Home > Sira > The opposition of the tribes of Quraysh to the Banu Hashim and Banu Abd al-Muttalib
The boycott of Quraysh against the Banu Hashim: three years in the ravine of Abu Talib, the document eaten by the termite, Abu Talib’s qasida and the return from Abyssinia.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The Messenger of Allah wrote to the Negus a letter which said, among other things: ’obey his counsel and follow me that you may believe in me and in what has come to me, for I am the Messenger of Allah, and I have sent you my cousin Ja’far with a party of the Muslims; when they come to you, honor them, and abandon arrogance, for I invite you and your hosts to Allah; I have conveyed and counseled, so accept my counsel, and peace be upon him who follows the guidance.’ The Negus wrote to the Messenger of Allah: ’In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. To Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, from the Negus, Ashama ibn Abjar: peace be upon you, O Prophet of Allah, from Allah, and the mercy of Allah and His blessings; there is no deity but Him who guided me to Islam. Your letter has reached me, O Messenger of Allah, in what you mentioned of the affair of Jesus; and by the Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus adds nothing beyond what you mentioned. And we have recognized what you sent to us, and we have honored your cousin and his companions, and I bear witness that you are the Messenger of Allah, true and confirmed, and I have pledged allegiance to you and pledged allegiance to your cousin, and accepted Islam at his hand to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and I have sent to you, O Prophet of Allah, Ariha ibn al-Ascham ibn Abjar, for I possess only my own person; and if you wish that I come to you, then I shall come, O Messenger of Allah, for I bear witness that what you say is true.’
This is the chapter on the opposition of the tribes of Quraysh to the Banu Hashim and the Banu Abd al-Muttalib in aiding the Messenger of Allah, and their league among themselves against them, that they should not ally with them by allegiance nor intermarry, until they surrendered to them the Messenger of Allah, and their confining them in the ravine of Abu Talib for a long period, and their writing of that in an unjust, wicked document, and what appeared through all of that of the signs of prophethood and the proofs of truth.
Musa ibn Uqba said, from az-Zuhri: then the idolaters pressed upon the Muslims as hard as they ever had, until the Muslims reached the limit of endurance and tribulation pressed upon them, and Quraysh united in their plot to kill the Messenger of Allah openly. When Abu Talib saw what the people were doing he gathered the Banu Abd al-Muttalib and ordered them to bring the Messenger of Allah into their ravine and to defend him against whoever sought to kill him, and they agreed upon that, their Muslims and their unbelievers alike: some did it out of tribal pride and some out of faith and certainty. When Quraysh knew that the people had protected the Messenger of Allah and united upon that, the idolaters of Quraysh gathered and agreed not to sit with them, nor ally to them, nor enter their houses until they surrendered the Messenger of Allah to be killed; and they wrote in their plot a document, and covenants and pacts, that they would never accept from the Banu Hashim any peace nor let compassion move them toward them until they surrendered him to be killed. The Banu Hashim stayed in their ravine three years, and tribulation and hardship pressed upon them, and they cut off from them the markets, leaving them no food entering Mecca nor merchandise except they rushed them to it and bought it, intending thereby to reach the shedding of the Messenger of Allah’s blood. Abu Talib, when the people retired to their beds,
ordered the Messenger of Allah to lie upon his bed until whoever intended a plot and assassination against him might see it; and when the people went to sleep he ordered one of his sons or brothers or cousins to lie upon the bed of the Messenger of Allah, and ordered the Messenger of Allah to come to one of their beds and sleep on it. When the head of the third year came, some men of the Banu Abd Manaf and of Qusayy, and men of Quraysh whose mothers were women of the Banu Hashim, repented, and saw that they had cut the ties of kinship and belittled the truth, and their affair united by night upon breaking what they had covenanted of treachery and disavowal of it. And Allah sent upon their document the termite, which gnawed all that was in it of pact and covenant, and it is said it was hung from the ceiling of the house and left no name of Allah in it but it gnawed, and remained what was in it of idolatry and injustice and cutting of kinship. And Allah showed His Messenger what they had done with their document, and the Messenger of Allah mentioned that to Abu Talib, and Abu Talib said: by the constellations, he has not lied to me. He went out walking with his band of the Banu Abd al-Muttalib until he came to the mosque which was full of Quraysh. When they saw them bent upon their gathering they objected, thinking they had come out of the hardship and had come to hand over the Messenger of Allah.
