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The objections of the polytheists against Prophet Mohamed: the offers of the notables, the Safa of gold and the choice of repentance, the three questions of the rabbis and the surah of the Cave, and the qasida of Abu Talib translated verse by verse.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Quraysh, the thin ones and the fat ones, rushed upon us and did not prevail, and their dreams staggered.
We of old bowed not to loftiness: when they bent the little necks we set them upright.
And we guard its sanctuary every fearsome day, and strike from its stones whoever aims at them.
By us the crooked wood came to life: and by our side sprouts and grows what is hoped of it.
What the polytheists objected with against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and their obstinacy upon him in their questions, kinds of signs and breaches of habit, by way of defiance, not by way of seeking guidance and rightness: for this reason they were not answered with much of what they asked, nor with what they inclined to: for Allah, glory to Him, knew that had they seen with their eyes and witnessed what they wanted, they would have persisted in their rebellion, stumbling blindly, and remained wavering in their deviation and error. Allah the Most High said: "And they swore by Allah their strongest oaths that if a sign came to them they would surely believe in it. Say: The signs are only with Allah. And what would make you perceive that when it comes they will not believe? And We will turn away their hearts and their eyes just as they refused to believe in it the first time, and We will leave them in their rebellion wandering blindly. And even if We sent down the angels to them, and the dead spoke to them, and We gathered together every thing before them, they would not believe unless Allah willed. But most of them are ignorant", the verses of al-An’am, from the one hundred and ninth to the one hundred and eleventh. And He said: "Those upon whom the word of your Lord has come true will not believe, even if every sign came to them, until they see the painful punishment", the verses of Yunus, from the ninety-sixth to the ninety-seventh.
And He said: "And nothing has prevented Us from sending signs except that the former peoples denied them. And We gave Thamud the she-camel as a visible sign, but they wronged her. And We send not the signs except as a warning", the fifty-ninth verse of al-Isra. And He said: "And they say: We will not believe you until you cause a spring to gush forth from the earth for us; or until you have a garden of palm trees and grapes and cause rivers to gush forth within it in abundance; or you make the heaven fall upon us in fragments as you have claimed; or you bring Allah and the angels before us; or you have a house of ornament; or you ascend into the heaven. And we will not believe in your ascension until you bring down to us a book we may read. Say: Glory to my Lord! Am I aught but a human messenger?", the verses of al-Isra, from the ninetieth to the ninety-third. And we have already spoken of these verses and their likes in their places in the commentary: to Allah be praise.
Yunus and Ziyad reported, from Ibn Ishaq, from a man of knowledge, an elder of the people of Egypt called Muhammad ibn Abi Muhammad, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr and Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: a group of the nobles of Quraysh, whose names he counted, gathered after sunset behind the Kaaba. Some of them said to others: send to Muhammad, speak with him and dispute with him, until you excuse yourselves to him. So they sent to him: the nobles of your people have gathered for you, to speak with you. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came quickly, thinking they had changed their minds about his affair: he was eager, loving their guidance, and their suffering was grievous to him, until he sat with them. They said: O Muhammad, we sent for you to excuse ourselves to you: and by Allah, we know of no man of the Arabs who brought upon his people what you have brought upon your people: you reviled the fathers, vilified the religion, made the minds folly, reviled the deities, divided the community: nothing ugly remains but you have brought it between us and you.
If you came with this speech seeking wealth, we shall gather for you of our wealth until you are the richest of us; and if you seek honor among us, we shall make you our chief; and if you want kingship, we shall make you king over us; and if what comes to you is a spirit you see has overcome you, and they used to call the spirit of the jinn the subjected spirit, then perhaps that is so: we have spent our wealth seeking medicine, until we cure you of it, or excuse ourselves to you. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "nothing of what you say reaches me: I have not come to you seeking your wealth, nor honor among you, nor kingship over you: but Allah has sent me to you as a messenger, sent down upon me a Book, and commanded me to be for you a bearer of glad tidings and a warner: I have conveyed the message of my Lord and counseled you: if you accept from me what I have brought you, it is your share in this world and the hereafter; and if you return it to me, I shall be patient with the command of Allah until Allah judges between me and you", or words to that effect from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
They said: O Muhammad, if you will not accept from us what we have offered you, you know that no one of the people has narrower lands, less wealth, and a harder life than we. So ask your Lord, who sent you with what He sent you, to move from us these mountains that have straitened us, to spread out for us our land, and to cause rivers to flow through it like the rivers of Syria and Iraq, and to raise for us those of our fathers who have passed, and let QuSayy ibn Kilab be among those raised for us: for he was an old, truthful man: and we shall ask them whether what you say is true or false. If you do what we ask and he confirms you, we shall confirm you, and know your standing with Allah, and that He sent you a messenger as you say. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to them: "I was not sent for this: I have come to you from Allah with what He sent me: I have conveyed to you what I was sent with to you: if you accept it, it is your share in this world and the hereafter; and if you return it to me, I shall be patient with the command of Allah until Allah judges between me and you."
