The Boycott (c. 616–619 CE)

Part oneAn agreement against a family

Quraysh had tried mockery, pressure and the harming of individual believers. None of it had stopped the call. The Prophet ﷺ was still protected by his clan, and Islam had gained Hamzah and Umar. So the leaders agreed on something new, aimed at the whole family.

They decided to cut off the clans of Hashim and al-Muttalib, the relatives who had refused to give up the Prophet ﷺ. The two clans were descended from brothers, and they had always stood together. No one would buy from them or sell to them. No one would marry into those clans or take their daughters in marriage. The terms were written on a document, and it was hung inside the Kaaba as a sign that it was binding. This was c. 616 CE, in the seventh year of the call.

In Makkah that was a heavy weapon. The city sits in a dry valley where little can be grown, and its people lived on trade and on what caravans and visitors brought in. To be shut out of the market was to be shut out of food.

Everyone in those clans fell under the boycott, Muslim or not. Many of them did not share the Prophet's ﷺ faith, but they would not abandon a member of their own family, and they stood with him. Abu Lahab was the exception. He left his clan and took the side of Quraysh.

Part twoYears in the valley

Abu Talib gathered his people and moved them to a valley on the edge of Makkah, where the clan held property. It became known as the valley of Abu Talib. Being together made them stronger and easier to protect. The Prophet ﷺ and his family, including Khadijah (may Allah be pleased with her), went with them.

At first they lived on what they had. Khadijah, who had been among the wealthiest people in Makkah, spent her wealth on the families around her. But supplies ran low. Quraysh watched the markets, and when traders came to Makkah from outside, they were warned against selling to the clans, or they were offered high prices to buy up the food before anyone from the valley could. As the months passed, the families went hungry. They ate whatever they could find, including leaves and dried leather. The cries of children could be heard from the valley at night. The young, the sick and the old felt it most, and the strain told on the older members of the community, several of whom would not live much longer.

Not all of Quraysh approved. A few people with family ties to the besieged clans quietly sent food into the valley at night, among them Hisham ibn Amr and Hakim ibn Hizam. They were not Muslims at that time, but they could not watch their own relatives go hungry. It is reported that once Abu Jahl caught Hakim taking wheat to his aunt Khadijah and tried to stop him, until Abu al-Bakhtari, another Qurashi, told him to let a man take food to his own aunt, and struck him when he would not listen. Inside the valley, Abu Talib feared for his nephew at night. It is reported that he would have the Prophet ﷺ lie down in his bed where everyone could see him, and then, once people were asleep, move him to another place and put one of his own sons in his bed instead.

Only in the sacred months did the families come out, when feuds were set aside and pilgrims filled Makkah. They used those weeks to buy what they could, and the Prophet ﷺ used them to speak to visitors about the message. So the call did not stop, even in these years.

These were years of hardship, and they are not remembered as years of defeat. The families in the valley stayed together. Nobody gave up the Prophet ﷺ to Quraysh, and no one abandoned the faith to be set free.

Revelation continued to come through these years, and the Prophet ﷺ went on teaching and comforting his people. Abu Talib, already an older man, watched over the family with great care.

Part threeHow it ended

After about three years, some of Quraysh's own people felt that it had gone too far. They were not Muslims, but they were relatives of the families in the valley, and it shamed them to let kin go hungry. Five men are remembered for what they did next: Hisham ibn Amr, Zuhayr ibn Abi Umayyah, Mut'im ibn Adi, Abu al-Bakhtari ibn Hisham and Zam'ah ibn al-Aswad.

They spoke to one another in private and agreed on a plan. At a gathering of Quraysh leaders, they rose one after another and called for the document to be torn up. Abu Jahl objected, but the support in the room was clear. Abu Talib had also told Quraysh that the document had been eaten away by termites, leaving only the name of Allah. When they went to the Kaaba and looked, it was as he had said. The agreement was cancelled, and the families came home.

The boycott had lasted from c. 616 to c. 619 CE. The families who came out of the valley were weakened in wealth and health, but they had held together. Soon after their return, the Prophet ﷺ would suffer two great losses, and the next stage begins with them.

Nobody gave up the Prophet ﷺ to Quraysh, and no one abandoned the faith to be set free.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 4: No Food, No Mercy to the Prophet's Family (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceQuraysh Boycott The Clan Of Abd Al-Muttalib (Seerah of Muhammad, part 33) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• The Kaaba
• the valley of Abu Talib
• the edge of 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