Abu Talib spoke and said: matters have arisen between us and you which we have not mentioned to you; bring your document upon which you covenanted, for perhaps there may be between us and you a peace. He said that only fearing they might examine the document before bringing it. They brought their document exultant in it, not doubting that the Messenger of Allah would be handed over to them, and placed it between them and said: it is time for you to accept and return to an affair that will unite your people, for a single man has cut between us and you, whom you have made a cause of the ruin of your people and your clan and their corruption. Abu Talib said: I have come to you to give you an affair in which there is justice for you: my nephew has informed me, and he has not lied to me, that Allah is quit of this document in your hands, and has erased every name of His in it, and left in it your treachery and your cutting of us and your mutual support against us in injustice. If what my nephew said is as he said, wake up, for by Allah we shall never surrender him until we die, the last of us; and if what he said is false, we hand him to you: kill him or spare him. They said: we accept what you say. So they opened the document and found the True, the Confirmed, had reported its news; and when Quraysh saw it as Abu Talib had said they said: by Allah, this could only be sorcery from your companion,
and they recoiled and returned to the worst they had been of disbelief and severity against the Messenger of Allah and his people and executing what they had covenanted. Those men of the Banu Abd al-Muttalib said: the most worthy of lying and sorcery are we, if you see; for we know that what you have united upon of cutting our kinship is nearer to sorcery than our affair; had you not united upon sorcery your document would not have been corrupted in your hands: Allah erased what was in it of His name and left what was in it of hostility. Are we then the sorcerers, or you? Then that band of the Banu Abd Manaf and Banu Qusayy, and men of Quraysh whose mothers were women of the Banu Hashim, among them Abu l-Bakhtari and al-Mu’tim ibn Adi and Zuhayr ibn Abi Umayya ibn al-Mughira and Zam’a ibn al-Aswad and Hisham ibn Amr, who kept the document, being of the Banu Amir ibn Lu’ayy among their nobles and faces, said: we are quit of what is in this document. Abu Jahl, may Allah curse him, said: this is an affair decided by night. And Abu Talib began reciting poetry concerning their document, and praising the band who disavowed it and broke what was in it of pact, and praising the Negus. Al-Bayhaqi said: thus reported our shaykh Abu Abdallah the hafiz, meaning by a chain from Ibn Lahi’a, from Abu l-Aswad, from Urwa ibn az-Zubayr, that is, as the account of Musa ibn Uqba.
It has preceded from Musa ibn Uqba that the emigration to Abyssinia was after their entry into the ravine, by order of the Messenger of Allah to them in that; and Allah knows best. I say: the more apparent is that Abu Talib said his lam-meter qasida, whose mention we have reported, after their entry into the ravine as well, and its mention here is more fitting, and Allah knows best. Then al-Bayhaqi reported, through Yunus, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: when the Messenger of Allah continued upon what he was sent with, and the Banu Hashim and the Banu Abd al-Muttalib stood against him, refusing to surrender him, while they differed with him as their people differed, except that they disdained to abase themselves and surrender their brother to what his people prepared for him; when the Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib did that and Quraysh knew there was no way to Muhammad, they gathered to write among themselves against the Banu Hashim and Banu Abd al-Muttalib that they would not intermarry with them in either direction,
nor ally to them, nor buy from them, and they wrote a document in that and hung it upon the Kaaba, then they assailed whoever had accepted Islam, chained him and hurt him, and tribulation pressed upon them and the trial grew great, and they were shaken with a violent shaking. Then he mentioned the story at length of their entering the ravine of Abu Talib and what they reached there of the trial of severe hardship, until the voices of their children crying of hunger behind the ravine could be heard, until the generality of Quraysh hated what had befallen them and declared their hatred of their unjust document and mentioned that Allah had, by His mercy, sent upon the document of Quraysh the termite, which left in it no name of His but it ate, and remained in it the injustice and the cutting and the slander. Allah the Most High then informed the Messenger of Allah, who informed his uncle Abu Talib, then mentioned the rest of the story like the account of Musa ibn Uqba and more complete.
