Much like the first followers of Jesus, Muhammad’s earliest Companions were often drawn from the poor or disenfranchised sectors of society. To a tribal culture, Islam brought a radical new concept: a community based not on family or clan, but on faith. No longer could wealth or bloodlines protect you. Just piety. The new faith introduced other forms of equality as well. Islam didn’t tolerate the Arab custom of burying girls at birth. Women were no longer to be regarded as chattel, but as human beings with rights to inherit property and to dispose of their own wealth as they saw fit. The rich
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