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Quraysh’s polemic against the Quran: al-Walid ibn al-Mughira moved by the speech, Utbah’s offer and the recitation of Ha-Mim, the three night listeners, and recitation between loud voice and whisper.
Updated on 07 September 2026 at 11:07 PM
The chapter of the polemic of the polytheists against the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), of the crushing proof he established against them, and of their inward acknowledgment of the truth despite their outward opposition, out of obstinacy, envy, aggression and denial. Ishaq ibn Rahawayh reported: Abd ar-Razzak told us, from Ma’mar, from Ayyub as-Sakhtiyani, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: al-Walid ibn al-Mughira came to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), who recited the Quran to him, and he was as if softened. Abu Jahl learned of it and came to him and said: O uncle, your people intend to gather money for you. He said: why? He said: to give it to you, for you went to Muhammad to propose to him what he proposes. He said: Quraysh knows that I am the richest of them all. He said: then say about him a word that will reach your people, showing that you reject him. He said: and what shall I say? By Allah, there is no man among you who knows poetry better than I do, its rajaz and its qasidas, nor the poetry of the jinn: by Allah, what he says resembles none of that. And by Allah, his speech has a sweetness, and upon it a freshness: its top is fruit-bearing, its base is rich in water: it rises and is not surpassed, and it crushes what is beneath it.
He said: your people will not be content until you say something about him. He said: leave me to think it over. When he had reflected, he said: it is a sorcery that is passed on: he takes it from another. Then came down: "Leave Me with him whom I created alone, and to whom I gave extended wealth, and children ever present with him", the verses of al-Muddaththir, from the eleventh to the thirteenth. Thus al-Bayhaqi reported it, from al-Hakim, from Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ali as-San’ani, in Mecca, who reported it from Ishaq. And Hammad ibn Zayd reported it, from Ayyub, from Ikrima, without naming a Companion. In that version he recited before him: "Certes, Allah commands justice, beneficence and giving to kin. And He forbids indecency, wrong and rebellion. He exhorts you, that you may take heed", the ninetieth verse of an-Nahl.
Al-Bayhaqi said: al-Hakim informed us, from al-Asamm, from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar, from Yunus ibn Bukayr, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: Muhammad ibn Abi Muhammad told me, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr or Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: al-Walid ibn al-Mughira gathered with a group of Quraysh, being the eldest among them, as the pilgrimage season drew near. He said: the delegations of the Arabs will come to you at it, and they have heard of the matter of your companion: so agree upon one opinion, and do not differ, lest some of you belie others, and the words of some of you refute others. It was said: O Abu Abd Shams, then propose for us an opinion we may take up. He said: rather you: speak, and I shall listen. They said: we shall say: a soothsayer. He said: he is not a soothsayer: we have seen the soothsayers, and he has not their muttering. They said: we shall say: a madman. He said: he is not a madman: we have seen madness and known it, and he has not its choking, nor its trembling, nor its whisperings. They said: we shall say: a poet. He said: he is not a poet: we have known poetry with its rajaz, its hazaj, its qarid, its contracted and extended meters, and he is not of poetry. They said: then we shall say: he is a sorcerer. He said: he is not a sorcerer: we have seen the sorcerers and their magic, and he has not their blowing, nor their knots. They said: then what shall we say, O Abu Abd Shams?
He said: by Allah, his speech has a sweetness, its root is rich in water, and its branches bear fruit: whatever you say of it, it will be known to be false. And the nearest word to truth is that you say: a sorcerer. You will say: a sorcerer who separates a man from his father, a man from his wife, a man from his brother, and a man from his clan. They held to that, and sat out for the people until the season arrived: no one passed by them but they warned him against him, and mentioned his affair to them. Allah sent down concerning al-Walid His word: "Leave Me with him whom I created alone, and to whom I gave extended wealth, and children ever present with him", the verses of al-Muddaththir. And concerning that group, His word: "those who made the Quran into fragments. By your Lord! We shall question them all about what they used to do", the verses of al-Hijr, from the ninety-first to the ninety-third.
I say: Allah the Most High there announces their ignorance and the weakness of their understanding, saying: "But they said: Rather a confusion of dreams! Or he invented it. Or rather he is a poet. So let him bring us a sign like those of the former messengers", the fifth verse of al-Anbiya. They were perplexed, not knowing what to say of it: all they said was false; for whoever departs from the truth errs, whatever he says. Allah the Most High said: "See to what they compare you! They have gone astray. They will not find any path", the ninth verse of al-Furqan.