Ibn Hisham said, from Ziyad, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: when Quraysh saw that the companions of the Messenger of Allah had alighted in a land where they had gained safety and stability, and that the Negus had protected whoever of them took refuge with him, and that Umar had accepted Islam, so that he and Hamza were with the Messenger of Allah and his companions, and Islam was spreading among the tribes, they gathered and resolved to write a document in which they would covenant against the Banu Hashim and Banu Abd al-Muttalib, that they would not marry them nor be married to them, nor sell them anything nor buy from them. When they gathered for that they wrote in a document, then covenanted and swore upon it, then hung the document inside the Kaaba, to bind themselves firmly; and the scribe of the document was Mansur ibn Ikrima ibn Amir ibn Hashim ibn Abd Manaf ibn Abd ad-Dar ibn Qusayy. Ibn Hisham said: it is said an-Nadr ibn al-Harith, and the Messenger of Allah invoked against him and some of his fingers were paralyzed. Al-Waqidi said: the one who wrote the document was Talha ibn Abi Talha al-Abdari. I say: the famous account is that it was Mansur ibn Ikrima, as Ibn Ishaq mentioned, and he is the one whose hand was paralyzed so that he could not benefit by it, and Quraysh used to say among themselves: look at Mansur ibn Ikrima. Al-Waqidi said: the document was hung inside the Kaaba.
Ibn Ishaq said: when Quraysh did that, the Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib withdrew to Abu Talib and entered with him into his ravine and gathered to him, and from the Banu Hashim Abu Lahab, Abd al-Uzza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, went out to Quraysh and sided with them against them. Husayn ibn Abdallah related to me that Abu Lahab met Hind bint Utba ibn Rabi’a when he left his people and sided with Quraysh against them, and said: O daughter of Utba, have I not aided al-Lat and al-Uzza and parted from him who parted from them and sided against them? She said: yes; may Allah reward you, O Abu Utba. And Ibn Ishaq said: I was told he used to say in some of his sayings: Muhammad promises me things I do not see, claiming they will be after death; what has he put in my hand after that? Then he would blow into his two hands and say: perish, you two; I see nothing in you of what Muhammad says. So Allah sent down:
’May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and he has perished’ [al-Masad: 1]. Ibn Ishaq said: when Quraysh gathered upon that and did what they did, Abu Talib said: ’Shall we not announce, concerning us, to Lu’ayy and the root of Lu’ayy, Banu Ka’b: know you not that we have found Muhammad a prophet like Moses, written in the first of the Book, and that love is owed him in worship, and there is no good in him whom Allah distinguished with love, and that what you have entered of your book against you shall be a woe like the Raghia of the Saqb. Wake, wake, before the dust is dug and he who earned no sin rises like the sinner; follow not the counsel of the slanderers nor cut our veins after love and kinship, nor court an early war, and oft there passes over him who tasted it the milk of war. We shall not, by the Lord of the House, surrender Ahmad as ransom from the bite of time or distress; and when the old bonds between us and you were plain,
and hands turned with white swords in a narrow battlefield where you see the breaking of skulls and the gross eagles circling like the beast, as if the field of horses amid its pebbles and the trampling of champions were the battle of war. Is not Hashim our father, who tightened his resolve and enjoined his sons to stone-casting and striking? We do not wear out war until it wears us, nor complain of what may come of misfortune; rather we are the people of safeguards and sense, when the souls of the valiant fly from terror.’ Ibn Ishaq said: they remained upon that two or three years until they were exhausted, and nothing reached them except secretly, concealed by whoever of Quraysh wished to keep ties with them. And Abu Jahl ibn Hisham, as they relate, met Hakim ibn Hizam ibn Khwaylid ibn Asad, with him a lad carrying wheat for his aunt Khadija bint Khwaylid, who was with the Messenger of Allah, with him in the ravine, and he seized him and said:
