(1) By the Morning bright (2) And the softly falling Night, (3) Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither art thou hateful in His sight. (4) Verily, the Beginning is hard unto thee, but the End shall be light.[300] (5) Thou shalt be satisfied, the Lord shall thee requite. (6) Did not He shelter thee when He found thee in orphan's plight? (7) Did not He find thee astray and lead thee aright? (8) Did not He find thee poor and make thee rich by His might? (9) Wherefore, the orphan betray not, (10) And the beggar turn away not, (11) And tell of the bounty of thy Lord. [Sidenote: The first Moslems.] [Sidenote: Hostility of the Quraysh.] [Sidenote: Emigration to Abyssinia.] [Sidenote: Temporary reconciliation with the Quraysh.] According to his biographers, an interval of three years elapsed between the sending of Muḥammad and his appearance as a public preacher of the faith that was in him. Naturally, he would first turn to his own family and friends, but it is difficult to accept the statement that he made no proselytes openly during so long a period. The contrary is asserted in an ancient tradition related by al-Zuhrí († 742 A.D.), where we read that the Prophet summoned the people to embrace Islam[301] both in private and public; and that those who responded to his appeal were, for the most part, young men belonging to the poorer class.[302] He found, however, some influential adherents. Besides Khadíja, who was the first to believe, there were his cousin ‘Alí, his adopted son, Zayd b. Ḥáritha, and, most important of all, Abú Bakr b. Abí Quháfa, a leading merchant of the Quraysh, universally respected and beloved for his integrity, wisdom, and kindly disposition. At the outset Muḥammad seems to have avoided everything calculated to offend the heathens, confining himself to moral and religious generalities, so that many believed, and the Meccan aristocrats themselves regarded him with good-humoured toleration as a harmless oracle-monger. "Look!" they said as he passed by, "there goes the man of the Banú ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib who tells of heaven." But no sooner did he begin to emphasise the Unity of God, to fulminate against idolatry, and to preach the Resurrection of the dead, than his followers melted away in face of the bitter antagonism which these doctrines excited amongst the Quraysh, who saw in the Ka‘ba and its venerable cult the mainspring of their commercial prosperity, and were irritated by the Prophet's declaration that their ancestors were burning in hell-fire. The authority of Abú Ṭálib secured the personal safety of Muḥammad; of the little band who remained faithful some were protected by the strong family feeling characteristic of old Arabian society, but many were poor and friendless; and these, especially the slaves, whom the levelling ideas of Islam had attracted in large numbers, were subjected to cruel persecution.[303] Nevertheless Muḥammad continued to preach.