Imam Abd ibn Humayd reported in his Musnad: Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shayba told me, from Ali ibn Mushir, from al-Ajlah, who is Ibn Abdallah al-Kindi, from adh-Dhayyal ibn Harmala al-Asadi, from Jabir ibn Abdallah: Quraysh gathered one day and said: seek the most knowledgeable of you about sorcery, divination and poetry: let him go to this man who has divided our community, scattered our affair and blamed our religion: let him speak to him and see what he answers him. They said: we know no one but Utbah ibn Rabi’a. They said: it is you, O Abu l-Walid. Utbah came to him and said: O Muhammad, are you better than Abdallah? The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) remained silent. He said: are you better than Abd al-Muttalib? The Messenger of Allah remained silent. He said: if you claim they are better than you, they worshipped the deities you worshipped; and if you claim you are better than them, then speak, that we may hear your word.
By Allah, we have never seen a man more ominous to his people than you: you have divided our community, scattered our affair, blamed our religion, and disgraced us before the Arabs, until the rumor flies among them that in Quraysh there is a sorcerer, and that in Quraysh there is a soothsayer. By Allah, we expect nothing but the cry of a woman in labor: that some of us rise against others with swords until we exterminate one another. O man, if it is need that has taken you, we have gathered for you until you become the richest man of Quraysh; and if it is honor, choose whichever women of Quraysh you will, and we shall marry you to ten. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "have you finished?" He said: yes.
The Messenger of Allah said: "In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. Ha-Mim. A revelation from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. A Book whose verses have been detailed, an Arabic Quran for a people who know, a bearer of glad tidings and a warner. But most of them turn away, so they hear not", and he continued reciting until: "But if they turn away, then say: I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamud", the thirteenth verse of Fussilat. Utbah said: enough, enough! Have you nothing other than this? He said: "no." He returned to Quraysh, and they said: what is behind you? He said: I left nothing that I thought you might speak to him about, but that I spoke of it. They said: did he answer you? He said: yes. Then he said: by Him who raised the heaven as a building, I understood nothing of his word, except that he warns you of a thunderbolt like that of Ad and Thamud. They said: woe to you! The man speaks to you in Arabic and you do not know what he said? He said: by Allah, I understood nothing of what he said, except the mention of the thunderbolt.
And al-Bayhaqi reported it, and others with him, from al-Hakim, from al-Asamm, from Abbas ad-Duri, from Yahya ibn Ma’in, from Muhammad ibn Fudayl, from al-Ajlah, as has just been cited. There is speech in it. And he added: and if it is sovereignty you want, we have girded our belts for you, and you will be our head as long as you live. And he has: when he said to him: but if they turn away, then say: I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamud, Utbah pressed his hand upon his mouth, and appealed to him by kinship to stop: he did not go out to his people, and confined himself from them. Abu Jahl said: O company of Quraysh, we see Utbah only as having inclined toward Muhammad, and his food has pleased him: that is only from need that struck him: let us go to him. They came to him, and Abu Jahl said: by Allah, O Utbah, we have come only because you inclined toward Muhammad and his affair pleased you: if you have a need, we shall gather of our wealth what will spare you the food of Muhammad.
Utbah became angry and swore by Allah that he would never speak to Muhammad again, and said: you know I am among the richest of Quraysh in wealth: yet I went to him and he answered me with a speech which, by Allah, is neither sorcery, nor poetry, nor divination: he recited: In the name of Allah... until: I have warned you of a thunderbolt like the thunderbolt of Ad and Thamud. So I pressed my hand upon my mouth, and appealed to him by kinship to stop: and you know that Muhammad, when he says something, does not lie: I feared that the punishment might descend upon you.
Al-Bayhaqi said: al-Hakim informed us, from al-Asamm, from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar, from Yunus, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: Yazid ibn Abi Ziyad, freedman of Banu Hashim, told me, from Muhammad ibn Ka’b: I was told that Utbah ibn Rabi’a, who was a forbearing lord, said one day while sitting in the club of Quraysh, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) sitting alone in the sanctuary: O company of Quraysh, shall I not rise to this man and speak to him, and propose to him some matters: perhaps he will accept some of them, and leave us alone? They said: yes, O Abu l-Walid. Utbah rose until he sat beside the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). The account mentions what Utbah said to him and what he offered the Messenger of Allah of wealth, kingship and other things. And Ziyad said, from Ibn Ishaq: Utbah said: O company of Quraysh, shall I not rise to Muhammad and speak to him, and propose to him matters, perhaps he will accept some of them, and we give him whatever he wishes, and he leaves us: and that was when Hamza had accepted Islam, and they saw the companions of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) increasing and multiplying. They said: yes, O Abu l-Walid: rise to him and speak to him.