do you carry food to the Banu Hashim? By Allah, you shall not go, you and your food, until I expose you in Mecca. Abu l-Bakhtari ibn Hisham ibn al-Harith ibn Asad came to him and said: what is between you and him? He said: he carries food to the Banu Hashim. Abu l-Bakhtari said: it was food that was with his aunt with him; she sent to him for it: would you prevent him bringing her food? Leave the man his way. Abu Jahl, may Allah curse him, refused until one of the two reached his companion, and Abu l-Bakhtari took the jawbone of a camel and struck him with it and wounded him and trampled him a hard trampling, while Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib was near, seeing that, and they disliked that it should reach the Messenger of Allah and his companions and that they should gloat over them; and the Messenger of Allah meanwhile invoked his people night and day, secretly and openly, proclaiming the command of Allah the Most High, fearing none of the people.
The Quran descended upon Quraysh through their events, and upon whoever set up enmity to him; of them some are named to us, and of them the Quran descended concerning the generality of the disbelievers Allah mentions. Ibn Ishaq mentioned Abu Lahab and the descent of the chapter concerning him, and Umayya ibn Khalaf and the descent of the word of the Most High ’woe to every slanderer, backbiter’ [al-Humaza: 1], the whole chapter concerning him, and al-As ibn Wa’il and the descent of the word of the Most High ’have you seen him who disbelieves in Our signs and says: I shall surely be given wealth and children’ [Maryam: 77] concerning him, and something of that has preceded, and Abu Jahl ibn Hisham and his word to the Prophet: you shall cease abusing our gods or we shall abuse your god, and the descent of the word of Allah in it:
’do not abuse those they invoke besides Allah, lest they abuse Allah in hostility without knowledge’, the verse [al-An’am: 108]. And an-Nadr ibn al-Harith ibn Kalada ibn Alqama, though some say Alqama ibn Kalada, as as-Suhayli said, and his sitting after the Prophet in his assemblies where he recited the Quran and called to Allah, and an-Nadr would recite to them some of the tales of Rustam and Isfandiyyar and the wars between them in the time of the Persians, then say: by Allah, Muhammad is not a finer storyteller than I, and his discourse is but the legends of the ancients which he has written as I have written them; so Allah sent down ’and they say: legends of the ancients which he has written, and they are dictated to him morning and evening’ [al-Furqan: 5], and His word ’woe to every sinful fabler’ [al-Jathiya: 7].
Ibn Ishaq said: the Messenger of Allah sat, as has reached us, one day with al-Walid ibn al-Mughira in the mosque, and an-Nadr ibn al-Harith came and sat with them, and in the assembly more than one man of Quraysh. The Messenger of Allah spoke, and an-Nadr presented an argument, and the Messenger of Allah spoke to him until he silenced him; then he recited over him and them: ’indeed, you and what you worship besides Allah are the fuel of Hell; you will come to it. Had these been gods they would not have come to it, and all abiding eternally therein; for them therein is a groaning, and they therein hear not’ [al-Anbiya: 98-100]. Then the Messenger of Allah rose, and Abdallah ibn az-Ziba’ra as-Sahmi came and sat, and al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said to him: by Allah, an-Nadr ibn al-Harith did not rise just now from Ibn Abd al-Muttalib and sit down, and Muhammad has claimed that I and what we worship of our gods are the fuel of Hell.