They said: if you will not do this for us, then take for yourself: ask your Lord to send us an angel who confirms you in what you say, and returns to us from you, and you ask him: let him make for us gardens and treasuries and palaces of gold and silver, and spare you what we see you seek: for you stand in the markets and seek livelihood as we seek it: that we may know the excellence of your standing with your Lord, if you are a messenger as you claim. He said to them: "I shall not do it: I am not one who asks this of his Lord, and I was not sent to you with this: but Allah has sent me as bearer of glad tidings and warner: if you accept what I have brought you, it is your share in this world and the hereafter; and if you return it to me, I shall be patient with the command of Allah until Allah judges between me and you." They said: then make the heaven fall as you claimed your Lord would do if He willed: for we shall not believe you unless you do it. He said: "that is with Allah: if He wills, He will do it with you."
They said: O Muhammad, did your Lord not know that we would sit with you, and ask you what we asked you, and seek from you what we seek: so let Him come forward and inform you of what you answer us with, and inform you what He will do with us therein if we do not accept from you what you bring us? For it has reached us that only a man of al-Yamama teaches you this, called ar-Rahman: and by Allah, we shall never believe in ar-Rahman. You have excused yourself to us, O Muhammad: by Allah, we shall not leave you and what you have done to us until we destroy you, or you destroy us. And one of them said: we worship the angels, and they are the daughters of Allah. And another said: we shall not believe you until you come to us with Allah and the angels in ranks. When they said that, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rose from them and departed, and with him rose Abdallah ibn Abi Umayya ibn al-Mughira ibn Abdallah ibn Makhzum, who was the cousin of his mother Atika bint Abd al-Muttalib.
He said: O Muhammad, your people offered you what they offered and you did not accept it from them; then they asked you for themselves matters by which they would know your standing with Allah, and you did not do it; then they asked you to hasten the punishment you frighten them with: by Allah, I shall never believe you, until you make a ladder to the heaven, then climb it while I watch, until you come to it and bring back with you an unrolled scroll, and with you four angels testifying that you are as you say: and by Allah, were you to do that, I should think I would not believe you. Then he turned away from the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went to his family, grieved and sorrowful: for what had escaped him of his people when he called them, and for what he saw of their keeping far from him. And this council upon which these chieftains gathered is a council of oppression, enmity and obstinacy: for this reason divine wisdom and lordly mercy required that they not be answered with what they asked: for Allah knew they would not believe therein, so He would hasten them to the punishment.
As Imam Ahmad said: Uthman ibn Muhammad told us, from Jarir, from al-A’mash, from Jafar ibn Iyas, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: the people of Mecca asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to make the Safa gold for them, and to push the mountains away from them that they might cultivate. It was said to him: if you wish, you try them; and if you wish, you give them what they asked: if they disbelieve they will be destroyed as those before them were destroyed. He said: "no: rather I prefer to try them." So Allah sent down: "And nothing has prevented Us from sending signs except that the former peoples denied them. And We gave Thamud the she-camel as a visible sign, but they wronged her", the verse of al-Isra: and thus an-Nasa’i reported it, from the hadith of Jarir.
And Ahmad said: Abd ar-Rahman told us, from Sufyan, from Salama ibn Kuhayl, from Imran Abu l-Hakam, from Ibn Abbas: Quraysh said to the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): call upon your Lord to make the Safa gold for us, and we shall believe in you. He said: "will you do it?" They said: yes. So he called, and Jibril came to him and said: your Lord greets you with peace, and says to you: if you wish, the Safa becomes gold for them, and whoever of them disbelieves after that I shall punish with a punishment wherewith I punish none of the worlds: and if you wish, I open for them the door of mercy and repentance. He said: "rather repentance and mercy." And these two chains are good: and it is reported also without naming a Companion from a group of the successors: among them Sa’id ibn Jubayr, Qatada and Ibn Jurayj, and more than one besides.
