The Prophet in Makkah

I call you to serve God rather than men and to acknowledge the sovereign power of God rather than that of men.99 The Quran provided a constant and essential basis for the Prophet’s preaching. Whenever the Prophet met anybody, he would recite a passage of the Quran to him. Often phrases like, “He made mention of Islam, and read some of the Quran to them,” or “He presented the message of Islam before them, and recited to them a passage of the Quran,” recurred in traditions concerning the Prophet’s preaching mission. The Quran possessed extraordinary magnetism for the Arabs. Even some of the direst enemies of Islam used to steal up to the Prophet’s house at night, put their ears to the wall, and listen to him reciting the Quran. The sublime style of the Quran used to have the most profound impact on the Prophet’s people. Take the case of Walid ibn Mughirah who once came to the Prophet on behalf of the Quraysh. When the Prophet read him a passage of the Quran, Walid was so impressed that he returned to the Quraysh and told them that the Quran was a literary work of such unsurpassable excellence that it overshadowed everything else. In those days, reciting the Quran was a standard method of preaching Islam. When Mus’ab ibn Zubayr was sent to Madinah as a preacher, he “talked to people and recited a passage of the Quran to them.” That was why people came to know him as “al-Muqri”, the reciter of the Quran.