Abdallah ibn az-Ziba’ra said: by Allah, had I found him I would have argued with him; ask Muhammad: is all that we worship besides Allah the fuel of Hell with him who worships it? For we worship the angels, and the Jews worship Uzayr, and the Christians worship Jesus. Al-Walid and those with him in the assembly marveled at the word of Ibn az-Ziba’ra and saw that he had argued and disputed. That was mentioned to the Messenger of Allah and he said: ’whoever loved to be worshipped besides Allah will be with him who worshipped him; they worship only devils, and those who commanded them the worship of him.’ Allah sent down: ’indeed those for whom the good from Us has preceded will be far removed from it, hearing not its hiss, and abiding eternally in what their souls desire’ [al-Anbiya: 101-102], meaning Jesus and Uzayr and whoever was worshipped of the rabbis and monks who died upon obedience to Allah the Most High.
And it descended concerning their saying that they worship the angels and that they are the daughters of Allah: ’and they say: the Merciful has taken a son. Glory be to Him; rather they are honored servants’ [al-Anbiya: 26] and the verses after it. And it descended upon the wonder of the idolaters at the word of Ibn az-Ziba’ra: ’and when the son of Mary was presented as an example, your people turned away from it, and they say: are our gods better, or he? They present it to you only for dispute; rather they are a contentious people’ [az-Zukhruf: 57-58]. And this dispute they followed is void, and they know it, for they are an Arab people, and in their idiom ’what’ is for what does not comprehend; so His word ’indeed, you and what you worship besides Allah are the fuel of Hell’ intends only what they worshipped of the stones which were forms of idols, and does not reach the angels whom they claimed they worshipped in those forms,
nor the Messiah, nor Uzayr, nor any of the righteous, for the wording does not reach them, neither word nor meaning. They know that what they presented by Jesus son of Mary of the example is a void dispute, as Allah the Most High said: ’they present it to you only for dispute; rather they are a contentious people.’ Then He said: ’he is not but a servant We favored’, meaning with our prophethood, ’and We made him an example for the children of Israel’ [az-Zukhruf: 59], meaning a proof of the perfection of Our power over what We will, where We created him of a female without a male, and We created Eve of a male without a female, and We created Adam of neither this nor that, and We created the rest of the children of Adam of male and female, as He said in the other verse ’and that We might make him a sign to the people’ [Maryam: 21], meaning a mark and a proof of Our resplendent power, ’and a mercy from Us’ by which We have mercy on whom We will.
Ibn Ishaq mentioned al-Aknas ibn Shariq and the descent of the word of the Most High concerning him: ’and obey not every habitual swearer, contemptible’ [al-Qalam: 10], the verses. He mentioned al-Walid ibn al-Mughira where he said: why should Muhammad receive revelation and I be left, and I am the great man of Quraysh and its chief, and Abu Mas’ud Amr ibn Umayr ath-Thaqafi, chief of Thaqif, be left? We are the two great towns. And the descent of the word of the Most High concerning him: ’and they say: why was this Quran not sent down upon a great man of the two towns’ [az-Zukhruf: 31] and what follows it. He mentioned Ubayy ibn Khalaf when he said to Uqba ibn Abi Mu’ayt: has it not reached me that you sat with Muhammad and heard from him? My face is forbidden to your face unless you spit in his face.
