Persecution of the Believers

Part oneMockery and pressure

Makkah was a small city, and everyone knew everyone else. Once the call went public, there was no hiding which house was loyal to whom. In the years after Safa, the city became a place of whispers, jokes and hard stares. Quraysh did not know what to make of the Prophet ﷺ. They called him a poet, a soothsayer, a magician and a madman, and none of those names matched the man they had known for forty years as al-Amin. The leaders knew it, but they were not ready to admit that he was telling the truth.

They began with mockery. They laughed as he walked past, talked over his recitation and told visitors to the city not to listen to him. One of their leaders, Amr ibn Hisham, whom the Muslims came to call Abu Jahl, the father of ignorance, became the most hostile voice. On one occasion, while the Prophet ﷺ was praying at the Kaaba, some of Quraysh threw filth across his back. His daughter Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her), still a girl, came running and cleared it away.

They did not dare to attack him openly. He was under the protection of his clan, and to strike him would have meant a feud with Hashim and al-Muttalib, which the leaders of Makkah did not want inside their own town. His uncle Abu Talib held that line.

They tried words first. It is reported that al-Walid ibn al-Mughirah, one of the most respected judges of poetry in Makkah, admitted after hearing the Quran that it was not poetry and had a sweetness no human speech had, and then, under pressure from his people, settled on calling it magic. Even the leaders were drawn to it in private. It is reported that Abu Jahl, Abu Sufyan and al-Akhnas ibn Shariq each crept out at night, without the others knowing, to listen to the Prophet ﷺ reciting in prayer at home. At dawn they met on the road, blamed one another and promised not to come back. The same thing happened the next night, and the night after, until they swore an oath to stop. Utbah ibn Rabi'ah, a calm and respected elder, came to the Prophet ﷺ with offers of wealth, leadership or even kingship if he would stop. The Prophet ﷺ heard him out and then recited the opening of Surah Fussilat. Utbah went back to his people and advised them to leave him alone.

There were also moments when they laid hands on him. Once, as he prayed near the Kaaba, Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt twisted a cloth around his neck and choked him until Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) pushed him away, saying: would you kill a man because he says, my Lord is Allah? Another time, as he prostrated, a group of Quraysh had the entrails of a slaughtered camel laid across his back and laughed until they fell against each other. He stayed in prostration until his young daughter Fatimah (may Allah be pleased with her) came and pulled them off. When he finished, he prayed against the men by name.

Since they could not reach the Prophet ﷺ himself, they turned on the people around him.

Part twoThose without protection

In a society built on clans, a person without a strong clan was easy to harm. Many of the early believers were in exactly that position. An enslaved person had no law to turn to, and an owner could do what he liked. Some of the early believers were enslaved. Some were outsiders living in Makkah under the care of a patron. Others were simply poor.

Bilal ibn Rabah (may Allah be pleased with him) belonged to Umayyah ibn Khalaf, who tried to force him to leave Islam. Bilal was taken out into the heat of the Makkan midday and made to lie on the scorching ground with a heavy stone laid on his chest. He answered with a single word, repeated again and again: Ahad, meaning One. Nothing they did could make him add anything to the oneness of Allah.

Yasir, his wife Sumayyah and their son Ammar (may Allah be pleased with them) were harmed in the same way by the clan that held power over them. Sumayyah would not renounce her faith, and she died from the abuse she suffered. She is remembered as the first martyr of Islam. Yasir also died. Ammar was pressed to say words against his faith, and he said them to save his life while his heart stayed firm. The Quran speaks of a case such as his with mercy.

Khabbab ibn al-Aratt (may Allah be pleased with him), a blacksmith, was cruelly treated by his owners. It is reported that years later, in the time of Umar, he uncovered his back to show the scars, and explained that he had been laid on burning coals that went out only under his own skin. Others were beaten and kept without food. Abu Dharr al-Ghifari (may Allah be pleased with him) had come from his tribe to learn about the message. He accepted Islam and then declared it openly at the Kaaba, in front of Quraysh. They beat him, until the Prophet's ﷺ uncle al-Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) stepped in and reminded them that Abu Dharr's tribe lived along their trade route to Syria.

Abdullah ibn Mas'ud (may Allah be pleased with him) was a slight young man with a beautiful voice. The believers agreed that someone should recite the Quran aloud beside the Kaaba, where Quraysh had never heard it. Ibn Mas'ud volunteered, and his friends worried for him because he had no powerful family behind him. He went and began to recite, and Quraysh beat him. When he recovered, he said that he was ready to do it again the next day.

Families could be as hard on a believer as strangers. Mus'ab ibn Umayr (may Allah be pleased with him), a young man raised in comfort and wealth, was kept confined by his own relatives when they learned he had become a Muslim. He gave up the life he had known rather than give up his faith.

Not everyone had to suffer alone. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) used his wealth to buy the freedom of enslaved believers, among them Bilal and Amir ibn Fuhayrah (may Allah be pleased with them). People who had been owned by others were now free to practise their faith as they chose.

From the hadith

Narrated Khabbab bin Al-Arat:

We complained to Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (of the persecution inflicted on us by the infidels) while he was sitting in the shade of the Ka`ba, leaning over his Burd (i.e. covering sheet). We said to him, "Would you seek help for us? Would you pray to Allah for us?" He said, "Among the nations before you a (believing) man would be put in a ditch that was dug for him, and a saw would be put over his head and he would be cut into two pieces; yet that (torture) would not make him give up his religion. His body would be combed with iron combs that would remove his flesh from the bones and nerves, yet that would not make him abandon his religion. By Allah, this religion (i.e. Islam) will prevail till a traveler from Sana (in Yemen) to Hadrarmaut will fear none but Allah, or a wolf as regards his sheep, but you (people) are hasty.

The Prophet ﷺ felt for his companions deeply. He told them to be patient and reminded them that believers before them had faced far worse and that Allah would bring this matter to completion. In Makkah the Muslims were not permitted to fight back. He met them privately, taught them and prayed with them, and the house of al-Arqam gave them a place to be together.

Patience here was not weakness. The believers were not asking for revenge. They were asking to worship Allah and follow their conscience, and for years they were tested for that right. In time, a door would open for them to leave Makkah.

Nothing they did could make him add anything to the oneness of Allah.

More on How to Muslim

• quran.howtomuslim.orgSurah al-Buruj, mappedA Makkan surah on believers who were persecuted for their faith.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 2: The Hardest Days of Islam (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceBilal: Ahad, Ahad (Seerah of Muhammad, part 29) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• The Kaaba
• the quarter of Banu Makhzum
• the open ground outside Makkah

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter