The preaching in Mecca and the opposition

The call in the open

The call remained secret for three years according to Ibn Ishaq, who says so “according to what has reached me” (Ibn Hisham, I, 262), and according to Ibn Sa’d; four years according to al-Baladhuri, on the authority of Aisha (al-Salihi, II, 322). Then came the command to proclaim:

When this verse came down, the Prophet ﷺ climbed al-Safa, around 613 (Bukhari 4770; Ibn Hisham, I, 262). Al-Bukhari reports the reply of Abu Lahab; sura 111, which names him, is treated with the Qur’an’s predictions.

“The sun in my right hand”

The notables of Quraysh went several times to Abu Talib, who protected the Prophet ﷺ; they even offered him Umara ibn al-Walid in exchange (Ibn Hisham, I, 266-267; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 475). Before that, the Prophet ﷺ had answered his uncle: “if they placed the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left, I would not abandon this matter…” (Ibn Hisham, I, 266; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 463-464, 474).

Ibn Hisham and Ibn Kathir give this reply almost word for word, from a single source: Ibn Ishaq has it from Ya’qub ibn Utba, who “was informed” without saying by whom (Ibn Hisham, I, 266).

The offers: wealth, honour, kingship

After Hamza embraced Islam, Utba ibn Rabi’a came to offer the Prophet ﷺ wealth, honour, kingship, or a physician; he answered by reciting sura 41 (Ibn Hisham, I, 293-294; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 501-502; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 124-125).

The account has two versions: one introduced with “I was told” (Ibn Hisham, I, 293-294); the other from Jabir, whose chain al-Salihi judges “good” (al-Salihi, II, 335), and in which Ibn Kathir finds “something to criticise” (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 502).

On another occasion, the assembled notables offered him ﷺ wealth, kingship and a cure, then demanded miracles. Ibn Ishaq has this account from “a scholar”, through a chain that goes back to Ibn Abbas (Ibn Hisham, I, 295-296).

The refusal never varied. Later, when the Banu Amir asked him for power after him, he ﷺ answered: “the matter belongs to God, who places it where He wills” (Ibn Hisham, I, 425). The objection of power and wealth breaks against these refusals.

The persecutions and the split moon

Bilal, tortured under a rock, kept repeating “One, One” (Ibn Hisham, I, 318). Sumayya, the mother of Ammar, was killed by Abu Jahl (al-Salihi, II, 360); Mujahid calls her the first martyr of Islam, in a report that Ibn Kathir describes as mursal, that is, lacking the Companion who witnessed it (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 495).

In these years, the moon was split:

Ibn Mas’ud reports it in al-Bukhari (Bukhari 3636; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 134). It is a sign that took place, not a prediction.

Abyssinia

In Rajab of the fifth year of the mission (around 615), a first group left for Abyssinia, with Uthman ibn Affan and Ruqayya: twelve men and four women according to Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, eleven men and four women according to al-Waqidi (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 135; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 3).

In Shawwal, some came back, on the rumour that Quraysh had embraced Islam (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140; al-Salihi, II, 366). What is established is a prostration: at the end of sura 53, the Prophet ﷺ prostrated, and Muslims and polytheists prostrated with him (Bukhari 1071).

“The Prophet ﷺ recited verses in praise of the idols.” This is the so-called story of the gharaniq: after the names of al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat (53:19-20), Satan is said to have slipped in a phrase praising these idols (al-Salihi, II, 364). The story is not established. Al-Suhayli notes that the scholars of the foundations (usul) refute it with proof, and al-Mundhiri, Ibn al-Arabi, Qadi Iyad and Ibn Sayyid al-Nas reject it; those who allow it some basis cite many chains, three of which meet the conditions of the authentic, but all of them lacking the Companion witness (mursal), and even so they interpret it (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 140-141; al-Salihi, II, 365). Ibn Kathir declines to tell it and keeps to the prostration (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 56). The question is treated in full in “The Satanic Verses”.

A second departure followed: eighty-three men, “if Ammar was among them, which is doubtful”, and eighteen women (Ibn Hisham, I, 330; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 135). Quraysh sent an embassy to the Negus to have them handed back, and Ja’far ibn Abi Talib spoke before him in the name of the emigrants (Ibn Hisham, I, 333-336). The account comes from Umm Salama, who was present (Ibn Hisham, I, 334). Ibn Sayyid al-Nas counts two embassies, the second after Badr (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 135). Ja’far and the emigrants of Abyssinia would rejoin the Prophet ﷺ at Khaybar, in 7 AH (Ibn Hisham, II, 328; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, II, 353).

