Then followed a period, called the Fatra, during which no revelations came.1
It is said to have lasted three years. During this time the mind of the Prophet
was in much suspense and he even doubted his call to a divine mission. The
Quraish, a leading tribe in Mecca, to which the Prophet himself belonged, did
not all this while actively oppose Muhammad; they looked upon him as a madman,
and in the East madness is often supposed to be accompanied with a sort of
inspiration. In religious matters, the Meccans were not narrow-minded, nor was
their religion exclusive. They tolerated the various creeds then accepted in
Arabia and opened the Ka'ba to men of all sects. Waraqa, the cousin of Muhammad,
one of the Hanifs, embraced Christianity, but no one blamed him or interfered
with him on that account. So at first they treated Muhammad with good-humoured
contempt. The opposition against him was aroused when he set up his own teaching
as the exclusive way of life and explicitly and implicitly condemned all other
religions. So long as he kept to general statements, such as exhortations to
lead good lives, or allusions to the Last Day, the people of Mecca cared little;
but, when he began to attack the idolatry of the Ka'ba, the case was quite
altered and active opposition commenced. The chief cause of this was the intense
dislike they had to the changing of what had been long established. They had
great reverence for the religion which made Mecca a sacred centre for the Arab
people. As yet they