't want him taking over; they didn't want him horning in on their control of the city. They made things very difficult for him, perhaps even plotted his assassination. They tried to keep him away from the Kaaba. They did everything they could to turn to run him out of town.

 

They demanded that Muhammad's uncle remove his clan's protection from the prophet which would clear the way for his murder without the threat of retribution. But his uncle refused. The battle lines were drawn. Nothing short of tribal war would settle the conflicts now. 

 

Muhammad is clearly asked to do extraordinary things to tell the Bedouin to give up many of their notions of multiple gods, to give up their attachment to their ancestors and their tribal warfare in the way they had. Things that would, could and did make him the object of scorn, persecution and attack.

 

Muhammad's followers were forced from the market place and starved. Those without clan protection were tortured and killed.

 

In 619AD, Muhammad's wife Khadija died and his uncle as well. Gone were his first great love and his only protector. Here at last was the opportunity his enemies had been waiting for. But in the lush oasis town of Yathrib, north of Mecca, a refuge opened to Muhammad and his people. Clan rivalries had become deadly in the town and they desperately needed a peacemaker.

 

They had heard that Muhammad was a very trustworthy man. They heard that he had great arbitration skills and they thought "let's see if we can get him up here and help us out," so they invited him.

 

Muhammad agreed to travel to Yathrib and settled their disputes in exchange for a safe refuge for his people.