The harm Quraysh did to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and what he suffered from them

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Jabir bin Abdullah (may Allah be pleased with him) that one day Quraysh gathered and said: "Look for the one among you most skilled in sorcery, soothsaying and composing poetry, and let that person go to this man who has split our community, broken up our affairs and found fault with our religion. Then let that person talk to him and see what answer he gives him." The people said: "We do not know of anyone other than Utbah bin Rabi'ah." The people said: "O Abu al-Walid, you are the one." So this Utbah came to the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) and said: "O Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him)! Are you better, or Abdullah?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) remained silent. Then he said: "Are you better, or Abd al-Muttalib?" The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) again remained silent. Then Utbah spoke: "If your claim is that these people are better than you, then surely they worshipped those gods whom you call defective. And if your claim is that you are better than they are, then speak, so that we may hear you. By Allah, we have not seen even a young goat more ill-omened for its people than you. You have split our community, broken up our affairs, found fault with our religion and disgraced us among the Arabs, so that word is going round among the Arabs that there is a sorcerer among Quraysh and that there is a soothsayer among Quraysh. By Allah! We are waiting for nothing but something like the scream of a pregnant woman for some of us to rise against others with swords until we all perish. O man! If you have a passion for virility, then choose whichever of the women of Quraysh you wish, and we will marry you to ten. And if you have some (financial) need, we will collect (so much) for you that you alone will become the richest man in all of Quraysh." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "Have you finished speaking?" Utbah said: "Yes!" Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) recited: "In the name of Allah, the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful. Ha Mim. A revelation from the Most Merciful, the Especially Merciful," until he (peace and blessings be upon him) reached this verse: "But if they turn away, then say: I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamud." [Fussilat: 1-2, 13] Then Utbah said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): "Enough! Enough! Do you have anything other than this?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "No!" Utbah returned to Quraysh. Quraysh asked: "What (news) do you bring back?" Utbah said: "I left out nothing that I thought you would have spoken to him about without speaking to him about it." Quraysh said: "Then did he answer you?" Utbah said: "Yes!" (Then) Utbah said: "By the One who set up the Ka'bah, I understood nothing of what he said, except this much (I did understand): that he warns you of the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamud." Quraysh said: "Perish! A man talks to you in Arabic and you do not know what he has said." Utbah said: "By Allah! I understood nothing of his speech except the thunderbolt."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Amr bin al-As (may Allah be pleased with him): I had never seen Quraysh intend to kill the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) except on one day, when they were plotting against him (peace and blessings be upon him) while sitting in the shade of the Ka'bah, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) was praying by the Station of Ibrahim. Uqbah bin Abi Mu'ayt stood up, put his cloak around the neck of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) and pulled him (peace and blessings be upon him) until he (peace and blessings be upon him) was falling onto his (peace and blessings be upon him) knees. The people raised an uproar, and they thought he (peace and blessings be upon him) had been killed. Sayyiduna Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) came forward running until he took hold of him (peace and blessings be upon him) under the arms from behind, saying: "Will you kill a man because he says: My Lord is Allah?" Then the people moved away from the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) stood up and prayed. When he (peace and blessings be upon him) had finished the prayer, he (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by Quraysh while they were sitting in the shade of the Ka'bah. He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "O people of Quraysh! Listen! By the One in whose hand is the soul of Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him), I have been sent to you only with slaughter." And he (peace and blessings be upon him) pointed with his (peace and blessings be upon him) hand to his (peace and blessings be upon him) throat. The narrator said: Abu Jahl said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): "O Muhammad! You were not an ignorant man." The narrator said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "You too are one of them."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that Abu Jahl passed by and said: "Did I not forbid you?" So he (peace and blessings be upon him) rebuked him. Abu Jahl said to him (peace and blessings be upon him): "O Muhammad! Why do you rebuke me? By Allah, you know that no one in Makkah has a greater assembly than I." The narrator said: Jibril said: "Then let him call his assembly." The narrator said: Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) said: By Allah, if Abu Jahl had called (the people of) his assembly, the angels of punishment, the Zabaniyah, would have seized him.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was praying in the shade of the Ka'bah. The narrator said: Abu Jahl and some people of Quraysh spoke; at that time a camel had been slaughtered in one quarter of Makkah. The narrator said: They sent (someone), and they brought the camel's stomach and threw it on the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him). The narrator said: Sayyidah Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her) came and removed it from him (peace and blessings be upon him). The narrator said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) repeated these words three times: "O Allah! Seize Quraysh. O Allah! Seize Quraysh. O Allah! Seize Quraysh: Abu Jahl bin Hisham, Utbah bin Rabi'ah, Shaybah bin Rabi'ah, al-Walid bin Utbah, Umayyah bin Khalaf and Uqbah bin Abi Mu'ayt." The narrator said: Sayyiduna Abdullah bin Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) said: I saw all of them lying slain in the well of Badr. Abu Ishaq said: I have forgotten the name of the seventh man.