So the enemy of Allah, Uqba, may Allah curse him, did that, and Allah sent down: ’and the day the wrongdoer bites his hands saying: would that I had taken with the Messenger a way; woe to me, would that I had not taken so-and-so for a friend’ [al-Furqan: 27-28] and what follows it. He said: Ubayy ibn Khalaf walked with a rotten bone already crumbling and said: O Muhammad, you claim Allah resurrects this after it crumbles? Then he crumbled it in his hand, then blew it in the wind toward the Messenger of Allah, and he said: ’yes, I say that: Allah will resurrect it and you after you become thus, then He will admit you into the Fire.’ Allah the Most High sent down: ’and he presents to Us an example and forgets his own creation, saying: who will give life to bones when they are disintegrated? Say:
He will give them life who produced them the first time, and He is of every creation Knowing’ [Ya-Sin: 78-79] to the end of the chapter. He said: and there opposed the Messenger of Allah, as has reached me, while he circled near the door of the Kaaba: al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, Umayya ibn Khalaf and al-As ibn Wa’il, and they said: O Muhammad, come, let us worship what you worship and you worship what we worship, and we shall share the affair between you and us; so Allah sent down concerning them ’say: O you who disbelieve, I worship not what you worship’ [al-Kafirun: 1-2] to its end. And when Abu Jahl heard of the tree of az-Zaqqum he said: do you know what az-Zaqqum is? It is butter beaten with cream; then he said: come, let us taste it. So Allah sent down:
’indeed the tree of az-Zaqqum is the food of the sinner’ [ad-Dukhan: 43-44]. He said: al-Walid ibn al-Mughira stood and spoke with the Messenger of Allah, and the Messenger of Allah speaking to him, while he hoped for his Islam, and Ibn Umm Maktum the blind man passed by him and spoke to the Messenger of Allah, asking him to recite the Quran, and that weighed upon him until it wearied him, because it distracted him from the affair of al-Walid and what he hoped of his Islam; when he multiplied upon him he turned from him frowning and left him, and Allah sent down: ’he frowned and turned away that the blind man came to him’ [Abasa: 1-2] to His word ’elevated and purified’ [Abasa: 14]. And it has been said: the one who was speaking with the Messenger of Allah when Ibn Umm Maktum came to him was Umayya ibn Khalaf, and Allah knows best.
Then Ibn Ishaq mentioned those who returned from the emigration to Abyssinia to Mecca, that being when the Islam of the people of Mecca reached them, and the report was not correct, but it had a cause: what is established in the Sahih and elsewhere, that the Messenger of Allah sat one day with the idolaters and Allah sent down upon him ’by the star when it descends, your companion has not strayed’ [an-Najm: 1-2], and he recited it to them until he finished it and prostrated, and prostrated those there of the Muslims and the idolaters and the jinn and the humans. And that had a cause which many of the exegetes mentioned at the word of the Most High: ’and We sent not before you any messenger or prophet except that when he wished, Satan threw into his wish, but Allah abolishes what Satan throws, then Allah makes firm His verses; and Allah is Knowing, Wise’ [al-Hajj: 52], and they mentioned the story of the crane-like verses, and we have loved to refrain from mentioning it superficially, lest one who would not place it in its place hear it, except that the essence of the story is in the Sahih. Al-Bukhari said: Abu Ma’mar narrated to us: Abd al-Warith narrated to us: Ayyub narrated to us, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: the Prophet prostrated at an-Najm, and prostrated with him the Muslims and the idolaters,
and the jinn and the humans; al-Bukhari alone reports it, without Muslim. Al-Bukhari said: Muhammad ibn Bashshar narrated to us: Ghundar narrated to us: Shu’ba narrated to us, from Abu Ishaq: I heard al-Aswad, from Abdallah: the Prophet recited an-Najm in Mecca and prostrated in it, and prostrated whoever was with him except an old man who took a handful of pebbles or dust and raised it to his forehead and said: this suffices me; and I saw him later killed a disbeliever. Muslim and Abu Dawud and an-Nasa’i reported it from the hadith of Shu’ba. The Imam Ahmad said: Ibrahim narrated to us: Rabah narrated to us, from Ma’mar, from Ibn Tawus, from Ikrima ibn Khalid, from Ja’far ibn al-Muttalib ibn Abi Wada’a, from his father: the Messenger of Allah recited in Mecca the chapter of the Star and prostrated, and prostrated those near him, and I raised my head and refused to prostrate, and al-Muttalib had not accepted Islam that day; and after that he never heard anyone recite it but he prostrated with him. An-Nasa’i reported it from Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Hamid, from Ahmad ibn Hanbal, likewise. The two can be combined: that this one prostrated but raised his head in arrogance, and that the old man whom Ibn Mas’ud excepted did not prostrate at all, and Allah knows best.