Utbah rose to him until he sat beside the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and said: O nephew, you are of us as you know, in strength within the clan and standing in lineage: yet you have come to your people with a great matter: you have divided their community, made their senses folly, blamed their deities and their religion, and declared disbelief upon their departed forefathers. So hear from me, that I may propose to you matters you may weigh: perhaps you will accept some of them. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: "O Abu l-Walid, I hear." He said: O nephew, if by this matter you have brought it is wealth you seek, we shall gather for you of our wealth until you are the richest of us; and if it is honor you seek, we shall make you our chief, no decision taken without you; and if it is kingship, we shall make you king over us; and if what comes to you is a spirit you see and cannot repel from yourself, we sought for you the medicine, and we spent our wealth on it, until we cure you of it: for sometimes the follower overcomes a man, until he is treated of it.
When Utbah finished, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was listening to him, the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said to him: "are you done, O Abu l-Walid?" He said: yes. He said: "then hear from me." He said: I shall. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. Ha-Mim. A revelation from the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful. A Book whose verses have been detailed, an Arabic Quran for a people who know", and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went on reciting. When Utbah heard it he lent it his ear, and cast his hands behind his back, leaning on them, to listen, until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) reached the prostration and prostrated. Then he said: "have you heard, O Abu l-Walid?" He said: I have heard. He said: "then you are yours, and it is its own." Utbah rose to his companions, and some of them said to others: by Allah, Abu l-Walid has come to you with something other than what he went with. When they sat beside him they said: what is behind you, O Abu l-Walid?
He said: behind me: by Allah, I have heard a speech the like of which I have never heard: by Allah, it is not poetry, nor divination. O company of Quraysh, obey me and leave this matter to me: let this man alone with what he is upon, and keep away from him: for by Allah, the speech I heard will have an event. If the Arabs strike him down, you are rid of him through others; and if he prevails over the Arabs, his kingship is your kingship, his honor your honor, and you are the most fortunate of men through him. They said: by Allah, O Abu l-Walid, he has bewitched you with his tongue. He said: this is my opinion for you: so do what seems good to you. Yunus then mentions, from Ibn Ishaq, a poem Abu Talib said in praising Utbah.
And al-Bayhaqi said: Abu Muhammad Abdallah ibn Yunus al-Isbahani informed us: Abu Qutayba Salama ibn al-Fadl al-Adami informed us, in Mecca: Abu Ayyub Ahmad ibn Bishr at-Tayalisi told us, from Dawud ibn Amr ad-Dabbi, from al-Muthanna ibn Zur’a, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited before Utbah ibn Rabi’a: Ha-Mim, a revelation from the Entirely Merciful, he came to his companions and said to them: O people, obey me in this matter today, and help me in what is after it: for by Allah, I have heard from this man a speech such as my ears have never heard its like, and I know not what to answer him. And this hadith is, for this reason, very strange.
Al-Bayhaqi then reported, from al-Hakim, from al-Asamm, from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Jabbar, from Yunus, from Muhammad ibn Ishaq: az-Zuhri told me: I was told that Abu Jahl, Abu Sufyan and al-Akhnas ibn Shariq went out one night to listen to the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) praying at night in his house. Each man of them took a place to listen from him, each not knowing the place of his companion. They spent the night listening to him, until morning came and dawn broke, and they dispersed: the road gathered them, and they reproached one another. Some of them said to others: do not return: were one of your fools to see you, he would fasten something upon you with him. Then they went away. When the second night came, each man of them returned to his seat, and they spent the night listening to him until dawn broke, and they dispersed: the road gathered them, and some of them said to others as they had said the first time. Then they went away. When the third night came, each man of them took his seat, and they spent the night listening to him, until dawn broke and they dispersed: the road gathered them, and they said: we shall not leave until we pledge that we shall not return. So they pledged one another to that, then dispersed.
