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Muhammad ﷺ
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=== Islamic social reforms === {{Main|Early social changes under Islam}} According to [[William Montgomery Watt]], religion for Muhammad was not a private and individual matter but "the total response of his personality to the total situation in which he found himself. He was responding [not only]... to the religious and intellectual aspects of the situation but also to the economic, social, and political pressures to which contemporary Mecca was subject."<ref>Cambridge History of Islam (1970), p. 30.</ref> [[Bernard Lewis]] says there are two important political traditions in Islam—Muhammad as a statesman in Medina, and Muhammad as a rebel in Mecca. In his view, Islam is a great change, akin to a revolution, when introduced to new societies.<ref name="LewisNYRB">Lewis [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4557 (1998)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100408105440/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/4557|date=8 April 2010}}</ref> Historians generally agree that Islamic social changes in areas such as [[social security]], family structure, slavery and the rights of women and children improved on the ''status quo'' of Arab society.<ref name="LewisNYRB" />{{efn|See: *{{harvnb|Watt|1974|p=234}}. *{{harvnb|Robinson|2004|p=21}}. *{{harvnb|Esposito|1998|p=98}}. * R. Walzer, ''Ak̲h̲lāḳ'', [[Encyclopaedia of Islam Online]].}} For example, according to Lewis, Islam "from the first denounced [[Aristocracy (class)|aristocratic]] privilege, rejected hierarchy, and adopted a formula of the career open to the talents".<ref name="LewisNYRB" /> Muhammad's message transformed society and [[Islamic ethics|moral orders]] of life in the Arabian Peninsula; society focused on the changes to perceived identity, [[world view]], and the hierarchy of values.<ref>''Islamic ethics'', [[Encyclopedia of Ethics]].</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2014}} Economic reforms addressed the plight of the poor, which was becoming an issue in [[Jahiliyyah|pre-Islamic]] Mecca.<ref>Watt, ''The Cambridge History of Islam'', p. 34.</ref> The Quran requires payment of an alms tax ([[zakat]]) for the benefit of the poor; as Muhammad's power grew he demanded that tribes who wished to ally with him implement the zakat in particular.{{sfn|Esposito|1998|p=30}}<ref>Watt, ''The Cambridge History of Islam'', p. 52.</ref>
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