The point is that when the reporter saw the idolaters prostrate in following the Messenger of Allah he believed they had accepted Islam and made peace with him and no dispute remained between them, and the news flew and spread until it reached the emigrants to Abyssinia, and they believed its truth, so a group of them came eager for that and a group remained, both of them acting well and rightly in what they did. Ibn Ishaq mentioned the names of those who returned: Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayya, daughter of the Messenger of Allah; Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utba ibn Rabi’a and his wife Sahla bint Suhayl; Abdallah ibn Jahsh ibn Ri’ab; Utba ibn Ghazwan; az-Zubayr ibn al-Awwam; Mus’ab ibn Umayr; Suwaybit ibn Sa’d; Tulayb ibn Umayr; Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf; al-Miqdad ibn Amr; Abdallah ibn Mas’ud; Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Asad and his wife Umm Salama bint Abi Umayya ibn al-Mughira; Shamm’as ibn Uthman; Salama ibn Hisham and Ayyash ibn Abi Rabi’a, who were detained in Mecca until after Badr and Uhud and the Trench; Ammar ibn Yasir, who is among those doubted: whether he went out to Abyssinia or not; Mu’tib ibn Awf; Uthman ibn Maz’un and his son as-Sa’ib and his two brothers Qudama and Abdallah,
sons of Maz’un; Khunays ibn Hudhayfa; Hisham ibn al-As ibn Wa’il, who was detained in Mecca until after the Trench; Amir ibn Rabi’a and his wife Layla bint Abi Hathma; Abdallah ibn Makhrama; Abdallah ibn Suhayl ibn Amr, who was detained until the day of Badr, when he sided with the Muslims and witnessed Badr with them; Abu Sabra ibn Abi Ruhm and his wife Umm Kulthum bint Suhayl; as-Sakran ibn Amr ibn Abd Shams and his wife Sawda bint Zam’a, who died in Mecca before the Hijra, the Messenger of Allah succeeding him upon his wife; Sa’d ibn Khawla; Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah; Amr ibn al-Harith ibn Zuhayr; Suhayl ibn Bayda’; and Amr ibn Abi Sarh; all of them together thirty-three men. Al-Bukhari said, the emigration to Abyssinia, and Aisha said: the Messenger of Allah said: ’I was shown the abode of your emigration, a land of date palms between two stony tracts’; so whoever emigrated emigrated toward Medina, and the generality of those who had emigrated to Abyssinia returned to Medina. The hadith of Abu Musa has preceded, and it is in the two Sahihs, and the hadith of Asma bint Umays will come after the conquest of Khaybar, when those who had remained behind of the emigration to Abyssinia arrived, Allah willing, and it is trustworthy.
Al-Bukhari said: Yahya ibn Hammad narrated to us: Abu Awana narrated to us, from Sulayman, from Ibrahim, from Alqama, from Abdallah: we used to salute the Prophet while he prayed, and he would respond to us; and when we returned from the Negus we saluted him and he did not respond, and we said: O Messenger of Allah, we used to salute you and you would respond, and he said: ’in prayer there is occupation.’ Al-Bukhari also, and Muslim and Abu Dawud and an-Nasa’i, reported it by other routes, from Sulayman ibn Mihran, from al-A’mach, likewise; and it strengthens the interpretation of whoever interpreted the established hadith of Zayd ibn Arqam in the two Sahihs: ’we used to speak in prayer until the word ’and stand for Allah in obedience’ descended [al-Baqara: 238], and we were commanded silence and forbidden speech’, upon the reading that what is meant is the generality of the Companions, for Zayd is an Ansari of Medina, and the prohibition of speech in prayer is established in Mecca, so the sense must be carried upon what preceded; as for his mention of the verse, which is Medinan, that is difficult, and perhaps he believed it to be the forbidding one, whereas what forbade him was other than it along with it, and Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: among those who entered with them under protection were Uthman ibn Maz’un under the protection of al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, and Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Asad under the protection of his uncle Abu Talib, his mother being Barra bint Abd al-Muttalib. As for Uthman ibn Maz’un: Salih ibn Ibrahim ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf related to me, from him who related to him, from Uthman: when Uthman ibn Maz’un saw what the companions of the Messenger of Allah suffered of tribulation while he went out