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When Prophet Muhammad traveled to Taif to call Thaqif to Islam: the refusal of the three chiefs, the stoning until he bled, his famous supplication, Addas of Niniveh and Younous ibn Matta, the sura at-Tariq and Aisha’s hadith on the hardest day, from Ibn Ishaq, Moussa ibn Uqba, al-Bukhari and Mouslim.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Such is the chapter of his going (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) to the people of Taif to call them to the religion of Allah and to seek their support for it: they refused and accepted nothing from him, and he returned to Mecca. Ibn Ishaq said: after the death of Abu Talib, Quraysh inflicted on the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) harm that they had not inflicted on him during the life of his uncle Abu Talib. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) then went out to Taif, seeking from Thaqif support and protection against his people, and hoping they would accept from him what he brought them from Allah. He went to them alone.
Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad reported, from Muhammad ibn Ka’b al-Qurazi: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) reached Taif, he went to a group of Thaqif, the chiefs and nobles of the tribe. They were three brothers: Abd Yalayl, Mas’oud and Habib, sons of Amr ibn Umayr ibn Awf ibn Uqda ibn Ghiyara ibn Awf ibn Thaqif; one of them had with him a woman of Quraysh, of the Banu Jumah. He sat with them, called them to Allah, and spoke to them of what he had brought them: support for his religion, Islam, and standing with him against whoever of his people opposed him.
One of them answered: “If Allah sent you, I would tear the covering of the Kaaba.” The second said: “Could Allah find no one else to send but you?” The third said: “By Allah, I will never speak to you: if you are a messenger from Allah as you say, you are too great for me to answer you; and if you lie about Allah, it does not befit me to speak with you.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) rose from their presence, despairing of any good from Thaqif. He had said to them, as it was related to me: “If you do what you are doing, keep it about me.” He disliked that his people should hear of it, fearing they would be incited against him.
They did not keep the secret and stirred their fools and servants against him: they insulted him and shouted after him, until the people gathered against him and he took refuge in the orchard of Utba ibn Rabia and Shayba ibn Rabia, who were there. Those fools of Thaqif who followed him turned back. Moussa ibn Uqba related an account similar to this, except that he did not mention the supplication, and he added: the people of Taif had sat in two rows along his road; when he passed, they did not let him lift his feet or set them down except that they crushed them with stones, until he was bloodied. He escaped from them, his feet flowing with blood, and made for the shade of a grapevine, deeply distressed. In that orchard were Utba and Shayba, sons of Rabia, and he disliked their presence because of their enmity to Allah and His Messenger.
Ibn Ishaq related this supplication in his book of the sira without an isnad, with the wording “as it was related to me,” while the hafiz Ibn Asakir related it in the biography of al-Qasim ibn al-Layth ar-Ras’ani, sheikh of an-Nasaï and at-Tabarani, through his own chain going back to Abdallah ibn Ja’far: after the death of Abu Talib, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out to Taif on foot, called them to Islam, they did not respond, and he withdrew to the shade of a tree where he prayed two rak’as, then said:
“O Allah, to You I complain of the weakness of my strength, the scarcity of my means and my lowliness before people, O Most Merciful of the merciful: You are the Lord of the oppressed, and You are my Lord. To whom do You entrust me? To one far away who treats me with hostility, or to one near to whom You have given my affair? If there is no anger of Yours upon me, then I care not, but Your preservation is more ample for me. I seek refuge in the light of Your face by which the darknesses are illuminated and by which the affairs of this world and the next are set right, from Your anger descending upon me or Your displeasure alighting on me. Yours is the appeal until You are pleased, and there is no power and no might except in You.”
Related by Ibn Asakir, from Abdallah ibn Ja’far; and Ibn Ishaq, without isnad
Ibn Ishaq said: when Utba and Shayba, sons of Rabia, saw his condition, their compassion was stirred. They called a Christian servant named Addas and said to him: “Take grapes from this vine, put them in this plate, carry them to this man and tell him to eat.” Addas did so, placed it before the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: eat. When the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) extended his hand, he said: “In the name of Allah,” then ate. Addas looked at his face and said: “By Allah, the people of this land do not say such words!” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) asked him: “From which land are you, O Addas, and what is your religion?” He replied: “I am a Christian, a man from the people of Niniveh.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “From the town of the righteous man Younous ibn Matta?” Addas said: “How do you know Younous ibn Matta?” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “He is my brother: he was a prophet and I am a prophet.” Addas threw himself upon him, kissing his head, his hands and his feet.
One of the two sons of Rabia said to his companion: “Your servant is now lost to you.” When Addas came back to them, they said: “Woe to you, Addas: why do you kiss this man’s head, hands and feet?” He answered: “O my master, there is nothing on earth better than this man: he has told me of a matter that none knows but a prophet.” They said: “Beware, Addas, let him not turn you from your religion, for your religion is better than his.”
al-Bayhaqi also mentioned that Imam Ahmad related, from Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba, from Marwan ibn Muawiya al-Fazari, from Abdallah ibn Abd ar-Rahman at-Taiifi, from Abd ar-Rahman ibn Khalid ibn Abi Jabal al-Adwani, from his father: he saw the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in the east of the land of Thaqif, standing upon a bow, or a staff, when he came to them seeking their support. “I heard him reciting:
“By the heaven and the night star!”
Sura at-Tariq, 1
“until he completed the sura. I memorized it in jahiliya while I was a polytheist, then recited it after entering Islam. Thaqif called me and asked: what did you hear from this man? I recited it to them, and the one among them from Quraysh said: we know our companion better: had we known that what he says is true, we would have followed him.”
It is established in the two Sahihs, through the chain of Abdallah ibn Wahb, from Younous ibn Yazid, from Ibn Shihab, that Urwa ibn az-Zubayr informed him that Aisha told him she asked the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): “Have you undergone a day harder than the day of Ouhoud?” He replied:
“I encountered from your people what I encountered, and the hardest of what I encountered from them was the day of al-Aqaba, when I presented myself to Ibn Abd Yalayl ibn Abd Kulal and he did not respond to me as I wished. I left, preoccupied in my face, and I came to myself only at Qarn ath-Tha’alib. I raised my head and there was a cloud shading me: I looked and saw in it Jibril (peace be upon him), who called me. He said: Allah has heard the words of your people concerning you and what they answered you, and He has sent you the angel of the mountains.”
Related by al-Bukhari and Mouslim, from Aisha
Jibril then called the angel of the mountains, who greeted him and said: “O Muhammad, Allah has heard the words of your people concerning you and what they answered you. I am the angel of the mountains: your Lord has sent me to you that you may order him as you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) replied: “I rather hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins descendants who will worship Allah alone, associating nothing with Him.”