At the same time there existed a pioneer figure, Qusai ibn Kilab for the region of Hijaz. He was a Meccan resident. He was born around 400 AD and came into power around 450 AD when the dams were broken. He saw this as an economic opportunity and decided to capitalize on it. So, he got all the children of Ismail (alaihissalam) together and had them converge in Makkah to make Makkah the new route city. 

But of all the cities, why did they choose Makkah?

Makkah was chosen because, firstly, it had a religious significance for the Arabs already and secondly, it had water (zamzam). If people would travel, the place that had water would naturally become their rest stop. 

Possible threats to Arab trade:

In general, there were 2 threats to the Arab trade centered around Makkah

External Diplomacy and Alliances:

Abd Manaf (son of Qusai) asked his 4 children – Hashim (great grandfather of Prophet Muhammad (sallallahu alaihi wasallam)), Abd Shams, Muttalib, Nawfal – to go and make deals with all the mini powers around them, so that they could establish the new trade route through Makkah and own it instead of Yemen. For this purpose, Hashim went to the King of Ghassanid and made a deal, Abd Shams went to Habesha (the broken kingdoms of Abyssinia) and made deals with them, Muttalib went to Yemeni leaders (who were now broken up) and Nawfal went to Iraq and Persia. Hence the Arabs were now safe, such that, when they travel they are not violating any rules since they were all approved by these mini powers.

This is the way in which they created convenience for themselves. A common word used in Arabic for convenience is eelaaf (Li eelaafi Quraysh in the next surah). The people that made this deal were called “As-habul eelaaf” – the people that created convenience.

A parallel example in today’s times: Even in today’s day and age, for a flight to travel over a country’s airspace, they need to have certain agreements.

Managing internal threats:

With the deals of the “As-habul eelaaf” they were secure from external threats. Within the Arab region, the Meccans were custodians of the Ka’bah and Ka’bah was housing many idols of many of the tribes that would otherwise have raided them and robbed them. Now they wouldn’t touch them because their own God was being held hostage at the Ka’bah.

Economic Motivations Behind Religious Practices: When we think of Quraysh as having idols around the Ka’bah and think of it as a form of shirk, we need to understand that their shirk was more of capitalism than anything else. It wasn’t really about the idols. It was about the economic significance and the hold it had over those people. Those people weren’t just scared for their idols. There was politics involved. If something bad were to happen to the idol, then they would get into political trouble from their following. So they were not actually showing reverence to their Gods, but they had to protect those idols otherwise their population would have riots. Hence there are politics and economics that on the outside look like religion.