What social issues did Muhammad address for Arabia, and in what ways did his Islamic teachings address them? In the class readings, social issues...

Armstrong details how Muhammad addressed issues of economic exploitation and social fragmentation in Arabia through teachings that emphasized spirituality over materialism and unity over division.

In the opening paragraph of Armstrong's first chapter, she indicates that Muhammad was "worried" about what he saw as a "crisis in Arab society."  He felt that economic advancement had taken over spiritual understanding.  She writes about how Muhammad's had personally seen his people embrace materialism and deemphasize spiritual notions...

Armstrong details how Muhammad addressed issues of economic exploitation and social fragmentation in Arabia through teachings that emphasized spirituality over materialism and unity over division.

In the opening paragraph of Armstrong's first chapter, she indicates that Muhammad was "worried" about what he saw as a "crisis in Arab society."  He felt that economic advancement had taken over spiritual understanding.  She writes about how Muhammad's had personally seen his people embrace materialism and deemphasize spiritual notions of the good: "In recent decades, his [Muhammad's] own tribe, the Quraysh, had become rich by trading in the surrounding countries.  Mecca had become a thriving mercantile city, but in the aggressive stampede for wealth some of the old tribal values had been lost."  He saw that this tendency extended into "making money at the expense of some of the weaker members of the tribe" thereby rejecting the nomadic code of looking after those who were less fortunate.  Muhammad recognized that one of the profound issues that plagued Arabian society was a desire for material accumulation at the cost of spiritual growth. 

Armstrong argues that Muhammad's fear of economic exploitation was rooted in a larger fear of social fragmentation.  She asserts that Muhammad noticed how Arab tribes were less interested in unifying and more interested in a "murderous cycle" where one tribe attacked another.  Armstrong suggests that "thoughtful people" like Muhammad believed that this social disunity contributed to the notion that the Arabs were a "lost people."

Muhammad's teachings were aimed remedying these situations.  He "listened" to existing current events amongst his people and used his teachings to address them.  Once he started sharing his message, Muhammad aimed it at members of the poorer clans.  He recognized that this audience was unhappy with the growing economic divide that defined Mecca.  Armstrong argues that Muhammad did not teach the Arabs new doctrines--"no new doctrines"--but rather brought "the old faith in the One God to Arabs."  He taught Arabs that private fortune building should not come at the cost of society and that the "weak and vulnerable" must be treated with respect.  His teachings that emphasized charity in the form of alms addressed the economic exploitation that troubled him.  

In teaching about the totality of the divine, Armstrong believes that Muhammad sought to address the disunity that was representative of life in the Arabian peninsula.  He affirmed that all people should "surrender" (Islam) their entire identities to the will of Allah.  This meant that all people should treat one another with social equality and care towards one another.  This teaching emphasized how everyone is the same in the eyes of the divine, and repudiated the tribal antagonism that then defined Arabian society.  His teachings offered a social and spiritual alternative to tribal antagonism and to existing issues amongst the people of the Arabian peninsula.