625 saw the Battle of Uhud, which saw Abu Sufyan setting out in opposition to Muhammad. His 3000 men would logically make light work of the 700 that Muhammad could call upon - Muslim belief follows that Allah was testing the faith of his followers in allowing one side to be so much bigger than the other. Non-Muslim belief obviously ranges, but some have argued that God could not have solely been on Muhammad’s side, given that the prophet emerged from the battle with war wounds, and that some Meccans disobeyed orders, so there were other forces acting on the battle than those of Allah.
Abu Sufyan set out to kill Muhammad again in 627, with the Battle of the Ditches. In this battle, Muhammad and his army were met with the force of 10,000 men. Stalemate arose when Muhammad dug trenches, and a storm saw off the Meccans, who had started disputes between themselves anyway. Non-Muslim suspicion of this story is largely insubstantial, although the morality of murdering 600-900 Jews later on in the year has been brought into question. This, and the sale of women and children into slavery by Muhammad’s followers has been backed up with the teaching from the Qur’an reading ‘God does not love the treacherous, the belief by many Muslims that it was the only way they had of creating the religious theocracy that they wanted, and the belief that they had every right to return the violence that they claim had been initiated on them by the Jews and Meccans.
Muhammad set out to improve the relations between the Medinans and the Meccans in 628, when the two cities agreed to sign the Treaty of Hudabiya outside Meccan city boundaries. Muslims consider this treaty to authenticate Muhammad’s status as a reluctant warrior because it was supposed to secure peace and the right for any Meccans to become Muslims if they wanted to.
Islam’s status as being ‘more than a religion’ is also authenticated by the treaty, which Muslims believe portrayed Muhammad as being a capable politician - he also allowed Jews to enjoy religious freedom, in return for an extra tax. The Islamic belief that the Muhammad communicated with emperors of Byzantium and Abyssinia is toned down by non-Muslim theory, which suggests that he spoke to Arabian peninsula leaders at the most.
Some Meccans were voluntarily converted to Islam when the faith reached Mecca on a small pilgramage in 629, but the main influx of population to the faith came in 630 when Muhammad took the ciy by force. In the following year, he sent out armies supporting his leaders when they spread the word of Islam - the role that these forces played in converting people to Islam is disputed by Non-Muslims.
“There is much evidence to support the view that Muhammad’s motives were political and personal, rather than religious.”
Firstly, it would not have been reasonable for Muhammad’s motives to have been solely religious. He would not have been able to have been as successful as he was if they had been - this is because Islam is, in the eyes of believers and non-believers alike, more than just a religion.
The Islamic beliefs take precedence over politics, and the individual desires of one person. This makes it almost socialistic in its principles, which in turn explain how Muhammad found it such a task to actually spread the faith.
It is unlikely that Muhammad’s motives were personal, as in the event that they had been, it would have been unlikely he would have set himself aside for so much criticism or persecution in fighting the Meccans. He would have stayed in Mecca and made a living as a trader if this was what he wanted.
He would however have had political motives. These would have been necessary in converting a brutal city into a religious theocracy, and would have to have been backed up with a resolution to act in possibly violent ways to carry them through.
What Muhammad was doing was by no means easy - he put his life on the line for Allah, who had already put him through visions to tell him what he had to do.
Muhammad has been described by some people as being hungry for power, leading to his crusades, battles and treaties across Arabia. What it must be remembered is that he died in 632 as a reasonably old man - he fought not for himself but for Allah.