And Imam Ahmad and at-Tirmidhi reported, from the hadith of Abdallah ibn al-Mubarak: Yahya ibn Ayyub told us, from Ubaydallah ibn Zahr, from Ali ibn Yazid, from al-Qasim, from Abu Umama, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "my Lord offered to make the plain of Mecca gold for me. I said: no, O Lord: to be full one day and hungry one day, or the like of that: for when I am hungry I implore You and remember You, and when I am full I praise You and thank You." Wording of Ahmad. And at-Tirmidhi said: this is a fine hadith. And Ali ibn Yazid is weakened in hadith.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: an elder of the people of Egypt who came to us some forty-three years ago told me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: Quraysh sent an-Nadr ibn al-Harith and ’Uqba ibn Abi Mu’ayt to the Jewish rabbis of Medina, and said to them: ask them about Muhammad, describe him to them, and report to them his saying: for they are the people of the first Book, and with them is knowledge of the prophets that is not with us. The two went out until they reached Medina, and asked the Jewish rabbis about the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), described to them his affair and some of his saying, and said: you are the people of the Torah, and we have come to you that you inform us of this companion of ours. He said: the Jewish rabbis said to them: ask him about three things we command you: if he informs you of them, he is a prophet sent; and if he does not, the man speaks at his own whim, so give your verdict of him. Ask him about the young men who went forth in the first age: what was their affair? For they have a wondrous story.
And ask him about a man who traveled the easts of the earth and its wests: what was his news? And ask him about the spirit: what is it? If he informs you of that, he is a prophet: so follow him. And if he informs you not, he is a man who speaks at his own whim: so do with his affair as seems good to you. An-Nadr and ’Uqba came back until they reached Quraysh, and said: O company of Quraysh, we have brought you the decision between you and Muhammad: the Jewish rabbis commanded us to ask him about matters. And they informed them of them.
So they came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: O Muhammad, inform us. And they asked him about what they were commanded. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to them: "tomorrow I shall inform you of what you asked." And he made no exception. So they went away from him, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed fifteen nights, Allah sending him no revelation about that, and Jibril not coming to him, until the people of Mecca began to spread rumor and said: Muhammad promised us tomorrow, and today is the fifteenth night we have risen without his informing us of anything of what we asked him. And the stay of revelation grieved the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and what the people of Mecca said was hard upon him. Then Jibril (peace be upon him) came to him from Allah with the surah of the People of the Cave, in which is the Messenger of Allah’s (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) being reproved for his grief over them, and the account of what they asked him: the affair of the young men, and the man who traveled, and the word of the Most High: "And they ask you about the soul. Say: The soul is of the affair of my Lord. And you have not been given of knowledge except a little", the eighty-fifth verse of al-Isra. And we have already spoken of all of that at length in the commentary: whoever wants it must seek it there.
And came down His word: "Do you think that the people of the Cave and of ar-Raqim were among Our signs a wonder?", the ninth verse of al-Kahf: then He set out their affair in detail, and inserted in the middle the teaching of the exception, as confirmation not as mere suspension, in His word: "And never say of anything: I shall do it tomorrow, except that Allah wills", the verses of al-Kahf, from the twenty-third to the twenty-fourth: then He mentioned the story of Musa, for its connection with the story of al-Khidr, then of Dhul-Qarnayn, then He said: "And they ask you about Dhul-Qarnayn. Say: I shall recite to you an account of him", the eighty-third verse of al-Kahf: then He explained his affair and related his news. And in the surah of Subhan: "And they ask you about the soul. Say: The soul is of the affair of my Lord": that is, a wondrous creation of His creation, and an affair of His affairs: He said to it: be, and it was: and you have no access to all that He created, and explaining its how within itself is hard for you, in view of the power of Allah the Most High and His wisdom: therefore He said: and you have not been given of knowledge except a little.
And it is established in the two Sahihs that the Jews asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) about that in Medina, and he recited to them this verse. So either it came down a second time, or he mentioned it in answer, though its coming down was earlier. And whoever says it only came down in Medina, and excepted it from the surah of Subhan: his word calls for examination. And Allah knows best.
