The Call from Mount Safa

Part oneA cry from the hill

Picture an early morning in Makkah, c. 613 CE. A man climbs a low, rocky hill close to the Kaaba and calls out in the voice that Arabs used to warn of a raid at dawn. The cry meant that danger was near and that everyone must gather. People looked up, and they came.

The hill was Safa, a small rise at the edge of the sanctuary. Across from it stands a second hill, Marwah, about four hundred and fifty metres away, and pilgrims today walk between the two as part of Hajj and Umrah. The man on Safa was Muhammad ﷺ.

One verse of the Quran had told him to proclaim openly what he had been commanded and to turn away from those who set up partners with Allah. This was the day he obeyed that command in front of the whole city. The clans of Quraysh came out one by one, and anyone who could not come sent someone to listen on his behalf. These were people who knew him by sight and by reputation, and who had trusted him with their valuables for years.

He began with a question. If he told them that a horse-mounted force was waiting behind the mountain, ready to attack, would they believe him? They said that they would. In all the years they had known him, they had never found him telling a lie.

Notice how he began. He did not open with the message. He opened with their own experience of him, and he let them say aloud that he was honest before he asked them to believe a hard thing.

Then he told them what he had come to say. He was a warning to them before a severe punishment, and a day was coming when each of them would answer to Allah. He called them to worship the one God, to leave the idols, and to prepare for that day by living honestly and justly.

Abu Lahab answered first. He said that the Prophet ﷺ should perish, and asked if this was why he had gathered them. The crowd broke up. Surah al-Masad was revealed in response, and it names Abu Lahab and condemns his opposition. Scholars have long noted something remarkable here. The surah said that Abu Lahab would end in the Fire, and he lived on for years after it was revealed. He had only to say, even falsely, that he believed, and he could have tried to prove the Quran wrong. He never did, and he died opposing the message.

From the hadith

Narrated Ibn `Abbas:

When the Verse:--'And warn your tribe of near-kindred, was revealed, the Prophet (ﷺ) ascended the Safa (mountain) and started calling, "O Bani Fihr! O Bani `Adi!" addressing various tribes of Quraish till they were assembled. Those who could not come themselves, sent their messengers to see what was there. Abu Lahab and other people from Quraish came and the Prophet (ﷺ) then said, "Suppose I told you that there is an (enemy) cavalry in the valley intending to attack you, would you believe me?" They said, "Yes, for we have not found you telling anything other than the truth." He then said, "I am a warner to you in face of a terrific punishment." Abu Lahab said (to the Prophet) "May your hands perish all this day. Is it for this purpose you have gathered us?" Then it was revealed: "Perish the hands of Abu Lahab (one of the Prophet's uncles), and perish he! His wealth and his children will not profit him...." (111.1-5)

From the Quran

تَبَّتْ يَدَآ أَبِى لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ ۝١ مَآ أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُۥ وَمَا كَسَبَ ۝٢ سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ ۝٣ وَٱمْرَأَتُهُۥ حَمَّالَةَ ٱلْحَطَبِ ۝٤ فِى جِيدِهَا حَبْلٌ مِّن مَّسَدٍۭ ۝٥

¹May the hands of Abu Lahab perish, and he ˹himself˺ perish! ²Neither his wealth nor ˹worldly˺ gains will benefit him. ³He will burn in a flaming Fire, ⁴and ˹so will˺ his wife, the carrier of ˹thorny˺ kindling, ⁵around her neck will be a rope of palm-fibre.

Abu Lahab was the Prophet's ﷺ own uncle, and he took his opposition into his home. His two sons had been married to the Prophet's ﷺ daughters Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, and they divorced them. Ruqayyah would soon marry Uthman ibn Affan (may Allah be pleased with him), and the couple would be among the first Muslims to leave Makkah.

Part twoWhy Quraysh took it seriously

For three years the message had passed quietly from person to person, and Quraysh had not worried about it. Now the Prophet ﷺ was speaking in the open, and he was speaking about their gods.

Makkah was a trading town, and it was also the home of the Kaaba. Pilgrims from across Arabia visited it, and around it stood idols that belonged to many different tribes. The wealth that pilgrims brought, and the standing of Quraysh as guardians of the sanctuary, were tied up with those idols. A message that called the idols powerless threatened more than a belief. It threatened a way of life, and the pride of elders who had inherited it from their fathers.

From then on the Prophet ﷺ spoke wherever people gathered. He recited the Quran near the Kaaba, and during the pilgrimage season he went out to meet visitors from other tribes. He also met people at the great fairs held near Makkah, such as the fair of Ukaz. Most listened and moved on. A few believed.

First, the leaders of Quraysh tried to talk. A group of them went to Abu Talib and asked him to stop his nephew from criticising their gods and their ancestors. They warned that if he did not, they would deal with it themselves. Abu Talib answered gently and sent them away, but the matter did not end there. They came back, this time with a firmer demand.

Abu Talib spoke to his nephew. The Prophet ﷺ understood that his uncle might be pushed into withdrawing his protection, and it moved him deeply. He told his uncle plainly that he could not give up his mission, whatever Quraysh might offer or threaten. Seeing how sincere he was, Abu Talib told him to carry on and said that he would not hand him over.

Other men of the clans of Hashim and al-Muttalib stood with him too. Many of them were not Muslims, but it was a matter of family honour. Abu Lahab was the exception, and he sided with the opposition.

So the situation after Safa was this. The Prophet ﷺ was shielded from open attack by his clan, but he was now openly opposed by the leaders of Makkah. Some in the city were simply curious and some were amused. Others had heard something they could not put down, and over the following months more people came quietly to believe.

His followers, many of whom had no strong clan, would soon pay a much higher price.

The call that had been quiet for three years was now out in the open.

More on How to Muslim

• quran.howtomuslim.orgSurah al-Masad, mappedThe surah revealed about Abu Lahab.

WatchThe lecture for this chapter

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

The mapWhere it happened

• Mount Safa
• the Kaaba
• the quarters of the Quraysh clans
• the fair of Ukaz

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