Editing Muhammad (section)

=== Islamic social reforms ===
{{Main|Early social changes under Islam}}

According to [[W. 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 &#91;not only&#93;... 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="Lewis1998">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="Lewis1998" /><ref>See:
*{{harvnb|Watt|1961|p=234}}
*{{harvnb|Robinson|2004|p=21}}
*{{harvnb|Esposito|1998|p=98}}
* R. Walzer, ''Ak̲h̲lāḳ'', [[Encyclopaedia of Islam Online]].</ref> 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="Lewis1998" /> Muhammad's message transformed society and [[Islamic ethics|moral orders]] of life in the Arabian Peninsula; society focused on the changes to perceived identity, [[worldview]], 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.{{sfn|Holt|Lambton|Lewis|1977|p=34}} The Quran requires payment of an alms tax ({{tlit|ar|[[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}}{{sfn|Holt|Lambton|Lewis|1977|p=52}}