"Take for thy brother whom thou wilt in the days of peace, but know that when fighting comes thy kinsman, but know that when fighting comes thy kinsman alone is near. Thy true friend thy kinsman is who answers thy call for aid with good will, when deeply drenched in bloodshed are sword and spear".104

The new teachings of Islam, although it recognised the tribal system, it shook the age old pagan Arab ideal of ethnic loyalty to one's tribe and family to its foundation. The loyalty is transferred to God and his Prophet; its duties are religious obligations rather than traditional duties required by honour. And, "Islam, rather than tribal affiliation, is to be the unifying principle of society."105 The system of 'walayah' and 'baraah' was established on these basic principles from the very beginning of the new Muslim community in Mecca.

On the other hand, the tribe sometimes cannot have complete control over its members who involve themselves in actions which create intra-tribal and intra-family problems affecting the whole tribe or family. To avoid the troubles caused by such irresponsible members, the family or the tribe forsakes them. The custom in this case as reported by al-Zawzani is that the man brings his son to the tribal gatherings in markets and centres of pilgrimage, and declares in public that he has repudiated his son; so he would not be responsible for any crime committed by the repudiated son; and also he would not claim for revenge if a crime is committed against that son.106

The repudiated person is known as al-khali, or al-lain, or al-tarid.107 The first two terms were recorded in poems from al-Shammakh b. Dirar and Imru'ulqais.108 Among the offences that make the tribe or family forsake its member are continuous addiction to wine, and extravagant wastage of money, as it is recorded in the ode of Tarafa b. al-Abd.109

وما زال تشرابي الخمور ولذتي ويعي وإنفاقي طريقي ومتلدي

إلى أن تحامتني العشيرة كلها وأفردت إفراد البعير المعبد

This treatment of the bad or guilty member of the tribe in pre-Islamic period seems to be the root of the system, which came to be known afterwards as (baraah). The Qurashites used this sort of treatment against B. Hashim and B. Muttalib in Mecca because of their protection of the Prophet. The document (sahifah) written by the polytheists for this purpose states that those who agreed on that document should neither marry the women folk of B. Hashim and B. Muttalib, nor give women to them to marry, and they should neither buy from them nor sell to them.110 This boycott of the Muslims and their protectors lasted more than two or three years. Islam afterwards made a useful weapon out of this system. The first use of this principle was made to create a sense of homogeneity among the members of the newly-emerging Muslim