1. The Meccans acknowledged the supreme position of Allah, but in ordinary circumstances neglected him in favour of their idols, so that, as Muḥammad complains, "_When danger befalls you on the sea, the gods whom ye invoke are forgotten except Him alone; yet when He brought you safe to land, ye turned your backs on Him, for Man is ungrateful._"[321] They were strongly attached to the cult of the Ka‘ba, not only by self-interest, but also by the more respectable motives of piety towards their ancestors and pride in their traditions. Muḥammad himself regarded Allah as Lord of the Ka‘ba, and called upon the Quraysh to worship him as such (Kor. cvi, 3). When they refused to do so on the ground that they were afraid lest the Arabs should rise against them and drive them forth from the land, he assured them that Allah was the author of all their prosperity (Kor. xxviii, 57). His main argument, however, is drawn from the weakness of the idols, which cannot create even a fly, contrasted with the wondrous manifestations of Divine power and providence in the creation of the heavens and the earth and all living things.[322] It was probably towards the close of the Meccan period that Muḥammad summarised his Unitarian ideas in the following emphatic formula:-- THE SÚRA OF PURIFICATION (CXII).[323] (1) Say: 'God is One; (2) God who liveth on; (3) Without father and without son; (4) And like to Him there is none!' [Sidenote: Muḥammad, the Apostle of God.] 2. We have seen that when Muḥammad first appeared as a prophet he was thought by all except a very few to be _majnún_, _i.e._, possessed by a _jinní_, or genie, if I may use a word which will send the reader back to his _Arabian Nights_. The heathen Arabs regarded such persons--soothsayers, diviners, and poets--with a certain respect; and if Muḥammad's 'madness' had taken a normal course, his claim to inspiration would have passed unchallenged. What moved the Quraysh to oppose him was not disbelief in his inspiration--it mattered little to them whether he was under the spell of Allah or one of the _Jinn_--but the fact that he preached doctrines which wounded their sentiments, threatened their institutions, and subverted the most cherished traditions of old Arabian life. But in order successfully to resist the propaganda for which he alleged a Divine warrant, they were obliged to meet him on his own ground and to maintain that he was no prophet at all, no Apostle of Allah, as he asserted, but "an insolent liar," "a schooled madman," "an infatuated poet," and so forth; and that his Koran, which he gave out to be the Word of Allah, was merely "old folks' tales" (_asáṭíru ’l-awwalín_), or the invention of a poet or a sorcerer. "Is not he," they cried, "a man like ourselves, who wishes to domineer over us? Let him show us a miracle, that we may believe." Muḥammad could only reiterate his former assertions and warn the infidels that a