and returned in safety under the protection of al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, he said: by Allah, that I go out and return in safety under the protection of a man of idolatry while my companions and the people of my religion meet in Allah tribulation and hurt I do not meet is a great deficiency in myself. He walked to al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and said to him: O Abu Abd Shams, honor your protection; I return to you your protection. He said: why, O son of my brother? Perhaps one of my people hurt you? He said: no, but I prefer the protection of Allah and do not wish to seek refuge with other than Him. He said: go then to the mosque and return my protection to me publicly as I granted it publicly. They went out until they came to the mosque, and al-Walid ibn al-Mughira said: this is Uthman come to return my protection. He said: it is true; I found him faithful,
noble in protection, but I loved not to seek refuge with other than Allah, so I returned his protection to him. Then Uthman, peace be upon him, withdrew, and Labid ibn Rabi’a ibn Malik ibn Ja’far ibn Kilab was in an assembly of Quraysh declaiming to them, and Uthman sat with them. Labid said: ’Indeed everything, what is besides Allah, is false.’ Uthman said: you spoke truly. Labid said: ’And every delight must surely pass away.’ Uthman said: you lied; the delight of Paradise does not pass away. Labid said: O Quraysh, by Allah, your guest was never insulted; when did this befall you? A man of the people said: this one is a fool among fools who have left our religion; find nothing in yourself from his word. Uthman answered him until the affair between the two heated, and that man rose to him and slapped his eye, turning it green, while al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was near, seeing what Uthman had reached, and he said: by Allah, O son of my brother, your eye, for what has befallen it, is precious, and you were under a solid protection. Uthman said: rather, by Allah, my sound eye is needy for the like of what its sister suffered in Allah, and I am under the protection of One mightier than you and stronger, O Abu Abd Shams. Al-Walid said to him: come, O son of my brother, if you will, to your protection and return. He said: no.
Ibn Ishaq said: as for Abu Salama ibn Abd al-Asad: my father Ishaq ibn Yasar related to me, from Salama ibn Abdallah ibn Umar ibn Abi Salama, that he related to him that when Abu Salama sought refuge with Abu Talib, men of the Banu Makhzum walked to him and said: O Abu Talib, this one you prevented from us, your nephew Muhammad; what have you with our companion that you prevent him from us? He said: he sought refuge with me and he is my sister’s son; had I not prevented my sister’s son, I would have prevented my brother’s son. Abu Lahab rose and said: O assembly of Quraysh, by Allah you have been excessive with this old man: you keep pouncing upon him in his protection from among his people; by Allah you shall desist or I shall rise with him in everything he rises in until he attains what he intends. They said: rather we withdraw from what you hate, O Abu Utba. And they had in him a patron and a defender against the Messenger of Allah, and remained upon that; and Abu Talib coveted him when he heard him say what he said, and hoped he would rise with him in the affair of the Messenger of Allah,
and Abu Talib said, inciting Abu Lahab to his aid and the aid of the Messenger of Allah: ’And the man Abu Utayba his uncle is in a garden while injustices are not yet named. I say to him: and where of it is my counsel? Abu Mu’tib, fix your dark one standing, and accept not of time, while you live, a design whereby you will be abused when you descend to the seasons; and turn to the path of impotence one other than you, for you were not created installed upon impotence; and fight, for war is half, and you shall not see the brother of war give the crushing until he is reconciled; and how, when they have not won over you a great thing nor abandoned you to plunder or debt. May Allah reward from us Abd Shams and Nawfal and Taym and Makhzum with impiety and sin for their dividing of our fellowship after love and intimacy, that they might attain the forbidden things. You lie, and by the House of Allah Muhammad shall not be reviled, and they saw not one day by the ravine a man standing.’ Ibn Hisham said: one verse of it remains which we left.