Hamza and Umar

Hamza embraced Islam on the day Abu Bakr was beaten (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 441), in the second year of the mission, or in the sixth according to Ibn al-Jawzi (al-Salihi, XI, 90); Ibn Ishaq has the account from a man he does not name (Ibn Hisham, I, 291). Quraysh “then knew that the Messenger of God ﷺ had grown strong” (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 446).

Umar followed, in the sixth year of the mission (around 616), after the departure for Abyssinia, the date that Ibn Kathir holds to be the soundest; others say the fifth year (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, I, 442; al-Salihi, II, 370). The account takes two forms: at the house of his sister Fatima, with sura 20, or as Umar tells it himself (Ibn Hisham, I, 343-346). The effect, at least, is certain. In the words of Ibn Mas’ud: “we have never ceased to be strong since Umar embraced Islam” (Bukhari 3684; Ibn Hisham, I, 342).

The boycott

In Muharram of the seventh year of the mission (around 616), Quraysh put the Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib under a ban, besieged in the ravine of Abu Talib until the tenth year (around 619) (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 147-149; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 44, 69).

The boycott is certain; its details vary. It lasted two or three years (Ibn Hisham, I, 353; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 147-149). The scribe of the document was Mansur ibn Ikrima (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 69), or Baghid ibn Amir according to Ibn Sa’d (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 149). The worm that ate the document spared “In Your name, O God” (Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 69), or else it ate the name of God and left the injustice (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 148; Ibn Kathir, al-Sira, II, 44). The announcement of this worm by the Prophet ﷺ is treated with the prophecies fulfilled in his lifetime.

Two deaths, and Ta’if

In the tenth year of the mission, three years before the Hijra (around 619), Abu Talib and Khadija died (Ibn Hisham, I, 416; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 151; Bukhari 1360). The order varies: Khadija three days after Abu Talib according to Ibn Qutayba and al-Bayhaqi, thirty-five nights before him according to al-Waqidi (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 151). Ibn Ishaq speaks of “successive misfortunes” (Ibn Hisham, I, 416); the name “Year of Sorrow” appears in none of our four sira sources.

At the end of Shawwal of the same year, the Prophet ﷺ went to Ta’if, to the Thaqif, alone according to Ibn Ishaq, with Zayd ibn Haritha according to Ibn Sa’d (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 155). Years later, Aisha asked him whether he had known a day harder than the day of Uhud: he named the day he presented himself to Ibn Abd Yalil, at Ta’if, then told of the coming of the angel of the mountains, whom he held back (Bukhari 3231).

To return to Mecca, he needed protection: al-Akhnas and Suhayl refused it, al-Mut’im ibn Adi granted it (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 157). After Badr, the Prophet ﷺ remembered it: “if al-Mut’im ibn Adi were alive and spoke to me about these impure people, I would release them to him” (Bukhari 3139): he means the captives of Badr, defiled by their idolatry.

To the tribes, season after season

After Ta’if, at every pilgrimage season, the Prophet ﷺ presented himself to the tribes who came to the fairs (Ibn Hisham, I, 422, 425; Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 181). That is how he met men from Yathrib at Aqaba; “they were, according to what I was told, six men of the Khazraj”, writes Ibn Ishaq (Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, I, 181). What followed is on the page Aqaba and the Hijra.

How this page connects to the others

• Before: The revelation and the first believers.
• After: The Isra and Mi’raj; Aqaba and the Hijra.
• The objections: the gharaniq; power and wealth.
• Abu Lahab: The Qur’an’s predictions; the worm of the boycott: Fulfilled in his lifetime.

Sources for this page

• Qur’an: Tanzil text (Uthmani); translation of the meaning by the site.
• Hadiths: Bukhari 1071, Bukhari 1360, Bukhari 3139, Bukhari 3231, Bukhari 3636, Bukhari 3684, Bukhari 4770.
• Ibn Hisham, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. al-Saqqa, al-Abyari and Shalabi, Cairo, 1955, I, 262-425; II, 328.
• Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Uyun al-athar, Beirut, 1993, I, 124-181; II, 353.
• Ibn Kathir, al-Sira al-nabawiyya, ed. Mustafa Abd al-Wahid, Beirut, 1976, I, 441-502; II, 3-69.
• Al-Salihi al-Shami, Subul al-huda wa-l-rashad, Beirut, 1993, II, 322-370; XI, 90.
• Research file “The message and the Hijra”, v1.0, 2 November 2026, section 2 and “The gharaniq”.