followers were paying too much attention to the wealthy and too little to humble inquirers:

He frowned and turned away
Because the blind man came to him.
How knowest thou? Perhaps he was seeking purity (tazakka)
Or would so listen to the warning that the warning would profit him
As for him who is niggardly,
Thou didst humbly coax him,
Though it is not thy concern that he does not seek purity.
But as for him who comes to thee eagerly
Though in fear,
Thou makest light of him. (Surah lxxx. vv. 1-10.)

There are other passages which suggest that Muhammad passed gradually over to the threat of future punishment upon the wealthy. He at first simply turned away from them. "Leave me with . . ." the evildoer or unbeliever—spoken in the name of God—is a frequent injunction implying that God will deal with him and that Muhammad has nothing more to do with the matter. "He is only a warner", and having given the warning his responsibility is at an end.

At first the warning is quite vague and general, as in lxxiv. vv. 11 ff.

Leave me with him whom I have created apart,
To whom I have given large possessions,
And sons to dwell before him,
For whom I have made everything smooth,

Who then desires that I should increase (his wealth)
. . .
I shall lay difficult things upon him.¹

Or as in xcii. vv. 1-11:

By the night when it comes down
By the day when it shines forth,
By what created male and female,
Verily your courses are different.
As for him who gives and is pious
And believes in the Good,
We shall assist him to ease.
But as for him who is niggardly and avaricious
And disbelieves in the Good,
We shall assist him to distress.
His wealth will not profit him when he perisheth.

There is in such passages none of the lurid detail with which, as is well known, his portrayals of the coming Judgement were ultimately decked out. With the development of his ideas of the Judgement we shall have to deal later. Here it is sufficient to point out that his earliest threats of punishment have no reference to the end of the world. They amount to little more than the quite general statement that he who rejects the appeal will somehow suffer for doing so. The prominence which the proclamation of judgement assumes is the result of opposition.

We may also note before leaving this subject meantime, that along with the development of