What evidence is there that Muhammad was experiencing difficulty converting Jewish Christianity and pagan Arabs?

Answer 1

Answer 1

Asalam o Alaikum.

Firstly when referring to Muhammad (pbuh), you should always add 'pbuh (peace be upon him) or 's.a.w (sallallahu alihi wa alai wasalam' as signs of respects.:)

Now answering your question, he (s.a.w) did face a lot of opposition during his lifetime. The major evidence of this is when he (s.a.w) went to Taif to preach the locals Islam, they pelted him with stones to the point that he (s.a.w) bled to his feet. They chased him out of the town, mocking and ridiculing him. But to his (s.a.w)'s greatness, he (s.a.w) forgave them all and prayed for them that Allah (s.w.t) guides them to the straight path.

His (s.a.w)'s prayer was fulfilled when after ten years, the whole of Taif had embraced Islam.

And secondly, the local Jewish Makkans wrote ridiculous poems about Muhammad (s.a.w) insulting him, his family and his religion. They also plotted to kill him but Muhammad (s.a.w) was told about this by Allah before they came searching for him and he (s.a.w) fled to Medina with his followers to seek shelter.

While he was living in Mecca, the locals banished his tribe and the followers of islam to the valley of Banu-Hashim. Where they stayed for 3 years eating leaves and grass.

So basically Muhammad (s.a.w) was tormented both physically and mentally by the locals, but after he had conquered Makkah (23 years after the first revelation) he (s.a.w) stood at the Ka-aba and forgave his bitterest enemies in public.

Answer 2

The only evidence proferred in Answer 1 is: (1) stone-pelting in Taif by non-believers, (2) Jewish Meccans who wrote unflattering poetry, and (3) the Hijra from Mecca to Medina.

There are much better indicators of Mohammed's difficulty of converting Jews, Christians, and Henotheist and Pagan Arabs, such as the following.

1) Meccan Ministry: During all fourteen years of his Meccan ministry, when Mohammed had no political power and could only sway people by argument, he had only 150 followers. Mecca was an incredibly diverse city with innumerable religious groups as well as unassociated monotheists called Hanifs. This should have been low-hanging fruit, but Mohammed only garnered resentment and stone-pelting.

2) Relations with Jews: Another indicator would be how nearly every Jewish tribe Mohammed tried to convince laughed in his face and asked him serious questions about his claims. The Islamic tales only retell the occasional story of the Jew who converts, but not of the several Jewish tribes that remained largely intact until Mohammed saw fit to slaughter or exile them from his territory. He was clearly unable to convince the majority of them.

3) Relations with the Christians of Najran: In 631 C.E. Mohammed held negotiations with the Christian community of Najran. He did not seem to convince any of them to become Muslims. In fact, Najran would not see its Christian community diminish in any way until Caliph Omar forcibly evicted them.

4) Ridda Wars: When Mohammed conquered Mecca in 630 C.E., many Arab tribes converted to Islam. However, when Mohammed died in 633 C.E., a number of these tribes "unconverted". In their view, their acceptance of Islam was a confederal pact, not an acceptance of a religion. Now that Mohammed was dead, the pact was over, since he did not leave proper successors. If Mohammed had actually convinced the tribes that his religion was proper, they never would have left. Caliph Abu Bakr was later "forced" to reconquer the "unconverted" tribes and make them realign towards Islam.