Home > Sira > Quraysh’s tortures against the Muslims who followed the Prophet
Quraysh’s tortures against the first Muslims: Bilal under the rock saying “One, One”, Abu Bakr’s ransoms, Soumayya the first martyr, Abu Jahl the inciter, the excuse of coercion (an-Nahl 106), Khabbab and the iron combs, from Ibn Ishaq, al-Boukhari, Mouslim and Ahmad.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Ibn Ishaq said: they set upon whoever had embraced Islam and followed the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) among his Companions: each tribe assailed the Muslims it counted among its own, imprisoning them and torturing them with beatings, hunger and thirst, under the scorching sun of Mecca, targeting its weakest to turn them from their religion. Some yielded under the severity of the trial; others held firm, Allah protecting them from them.
Bilal was the freedman of Abu Bakr, belonging to some of the Banu Joumah, a mixed-race client among theirs: Bilal ibn Rabah, his mother being named Hamama. He was truthful in Islam, pure of heart. Umayya ibn Khalaf would bring him out at the hottest hour, order the great rock placed upon his chest and say to him: “You shall remain thus, by Allah, until you die, or disbelieve in Muhammad and worship al-Lat and al-Uzza.” And he, in that state, would say: “One, One.”
Ibn Ishaq said: Hisham ibn Urwa related to me, from his father: Waraqa ibn Nawfal would pass by him while he was thus tortured, and he said: “One, One”, and Waraqa said: “One, One, by Allah, O Bilal.” Then he turned to Umayya ibn Khalaf and those of the Banu Joumah doing that to him: “I swear by Allah: if you kill him in this state, I shall take him as a tomb.” Ibn Kathir notes that some stumbled over this statement: Waraqa died after the beginning of the mission, during the pause of the revelation, and the conversions occurred only after the descent of “O you who covers himself!”: how then did Waraqa pass by Bilal being tortured? The matter calls for reflection.
Ibn Ishaq then mentioned Abu Bakr’s passing by Bilal being tortured: he bought him from Umayya for a black slave he owned, freed him and relieved him of the torture. He also mentioned his purchases of a group of enslaved men and women who had converted: among them Bilal, Amir ibn Fuhayra, Umm Ubays, and Zinnira whose sight was struck and whom Allah the Most High restored to her, as well as an-Nahdiyya and her daughter, whom he bought from the Banu Abd ad-Dar: their mistress had sent them to grind her grain and heard them say to her: “By Allah, we shall never set you free.” Abu Bakr said: “Free them, O so-and-so.” She replied: “Free them: it is you who corrupted them.” He said: “At what price?” She said: “Such and such.” He said: “Taken: they are free. Return her flour to her.” They said: “Or shall we empty it, O Abu Bakr, then return it to her?” He said: “That, if you wish.” He also bought a slave girl of the Banu Moummal, a clan of the Banu Adi, whom ’Oumar beat for Islam.
Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Atiq related, from Amir ibn Abdallah ibn az-Zubayr, from some of his people: Abu Quhafa said to Abu Bakr: “O my son, I see you freeing the weak; had you done what you did by freeing vigorous men, they would defend you and stand before you.” Abu Bakr said: “O my father, I seek only what I seek.” It is related that these verses were sent down only concerning him and his father’s words:
“As for he who gives and fears Allah and testifies to the best reward, We will ease him toward ease. But as for he who withholds and considers himself free of need and denies the best reward, We will ease him toward difficulty”
Sura al-Layl, 5-10
What Imam Ahmad and Ibn Majah already related, from Asim ibn Bahdala, from Zirr, from Ibn Mas’oud: “The first to manifest Islam were seven: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), Abu Bakr, Ammar, his mother Soumayya, Souhayb, Bilal and al-Miqdad. As for the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), Allah protected him through his uncle; Abu Bakr, Allah protected him through his people; as for the others, the polytheists seized them, clad them in iron armor and roasted them in the sun: there was none of them whom they had not bent to their will, except Bilal, who made light of his life for Allah the Most High and was little in his people’s eyes. They seized him, entrusted the boys to walk him through Mecca’s valleys, while he said: “One, One.”” ath-Thawri related it, from Mansour, from Mujahid, in suspended form.
The Banu Makhzum would bring out Ammar ibn Yassir, his father and his mother, who were a household of Islam: at the hottest hour they tortured them under the scorching sun of Mecca. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by them and said, as it reached me: “Patience, O family of Yassir: your appointment is Paradise.” al-Bayhaqi related, from al-Hakim, a chain going back to Jabir: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by Ammar and his family being tortured and said: “Good tidings, O family of Ammar, O family of Yassir: your appointment is Paradise.” As for his mother, they killed her: she refused but Islam. Imam Ahmad related, from Waki’, from Soufyan, from Mansour, from Mujahid: the first martyr of Islam was Ammar’s mother, Soumayya: Abu Jahl pierced her private parts with his spear. This account is suspended.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Abu Jahl, the corrupt one, was the one who incited certain men of Quraysh against them: when he learned that a man of honor and standing had embraced Islam, he reproached and shamed him, saying: “You have left your father’s religion, who was better than you: I shall ridicule your patience, overturn your opinion and annihilate your honor.” If he was a merchant: “By Allah, I shall ruin your trade and destroy your wealth.” If he was weak, he beat him and incited people against him: may Allah curse him and make him ugly.
