The chiefs of Quraish, with Abu Jahil in their lead, had yet again gathered at the Masjid al-Haram trying to find a solution to their relentless problem. 

Eventually one of them suggested that Muhammad should be killed. A few of the young men who were present at the meeting accepted to take this mission on…

After the plan was made, Zayd bin Haris silently left the meeting and went directly to Abu Talib’s house… He told him about their decision and plan to execute Muhammad…

Abu Talib asked, “O Zayd, do you have news about my nephew? Do you know where he is right now?”

“Yes Abu Talib, I do, I was with him earlier today…”

“Please call him, ask him to come here immediately!”

Zayd went to the house behind Mount Safa where our Master was conversing with his followers and told him about the situation. Our Master immediately went to his uncle’s house.

“My dear nephew, were you busy with important business?”

“We were engaged in an important meeting with some friends…”

“You heard about the situation… I want you to go home now and don’t leave until you hear from me…”

Our Master did as his uncle told him, he went home and went to bed… Meanwhile Abu Talib sent news to all the valiant men among the Sons of Hashim and Muttalib asking them to arm themselves with their swords and weapons and meet at his house. 

In the early morning all the brave young men from their clans had gathered at Abu Talib’s house.

Abu Talib commanded:

“I will now go to Masjid al-Haram and you will follow me!”

Abu Talib first stopped by our Master’s house, told him to join then together they went to the Haram. With our Master by his side, and a large armed group of all the valiant men from the clans of the Sons of Hashim and Muttalib, Abu Talib entered the Haram al-Sharif, where Abu Jahil and the chiefs of Quraish were sitting. He called out:

“O chiefs of Quraish! Do you know why I am here?”

“No…?” they replied, startled and stupefied by the armed group…

Abu Talib then told them everything he knew about their plan and commanded his men, “Draw your swords!”

All of the brave men behind Abu Talib drew their swords at the same time waiting for his command to attack.

Abu Talib continued:

“I swear to you, if you kill Muhammad, not one of you will live! We will fight with you until every single one of you is put to death, and we will not give up until all of us die in this cause!” 

Abu Jahil and his friends were baffled. They were not expecting this. None of them had the courage to say anything…

Abu Talib then read his ode exalting our Master and demeaning the chief polytheists… In summary his final words were: 

“O people of Quraish… I swear by Allah’s house that you are in a dark state of denial, your defiance to Muhammad only validates your foolishness… Do you actually think you can assassinate Muhammad without slaying us first? Do you not know that we will not abandon him until we sacrifice ourselves in the cause of protecting him, and after we die, the affair of our death will be pursued by our children who will continue our fight!?” 

After reading his ode Abu Talib left with our Master and all his armed men… Once again, the chiefs of Quraish saw the extent of the challenge they were up against… It was definitely not going to be easy… Yet this didn’t change everything… One way or another they knew they had to find a way…   

One day while our Master was at the Kaaba, engaged in tawaf, some of the polytheists blocked his way. Among them were Walid bin Mughiyra, Umayya bin Halaf, Aswad bin Muttalib, and As bin Wail… They pleaded:

“Listen Muhammad, we have an offer for you… We will give you enough money, cattle and property to make you the wealthiest of Mecca. Additionally, you can have all of the women you want… All we want in return is that you stop demeaning our gods. What do you say?”

Our Master simply smiled and continued on his way…

They thought he regarded their offer as too little and added:

“If that is not enough, we have more to offer! Worship our gods for one day and we will worship yours for ten days, you worship our gods for one month and we will worship yours for one year… This way, if your god is better than ours, we will have benefited from him, but if on the other hand our gods are better than yours than you will not have become deprived of this…”

Our Master responded:

“None of your offers interest me the least… I did not come to take your wealth, to become rich and famous, or to be your leader… Allah sent me to you as a Rasul… He revealed His book to me… and gave me the mission of warning you against the suffering you will be prone to for your bad deeds and the rewards you will be given for your good deeds… This is the command of Allah. I have delivered the message to you, now I shall be patient until Allah gives His verdict among us.”

Upon this, the following verses were revealed:

Say, “Do you order me to worship things besides Allah, O ignorant ones!”

I swear it was revealed to you and those before you, “Indeed, if you associate anything to Allah (if you live in a state of duality – shirq) all your work will become worthless and you will surely be of the losers!”

No, serve only Allah and be of those who are thankful (evaluate the blessing of what it means to be a servant)![1]

Say, “O those who deny the knowledge of the reality!”

“I do not deify that which you deify (your Inciting Self [ego]- the second brain in your gut).”

“Nor are you worshippers of (in servitude to) what I worship.”

“Nor will I worship (serve) that which you deify.”

Nor will you worship (serve) what I serve.”

“For you is your (understanding of) religion and for me is (my understanding of) religion!”[2]

Hence our Master’s response to their offers comprised the first 3 verses of chapter al-Zumar and the 6 verses of chapter al-Qafirun…

Once again, the plan of the polytheists had failed...

Once again, they started to think of new ways and new plans to defeat Muhammad…