However, as more members of the Quraysh and other Arab tribes respected his words and accepted his message, the vast majority of them, including tribal leaders and some of his relatives, such as Abū Lahab, opposed, ridiculed and eventually boycotted his clan, the Banu Hashim, and Muhammad and his followers were harassed, assaulted and forced into exile in Abyssinia.

Central and Northern Arabian Peninsula was largely arid and volcanic, making agriculture difficult except near oases or springs.

[1] Communal life was essential for survival in desert conditions, as people needed support against the harsh environment and lifestyle.

[2] People of Arabia were either nomadic or sedentary, the former constantly traveling from one place to another seeking water and pasture for their flocks, while the latter settled and focused on trade and agriculture.

[1] In pre-Islamic Arabia gods or goddesses were viewed as protectors of individual tribes and their spirits were associated with sacred trees, stones, springs and wells.

There was an important shrine in Mecca (called the Kaaba) that housed statues of 360 idols of tribal patron deities and was the site of an annual pilgrimage.

Two years later, his grandfather died and Muhammad was raised under the care of his uncle Abu Talib, the leader of the Banu Hashim.

[21] At the age of 9, he went with his uncle Abu Talib on a business journey to Syria, where Muslims believe he met Bahira in the town of Bosra, who foretold his prophecy.

[22][23] Later in his life, influenced by the commercial journeys with his uncle, Muhammad worked as a merchant and was involved in trade between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean.

[12][27][28] After parts of the Kaaba were destroyed in flash floods, with the reconstruction almost complete, disagreements arose among the leaders of the different clans of the Quraysh as to which one should put the Black Stone into place.

Muslims believe Muhammad was this person, and that he spread out his cloak, put the stone in the middle and had the members of the four major clans raise it to its destined position, before ensuring its secure placement with his own hands.

[29][30] Khadija bint Khuwaylid, a female merchant and widower, asked Muhammad to manage her commercial operations in Syria after hearing of his trustworthiness.

Muslims believe that this renaming was rendered invalid by the revelation of some verses in Surah 33 of the Qur'an, Al Aḥzāb, wherein it is stated that an adopted child could not be treated as a natural son by marriage or inheritance.

[Quran 43:13–16][41] Early converts to Islam included Muhammad's wife, Khadija, his cousin Ali, his adopted son Zayd, his nursemaid Umm Ayman, and his friend Abu Bakr.

[42] According to Welch, early Qur'anic verses were not "based on a dogmatic conception of monotheism but on a strong general moral and religious appeal," further adding that the key themes of these Meccan surahs include the moral responsibility of man towards his creator: the resurrection of the dead, the Day of Judgement supplemented with vivid descriptions of the tortures in hell and pleasures in paradise, the wonders of nature and everyday life, the signs of God, and the proof of the existence of a greater power who will take into account the greed of people and their suppression of the poor.

[43] There were three main groups of early converts to Islam: younger brothers and sons of great merchants, people who had fallen out of the first rank in their tribe or failed to attain it, and the weak, mostly unprotected, foreigners.

[42] Abu Bakr, who used to purchase slaves to set them free in accordance with Muhammad's principle of equality, attracted a large number of converts.

According to Ibn Sa'd, the opposition in Mecca began with Muhammad delivering verses that "spoke shamefully of the idols [the Meccans] worshiped other than [Allah] and mentioned the perdition of their fathers who died in disbelief.

"[46] According to Watt, as Muhammad's followers gained traction in Mecca, they posed a new, internal threat to the local tribes and the rulers of the city, whose wealth rested upon the annual pilgrimage to the Kaaba, the focal point of Meccan religious life, which Muhammad threatened to overthrow; his denunciation of the Meccan traditional religion was especially offensive to his own tribe, the Quraysh, as they were the guardians of the Ka'aba.

[50] In 615, at a time of heightened violence against the Muslims, Muhammad arranged for his followers to emigrate to the Kingdom of Aksum and found a small colony there under the protection of the Christian king, al-Negashi.

[12] While the traditions view the persecutions of Meccans to have played the major role in the emigration, William Montgomery Watt, a professor of Islamic studies, states "there is reason to believe that some sort of division within the embryonic Muslim community played a role and that some of the emigrants may have gone to Abyssinia to engage in trade, possibly in competition with prominent merchant families in Mecca.

"[56] The banishment lasted for two or three years but eventually collapsed mainly because it was not achieving its purpose and sympathizers of the Hashemites within the Quraysh finally united to annul the agreement.

Muhammad also married Aisha, a daughter of his friend and companion Abu Bakr, when she was somewhere between 6 and 9 years old, which has caused controversy in modern scholarly discussion.

Due to his possession of several articles that belonged to members of the Quraysh, Muhammad asked Ali to stay behind to settle his outstanding financial obligations.

Ali survived the plot, but risked his life again by staying in Mecca to carry out Muhammed's instructions: to restore to their owners all the goods and properties that had been entrusted to Muhammad for safekeeping.

Later, Muhammad and Abu Bakr turned to the Red Sea, following the coastline up to Medina, arriving at Quba' on Monday, 27 September 622.

[60] Muhammad returned to Mecca not long before his death, following the victory of his forces in the Muslim–Quraysh War (Arabic: فتح مكة Fatḥ Makkah).

[65] The text of the Quran is generally considered by university scholars to record the words spoken by Muhammad as the search for variants in Western academia has not yielded any differences of great significance.

[66] The Quran, however, mainly records the ideological and spiritual considerations of Muhammad, and only fragmentarily references to the details of his life in the city, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the chronological order of the incidents in his or his followers' lives in Mecca.

Madelung and some later historians do not reject the narrations which have been compiled in later periods and try to judge them in the context of history and on the basis of their compatibility with the events and figures.