Ibn Ishaq said: when Abu Talib feared the deceit of the Arabs would make them ride upon him with his people, he recited his qasida, in which he sought protection by the sanctuary of Mecca and its place among the people, and showed tenderness to the nobles of his people: while informing them, in his poetry, and others, that he was not a Muslim with the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), nor would he ever leave him for anything until he perished for him. He said:
When I saw those people, in whom is no love, having cut every tie and every means,
having been open with us of enmity and hurt, and having obeyed the command of the foe that would dislodge,
having leagued with a people against us of enemies, gnawing rage behind us with the fingers,
I bore them with a patience dark and ample, and bright and sweet, from the heritage of the speakers of old,
and brought to the House my clan and my brothers, and held their garments by the fastenings,
standing together, facing its portals, where every votive oath is fulfilled,
and where the Syrians unsaddle their mounts, at the outpour of the torrents of Isaf and Na’ila,
its walls notched or lowered, pierced between as-Sadiq and Bazil,
you see the idols in it, and the marble, and ornaments hung on their necks like amulets.
I seek refuge with the Lord of men from everyone who lunges at us with evil, or presses on with falsehood,
and from one who belittles, seeking out our flaws, and from one who fastens on our religion what we never attempted,
and from a wild bull, and from him who fixed Thabir in its place, and him who climbs Hira seeking bounty and alighting,
and by the House, the true House, from the heart of Mecca: and by Allah, Allah is not unmindful,
and by the Black Stone when they wipe it, when they surround it at forenoon and at evening,
and by the standing place of Ibrahim in the rock, still moist, upon his two bare feet, unshod,
and by the circuits between the two ascents to the Safa, and what is in them of images and simulacra,
and by whoever makes pilgrimage to the House of Allah, of every rider, and every vower, and every walker,
and by al-Mush’ar al-Aqsa when they set out to it, suffering to the outpour of the valleys that receive,
and by their halting upon the mountains at dusk, raising with their hands the chests of the she-camels,
and by the night of the great gathering, and the stations of Mina: and is there above it a sanctuary and stations?
and by the gathering, when the mounts depart from it swift, as women pour out from a downpour,
and by the Great Jamra when they stand firm at it, aiming its head with pebbles,
and by Kinda when they count at dusk: the pilgrims of Bakr ibn Wa’il complete it by them,
two allies who tightened the knot they differed over, and recalled to it the bonds of the ties,
and by the quenching of their fire the hue of dark sand, and its course, and its bier, and the cheeks of the rushing ostriches:
is there after this a refuge for the refugee? And a protector who fears Allah, the reproacher?
The foe is obeyed by us: and they wished that by us the gates of Turk and Kabul were shut.
You lie: by the House of Allah we shall not leave Mecca: you would only leave your affair in shambles.
You lie: by the House of Allah we shall never revile Muhammad, nor obey not for him, nor contend,
nor hand him over until we are felled around him, nor neglect our sons and our kin by marriage.
Let a people rise against you with iron, rising like fountains beneath the chains,
and let us see the rancorous bending his shield from the thrust, as laden ostriches bow,
and by Allah, should it grow serious, our swords will linger on the heads,
in the hands of a youth like a meteor of dark hue, brother of trust, guardian of truth, dauntless,
for months and days and a year of offenses heaped upon us: then comes the proof after the year before.
You will leave no people: shame to you: a chief who guards the enclosures, other than a craven eater,
and bright, by whose face the clouds are invoked: fattener of orphans, shield of widows,
to him flee the distressed of the people of Hashim: with him they are in mercy and bounty.
By my life, the lion and his whelp ran forth to hate us, and to mangle us for a glutton,
and Uthman fell short of us not, nor Qunfudh: but the two obeyed the command of those tribes,
they obeyed Ubayy and the son of Abd, their deity: and respected not our word any speaker’s,
as we met from Subay’ and Nawfal: each turned away, avoiding, courteous not,
if the two return, or Allah grants us power over them: we shall repay them blow with the scale’s blow.
And that is Abu Amr, who would have nothing but hating us, to oust us from the households of wool and rugs,
he worries us at every dusk and dawning: so worry Abu Amr for us, then beguile him,
and he swears to us by Allah what he will not hide from us: nay, we see him openly, unrestrained,
our hatred has straitened him every hill of earth, between Akhshab and Mujadil.