Hakim ibn Jubayr related, from Said ibn Jubayr, who said: I asked Abdallah ibn Abbas: “Did the polytheists reach, in torturing the Companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), what could excuse their defection from their religion?” He said: “Yes, by Allah: they would beat one of them, starve and thirst him, until he could no longer sit upright from the severity of what befell him, until they obtained from him the apostasy they demanded, to the point of saying to him: Are al-Lat and al-Uzza your deity instead of Allah? And he would say: yes. As ransom from them, from the violence they inflicted.”
Ibn Kathir says: it was for such situations that Allah the Most High sent down:
“Whoever disbelieves in Allah after his belief... except for one who is forced while his heart is secure in faith - but those who willingly open their breasts to disbelief, upon them is wrath from Allah and theirs is a great punishment.”
Sura an-Nahl, 106
Those were excused by the humiliation and torture inflicted upon them: may Allah preserve us from that by His power and might.
Imam Ahmad related, from Abu Mu’awiya, from al-A’mash, from Mulim, from Masruq, from Khabbab ibn al-Aratt: “I was a blacksmith, and al-As ibn Wa’il owed me money. I went to claim it and he said: By Allah, I shall not pay you until you disbelieve in Muhammad. I said: By Allah, I shall not disbelieve in Muhammad until you die and are resurrected. He said: When I die and am resurrected, I shall have wealth and children, and I shall pay you. Allah then sent down: Have you seen the one who disbelieves in Our verses and says: I shall surely be given wealth and children? ... We shall inherit what he speaks of, while he will come to Us, alone.” Related by the two Sahihs and other chains, from al-A’mash. In al-Boukhari’s wording: “I was a blacksmith in Mecca and made a sword for al-As ibn Wa’il; I came to claim its price,” and he cited the hadith.
al-Boukhari related, from al-Humaydi, from Soufyan, from Bayan and Isma’il, that they said: we heard Qays say: I heard Khabbab: “I came to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) while he rested his head upon a cloak, in the shade of the Kaaba, and we had suffered from the polytheists great severity. I said: Will you not invoke Allah? He sat, his face reddened, and said:” “Those before you were combed with iron combs, what lay between their bones and their flesh or sinews, and that turned them not from their religion; a saw was set at the middle of one’s head and he was split in two, and that turned him not from his religion. Allah will surely complete this affair, until a rider travels from Sanaa to Hadramaout fearing none but Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the wolf against his sheep; but you hasten.” Bayan added: “and the wolf upon his sheep,” and in one version: “but you hasten.” al-Boukhari alone related it, without Mouslim; there exists another version of it from Khabbab, abridged from this one: Allah is most knowing.
Imam Ahmad related, from Abd ar-Rahman, from Soufyan; and Ibn Ja’far related, from Shu’ba, from Abu Ishaq, from Sa’id ibn Wahb, from Khabbab: “We complained to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of the severity of the tarmida, and he did not pray for us,” that is, in the prayer. Ibn Ja’far said: he did not pray for us. He related likewise, from Sulayman ibn Dawud, from Shu’ba, from Abu Ishaq, that Sa’id ibn Wahb said: I heard Khabbab: “We complained to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of the severity of the tarmida, and he did not pray for us.” Shu’ba said: he means at midday. Mouslim, an-Nasaï and al-Bayhaqi related it, from Abu Ishaq as-Sabi’i, from Sa’id ibn Wahb, from Khabbab: “We complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of the heat of the tarmida.” al-Bayhaqi added: “upon our faces and palms, and he did not pray for us.” In one version: “We complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of praying upon the tarmida, and he did not pray for us.” Ibn Majah related it, from Ali ibn Muhammad at-Tanafisi, from Waki’, from al-A’mash, from Abu Ishaq, from Haritha ibn Mudarrib al-Abdi, from Khabbab: “We complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of the heat of the tarmida, and he did not pray for us.”
Ibn Kathir concludes: what appears to me, and Allah is most knowing, is that this hadith is abridged from the first: they complained to him (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of what they suffered from the polytheists of torture under the heat of the burning ground, being dragged upon their faces and shielding themselves with their palms, and other kinds of torture, as has already come from Ibn Ishaq and others; they asked him to invoke Allah against the polytheists or seek aid against them. He promised them that, without fulfilling it in the immediate, and informed them of those before them: they suffered a punishment harsher than what befell them, without that turning them from their religion; and he gave them the good news that Allah would complete this affair, make it prevail, raise it, spread it and support it in the regions and horizons, until a rider travels from Sanaa to Hadramaout fearing none but Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the wolf against his sheep, “but you hasten.” Hence he said: “We complained to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) of the heat of the tarmida upon our faces and palms, and he did not pray for us,” that is, he did not invoke for them in the immediate. Whoever deduces from this hadith the negation of the ground’s coolness, or the obligation that the praying one touch the ground directly with the palms, per one of ash-Shafi’i’s two views: the matter calls for reflection. Allah is most knowing.