“The notables among his people, who had refused to believe, and denied the meeting of the Hereafter, and those whom We had endowed with ease and comfort in this life, cried out: ‘This is no other than a mortal like yourselves who eats what you eat and drinks what you drink.”
(Al-Qur’ān – 23:33)
This characterisation of the opponents is significant. The ringleaders opposing the Prophet ﷺwere those who held the leadership of their people. The error into which all of them had fallen was their denial of Life after Death. Hence, they had no notion of being accountable or answerable to God. This, in turn, was because of their excessive infatuation with worldly life and their refusal to believe in any value above material well-being.
The fact that at that time they enjoyed a considerable degree of prosperity totally swamped them in this erroneous belief. They were so deeply engrossed in worldliness that they considered themselves to be right merely because they thrived materially. They were, thus, in no mood to accept that their beliefs, morality and way of life, which they thought to be the main cause of their success in this world, could be mistaken.
Human history has repeatedly provided evidence of the fact that the opponents of the truth have always held these three features in common. Little wonder, then, that the same scenario obtained in Makkah at the time when the Prophet Muhammad ﷺembarked on his reform movement as enjoined by the Lord Almighty.