Home > Sira > Quraysh league against the Prophet and his Companions
Quraysh league against Prophet Mohamed: “I have come to you with the slaughter”, the thirty days of hunger with Bilal, the ultimatum to Abu Talib, “the sun in my right hand” and the refused exchange of ’Umara for Muhammad, from Ahmad, Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Hisham.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
Thus ended the day of the three circumambulations: each of them bowed his head as if a bird were about to swoop upon him, and even the harshest of them dismissed him, saying: “Go, Abu al-Qasim, you are lucid and not ignorant.” The next day, they gathered in the hijr, and I was with them. One said to another: “You spoke of what befell you and what reached you from him, and when he confronted you with what you hate, you left him!” While they were at that, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) appeared: they leapt upon him at one leap, encircled him and demanded: “Is it you who says such and such?”, for what reached them of his blame of their deities and their religion. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) answered: “Yes, I am the one who says it.” I saw one of them seize the collar of his garment. Abu Bakr rose, weeping before him, saying: “Woe to you! Would you kill a man because he says: My Lord is Allah?” They then left him: that was the worst I saw Quraysh inflict upon him.
Imam Ahmad related, from Waki’, from Hammad ibn Salama, from Thabit, from Anas: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “I was tried for Allah as none was tried; I feared for Allah as none feared; and thirty nights and days passed over me wherein Bilal and I had nothing to eat that a being with a liver could eat, except what Bilal hid under his armpit.” at-Tirmidhi and Ibn Majah related it likewise, from Hammad ibn Salama, and at-Tirmidhi said: hassan sahih.
Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: his uncle Abu Talib stood surety for him, protected him, stood before him, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) pursued Allah’s order, manifesting his religion without anything turning him from it. Seeing that he would not be corrected in anything, Quraysh reproached him their separation and his blame of their deities, and seeing that his uncle Abu Talib had stood surety and did not surrender him to them, nobles of Quraysh marched to Abu Talib: Utba and Shayba, sons of Rabia ibn Abd Shams, Abu Soufyan Sakhr ibn Harb ibn Umayya, Abu al-Bakhtari al-As ibn Hisham, al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, Abu Jahl ’Amr ibn Hisham, al-Walid ibn al-Mughira, Nubayh and Munabbih, sons of al-Hajjaj, and al-As ibn Wa’il, or others marched. They said: “O Abu Talib, your nephew cursed our deities, denounced our religion, ridiculed our reasonings and led astray our fathers: either you restrain him, or you leave us face to him; else you will suffer as we suffer his opposition, and we will restrain him for you.” Abu Talib answered them gently and dismissed them graciously.
They withdrew, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) pursued his path, manifesting Allah’s religion and calling to it. The affair grew bitter between them, the men drew apart and grew embittered, and Quraysh multiplied among themselves the mention of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): they conspired against him and urged one another. Then they went a second time to Abu Talib and said: “O Abu Talib, you have age, honor and standing among us; we warned you about your nephew and you did not restrain him: by Allah, we will not endure any longer his insults to our fathers, his ridicule of our reasonings and his blame of our deities, until you restrain him, or we confront him and you therein until one of the two camps perishes,” or words to that effect. They withdrew, and the separation from his people and their hostility appeared immense to Abu Talib, who could neither accept the Islam of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) nor his abandonment.
Ibn Ishaq said: Ya’qoub ibn Outba ibn al-Mughira related to me that Quraysh, after these words to Abu Talib, he sent to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said to him: “O son of my brother, your people came to me and said such and such: spare me and spare yourself, and burden me not with what I cannot bear.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) thought his uncle would abandon him and withhold his support, that he had weakened in aiding him and standing with him: he said to him: “O my uncle, by Allah, were they to place the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, on condition that I abandon this affair until Allah makes it triumph, or that I perish therein, I would not abandon it.” Then the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) burst into tears, rose and departed. When he turned away, Abu Talib called him: “Return, O son of my brother.” The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) returned to him, and he said: “Go, O son of my brother, say what you will: by Allah, never shall I surrender you for anything.”
Ibn Ishaq said: Quraysh, knowing that Abu Talib refused to abandon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and surrender him to them, and his agreement upon their separation and hostility, went to him with ’Umara ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira and said, as it reached me: “O Abu Talib, this is ’Umara ibn al-Walid, the most vigorous and handsome young man of Quraysh: take him, his intelligence and his support are yours, adopt him as a son, and surrender to us your nephew who has broken your religion and that of your fathers, divided the community of your people and ridiculed its reasonings: we will kill him. It is a man for a man.” Abu Talib said: “Woe to you! You give me your son that I may feed him, and I give you mine that you kill him! That, by Allah, shall never be.” al-Mut’im ibn Adi said: “O Abu Talib, your people have been equitable with you and strove to rid you of what you hate: yet I see you refuse to accept anything from them.” Abu Talib answered him: “By Allah, they were not equitable with me; but you have gathered against me the treachery and the people’s backing: do as it pleases you.” The matter then blazed, war kindled, and the people hurled themselves one against another, calling one another. Abu Talib said at that moment, alluding to al-Mut’im ibn Adi and encompassing whoever of the Banu Abd Manat had abandoned him, and whoever of Quraysh’s tribes had taken him as enemy, recalling what they had asked and how far apart they had gone:
“Listen: say to Amr, to al-Walid and to Mut’im … ah, would that my share of your support were fresh ;”
“A sturdy camel, abundant, of copious foam, … whose drops of urine water the legs ;”
“Lingering behind the watering place, never reaching it: … when one passes the herd, they say to him: hair !”
“I see two brothers of our fathers and our mothers … questioned, they say: the matter belongs to others than us ;”
“Yet they have an affair, but they have bitten the dust … as bit the rock the skull of Dhu Tha’lab ;”
“I single out especially Abd Shams and Nawfal : … they both cast us away as embers are cast ;”
“They both winked to the people against their two brothers : … their palms have become yellow among them ;”
“They both shared the glory of him who has no father … among the people, unless his renown take root ;”
“And Taym, and Makhzum, and Zuhra of them …, who were our allies when victory was sought ;”
“By Allah, from us shall enmity not cease, … nor from you, so long as of our stock remains one hardened.”
Ibn Hisham says: we omitted from it two verses harsher still against them.