5 Muhammad's Opponents

His first convert was his wife Khadija. A ten-year-old boy named Ali bin Abu Talib followed this. The effort to begin spreading Islam was begun after a three-year quiet period. Allah then told him in the year 610 AD to turn aside from the polytheists and proclaim, “what you have been ordered.” Ishaq states that there were many early converts. Mohammad’s message of his visions and a single god was not always well received in his hometown. His wife supported him and encouraged him to continue to spread the visions he was receiving. He had not managed to convince his uncle Abu Lahab who is quoted as saying to members of the Quaraysh tribe “Your host has bewitched you.” Mohammad deferred to his uncle out of respect for the elderly. Soon after he received another vision that told him that Abu Lahab would be the one doomed. His detractors asked him why he had not performed any miracles such as asking the mountains around Mecca to turn into gold or to be removed altogether so as to facilitate farming.