View: Raiders and traders of the desert

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Prophet Muhammad was a trader who was forced to become a raider. It happened fourteen hundred years ago, in Arabia. He was so good a trader that the richest woman in Mecca, a widow, decided to marry him.

In caves outside Mecca, he encountered an angel who declared he had been directed by the one true God to give a message to humanity. This was a time when Mecca was the centre of trade, connected to the port city of Jeddah. It was also a pilgrim spot housing many pagan deities who could foretell the future.

The trader-mystic said these were false gods; the one true god has no form; his message is about social codes of conduct, not magic; that one true god was venerated by the monotheist Jews and Christians too. This naturally upset the elite of the city who profited from anxious pilgrims. So when Muhammad's rich wife died, and he lost the protection of her influence, he was driven out of Mecca, He took refuge in the city of Medina, created a network of political allies through marriage, and was forced to become a raider of Meccan caravans, until he forced a peace treaty that enabled trading once more.Debt, Investment and Charity What turned Muhammad, the trader, into Muhammad, the raider? It was the lack of empathy.

A culture becomes a civilisation only when it exchanges goods, services and ideas. When one culture hoards goods, services and ideas, and prevents others from exchanging goods, services and ideas, trading cultures become raiding cultures. This is what happened with Mongols seven hundred years ago, when the Chinese emperor shut them out with his walls.