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with them both) that when Abu Talib's (final) illness began, a group of Quraysh came to him, among whom was Abu Jahl. The narrator said: They said (to Abu Talib): "Your nephew abuses our gods. He does such and such, and he says such and such. If you were to send (someone) to him and forbid him (that would be good)." Abu Talib sent (someone) to him (peace and blessings be upon him). Or the narrator said: The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) came and entered the house. Between Abu Talib and him there was room for one man to sit. The narrator said: Abu Jahl feared that if the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) sat beside Abu Talib, this would soften Abu Talib toward him (peace and blessings be upon him). So Abu Jahl jumped up and sat in that place. He (peace and blessings be upon him) found no seat near his (peace and blessings be upon him) uncle, so he (peace and blessings be upon him) sat right by the door. Abu Talib said: "O nephew! Why is it that your people are complaining about you? They claim that you speak ill of their gods, and that you say such and such and do such and such." The narrator said: Quraysh reproached him (peace and blessings be upon him) heavily. The narrator said: Then he (peace and blessings be upon him) spoke and said: "O dear uncle! I want to call them to one word: if they say it, the Arabs will submit to them and the non-Arabs will send their jizyah to them." The narrator said: Quraysh were astonished on hearing what he (peace and blessings be upon him) said. The narrator said: The people said: "One word! Yes! By your father! Ten (such words, if you like). What is that word?" Abu Talib asked: "O nephew! Which word is it?" He (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but Allah)." The narrator said: All the men of Quraysh got up in alarm and began to shake out their garments, saying: "Has he made the gods into one God? This is indeed an astonishing thing." The narrator said that he recited up to: "They have not yet tasted My punishment." [Sad: 5, 8]

Sayyiduna Tariq al-Muharibi (may Allah be pleased with him) reports: I saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) in the market of Dhu al-Majaz, and I had gone there to sell something. He said: He (peace and blessings be upon him) passed by (there), and he (peace and blessings be upon him) was wearing a red cloak. He (peace and blessings be upon him) was calling out in a loud voice: "O people! Say La ilaha illa Allah (There is no god but Allah), and you will succeed." And a man was coming after him (peace and blessings be upon him) with stones; he had made his (peace and blessings be upon him) ankles and heels bleed, and that person was saying: "O people! Do not follow him! For he is a liar." The narrator said: I asked: "Who is this young man?" The people said: "This is a boy of Banu Abd al-Muttalib." I asked: "Who is this man who is throwing stones after him?" The people said: "That is his uncle Abd al-Uzza, and he is Abu Lahab."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him) said: "I have been harmed so much in (the path of) Allah that no one has been harmed as much, and I have been made so afraid in (the path of) Allah that no one has been made as afraid. Indeed, three days and nights came upon me when Bilal and I did not even have enough food that a living being could eat, except the amount that Bilal's armpit could conceal."

It is reported from Ibn al-Hanafiyyah, in the interpretation of the words of Allah "And they will surely bear their own burdens and other burdens along with their burdens" [Al-Ankabut: 13], that he said: Abu Jahl and the chiefs of Quraysh would meet people on the road when they were coming to him (peace and blessings be upon him) to accept Islam, and they would say to the people: "This man declares wine unlawful and declares adultery unlawful, and he declares unlawful the things the Arabs used to do. So go back. We will bear your burdens." Upon this, this verse was revealed: "And they will surely bear their own burdens."

It is narrated from Sayyiduna Anas (may Allah be pleased with him) that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) was wounded in his (peace and blessings be upon him) blessed face, his (peace and blessings be upon him) front tooth was broken, and an arrow struck him (peace and blessings be upon him) on the shoulder. He (peace and blessings be upon him) was wiping the blood from his (peace and blessings be upon him) face and saying: "How can a nation succeed that has treated its prophet in this way, when that prophet is calling them to Allah?" Then Allah Almighty revealed this verse: "You have no say in the matter, whether He turns to them in mercy or punishes them, for they are indeed wrongdoers." [Al Imran: 128]

Amir reports that Quraysh said to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings be upon him): "If you are a prophet, as you claim, then move these two mountains of Makkah, on which water does not collect, a distance of four or five days' journey away, for it is cramped, so that we may farm in it and use it as pasture. Raise up our dead forefathers so that they may talk to us and tell us that you are a prophet. And carry us to Syria, Yemen and al-Hirah, so that we may go and come back in a single night, as you claim you have done." Upon this Allah Almighty revealed this verse: "And if there were a Qur'an by which the mountains were moved, or by which the earth were cut apart, or by which the dead were made to speak." [Al-Ra'd: 31]