7.1 Mohamed Attacks Idols The Messenger began to attack the idols of the Kaaba, saying that they could see nothing, hear nothing, and had no power to do any good or harm. Apart from these idols, the Quraysh worshipped the angels and jinn. Mohamed taught that whatever man worshipped other than Allah, whatever he took as patron or aid, could do him no good or harm unless it was the will of his Maker. The fate of man rests in the hands of Allah alone. It is He who provides or withholds provision, it is He who gives life and death, all good is in His hands, and when He desires anything He says to it, "Be!" and it becomes. "Should Allah touch you by harm, none can relieve you from it except Him. Should He desire good for you, none can deter His bounty, He bestows it on whom He will of His slaves. He is the Merciful, the Forgiving." (10:107) The leaders of Quraysh could bear it no longer. Mohamed was corrupting their dependants. Was he not doing enough harm already with his ideas of forgiveness and charity? If he were to divert people from their "most sacred gods", and teach them that only Allah could do them good, then why should people obey them, the nobles of Quraysh? What would become of their honorary titles and privileges? What would happen to their trade when the Arabs stopped corning to visit their idols from far and wide? Had it been just any man, a slave or dependant, who was saying these words, they would have meted out a slow death by torture. But Mohamed was not a nobody, he came from the most noble of the great houses of Quraysh. He had been held in high esteem among them before he began calling people to Allah. If harm touched him, his tribe would immediately retaliate. Mecca would be torn apart by a feud of vengeance, a civil war in which neither side would rest until the other was annihilated. In such a feud both victor and vanquished were losers. They were trying desperately to avoid such dire measures, but the Messenger was breaking up their world. They went in a body to his uncle, Abu Talib, the aged and revered head of Banu Hashim and said that they were willing to re-lieve him of his embarrassing nephew. Abu Talib had not entered into Islam, but he was very fond of his nephew, who as a little boy had been entrusted to his care by his father, Abdul-Muttalib, and who had grown to be a man of such courage, wisdom, dignity, and intelligence. Even this strange inspiration of Mohamed's that he could not understand was noble and elevated. Abu Talib spoke pleasantly but firmly to them, giving them to understand that all Mohamed's clan, those who had entered into Islam and those who had not, stood firmly behind him, and so the Messenger continued to call to the Truth, to Allah's eternal principles and merciful rule, and to the rejection of idol worship.