And ask Abu l-Walid: what have you done to us of kindness, toiling among us, averting like a beguiler?
You were a man with whom one lived by his counsel, and his mercy was upon us: you are not ignorant.
O Utbah, hear not of us the word of a carper, envious, fickle, hating, of tangled speech.
And Abu Sufyan passed by me turning away, as passes the neck of the ostrich among the great talkers,
he flees to Najd and the coolness of its waters, and claims I am not unmindful of you,
he informs us the deed of the sincere adviser that he is tender, hiding the bursting tempests within.
O Mu’attib, did I not support you on the day of Najda, and in the sublime affairs?
And on the day of dispute, when there came to you dueling rivals of the contentious foes?
O Mu’attib: the people asked you to depart a step: and I, when I am called to eat, am no devourer.
May Allah requite for us Abd Shams and Nawfal the requital of evil, soon, not deferred,
with a scale of justice that misses not a barley grain: having a witness from himself, failing not.
The minds of a people have deranged, transformed: the sons of Khilaf have snared us with the trapper’s net,
and we are the very crest of Hashim’s ridge, and the house of QuSayy in the first great matters.
And Sahm and Makhzum aligned and whipped against us the foe of every ant and creeping thing.
O sons of Abd Manaf, you are the best of your people: so admit not into your affair a coward or a treacherous.
By my life you have weakened and failed, and brought an affair that misjoins the joints,
you were talk of a cooking pot, and now you are the firewood of cauldrons and kettles,
let it please the sons of Abd Manaf to wrong us, forsake us, and leave us at the strongholds.
If we are a people who avenge what you have done, and milk the she-camel full without delay,
there were counselors in Lu’ay ibn Ghalib: their banishment to us of every fiercest falcon,
and the clan of Nufayl are the worst who trod the pebbles: the hottest of the droppings of Ma’add.
So convey to QuSayy that our affair will be raised: and give QuSayy tidings after us of forsaking,
had a great calamity befall QuSayy by night, when we shelter them at the entrances,
and had they struck truly through the midst of their houses, we had been a molar for the ill-treated women.
Every sincere friend and sister’s son we count: by my life we found his flaw beyond fault,
save that a clan of Kilab ibn Murra is pure to us from the fetter of the forsaking one,
and there is tenderness for them until their gathering is dispersed, and every aggressor and ignoramus withdrawn.
And the basin of the watering was ours among them: and we are the dark ones of Ghalib’s ridge and the parching ones,
youths of the Muttayyibun and Hashim, with bright swords in the hands of the polishers,
who never fled nor shed blood, nor leagued but with the worst of the tribes,
with a stroke in which you see the lads as the flanks of lions over meat fresh-slaughtered,
sons of a beloved mother of Hind’s line: the sons of Jumah, Ubayd ibn Qays ibn ’Aqil.
But we are a noble stock for chieftains, by whom the peoples are famed at the places of honor,
and the good sister’s son of the people, no liar charged: Zuhayr, a sword bared from the scabbard,
more fragrant than the thyme of Bahalil, traced to a lineage surpassing in the arena of glory.
By my life I have been burdened with love for Ahmad and his brothers, the habit of the constant lover,
who is like him among men, what a hoped-for one, when the judges measure him at the excellence?
Forbearing, rightly guided, just, not errant: he turns to a god who is not unmindful of him,
noble of endeavors, generous, son of a generous one: his is a heritage of glory established, unblunted,
and the Lord of the servants has aided him with His help, and made manifest a religion whose truth does not wane.
For by Allah, were it not that I loathe the insult hurled upon our elders in the assemblies,
we should have followed him in every state of time, earnestly, without words of jest,
they know that our son is no liar charged among us, and he cares not for the word of the false.
So Ahmad abides among us in a station the surah of the long one cannot attain,
I bent my own self beneath him and guarded him, and warded off with the spearheads and the crests.
Ibn Hisham said: this is what was sound to me of this qasida, and some of the scholars of poetry reject the greater part of it. I say: it is a great qasida, most eloquent and far-reaching: none can utter it but the one to whom it is attributed: and it is more splendid than the seven Mu’allaqat, and more reaching in conveying the meaning than all of them together. And al-Umawi inserted it in his Maghazi, in a long version, with other additions. And Allah knows best.