When al-Akhnas ibn Shariq arose in the morning, he took his staff, went out, and came to Abu Sufyan in his house, and said: tell me, O Abu Handhala, your opinion of what you heard from Muhammad. He said: O Abu Tha’laba, by Allah I have heard things I recognize, and I know what is meant by them. Al-Akhnas said: and I likewise, by Him by whom you swore. Then he left him, came to Abu Jahl, entered upon him in his house, and said: O Abu l-Hakam, what is your opinion of what you heard from Muhammad? He said: what did I hear! We and the sons of Abd Manaf were contending for honor: they fed, and we fed; they carried, and we carried; they gave, and we gave: until we groveled upon the knees, like two racehorses neck and neck. Then they say: from among us is a Prophet to whom revelation comes from heaven: when shall we ever attain this? By Allah, we shall never hear of it, nor believe it.
Al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us: Abu l-Abbas informed us: Ahmad told us: Yunus told us, from Hisham ibn Sa’d, from Zayd ibn Aslam, from al-Mughira ibn Shu’ba: on the first day I came to know the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), I was walking with Abu Jahl ibn Hisham in one of the alleys of Mecca, when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) met us and said to Abu Jahl: "O Abu l-Hakam, come to Allah and to His Messenger: I call you to Allah." Abu Jahl said: O Muhammad, will you not cease insulting our deities? Do you want only that we testify that you have conveyed? Then we testify that you have conveyed: by Allah, were I sure that what you say is true, I would follow you. The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went away; Ali drew near, and Abu Jahl said to him: by Allah, I know that what he says is true, but something prevents me: the sons of QuSayy said: to us the keepership of the veil. We said: yes. Then they said: to us the watering. We said: yes. Then they said: to us the council house. We said: yes. Then they said: to us the banner. We said: yes. Then they fed and we fed, until the knees interlocked: then they say: from among us is a Prophet. By Allah, I shall not do it.
And al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah and Abu Bakr informed us, and said: Abu l-Abbas Muhammad ibn Ya’qub al-Asamm told us, from Muhammad ibn Khalid, from Ahmad ibn Khalid: Isra’il told us, from Abu Ishaq: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) passed by Abu Jahl and Abu Sufyan as the two sat, and Abu Jahl said: this is your Prophet, O sons of Abd Shams. Abu Sufyan said: and do you marvel that there be from us a Prophet! The Prophet is among those lesser than us and lowlier. Abu Jahl said: it is a marvel that a boy should come forth from among elders as a Prophet. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) heard, and came to the two of them, and said: "as for you, O Abu Sufyan: for Allah and His Messenger you were not angry, but you defended the lineage; and as for you, O Abu l-Hakam: by Allah, you will laugh little, and you will weep much." He said: evil is what you promise me, O nephew, of your prophethood. This hadith is reported without naming a Companion: and there is rarity in it. And the word of Abu Jahl, may Allah curse him, is as Allah the Most High relates of him and his likes: "And when they see you, they take you only in mockery: Is this he whom Allah has sent as a Messenger? He almost led us astray from our gods, had we not persevered with them. And they will know, when they see the punishment, who is more astray in the path", the verses of al-Furqan, from the forty-first to the forty-second.
And Imam Ahmad reported: Hushaym told us, from Abu Bishr, from Sa’id ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas: this verse came down while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was hidden in Mecca: "And in your Salat, do not recite aloud; and do not lower it too much, but seek the just middle between the two", the hundred and tenth verse of al-Isra. He said: when he prayed with his companions he raised his voice in the Quran: and when the polytheists heard that they reviled the Quran, and reviled him who sent it down, and him who brought it. Allah the Most High then said to His Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): do not make your prayer heard, that is, your recitation, so the polytheists hear and revile the Quran; and do not whisper it apart from your companions, so they do not hear the Quran, until they learn it from you: and seek between that a path. And thus the two authors of the Sahih reported it, from the hadith of Abu Bishr, that is, Jafar ibn Abi Wahshiyya.
And Muhammad ibn Ishaq said: Dawud ibn al-Husayn told me, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas: when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) recited the Quran aloud while praying, they scattered away from him and refused to listen to him. And a man who wished to hear some of what the Messenger of Allah recited while he prayed would steal a hearing apart from them, for fear of them, if he saw that they had realized he was listening: and if the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) lowered his voice, those who listened heard nothing of his recitation. So Allah sent down: and do not make your prayer heard, lest they scatter from you; and do not whisper it, lest he who wishes to hear it by stealing a hearing hear it not: perhaps he will be appeased by some of what he hears, and benefit by it: and seek between the two a path.