Ibn ʿAbbās, who said: Umm Ayman related to me, saying: “At Buwānah there was an idol which Quraysh used to visit. They venerated it, the devotees would offer sacrifices for it, shave their heads in its presence, and gather round it for one day each year. Abū Ṭālib would speak with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, urging him to attend that festival, but he always refused. I even saw Abū Ṭālib grow angry, and his paternal aunts became extremely upset that day, saying, ‘We fear for you because you keep avoiding our gods.’ They persisted until he finally went off and stayed away for as long as Allah willed, then he returned to us in a state of alarm. They asked, ‘What has happened to you?’ He replied, ‘I fear that some evil touch has come over me.’ They said, ‘Allah would never afflict you with Satan; you possess so many noble qualities. What exactly did you see?’ He answered, ‘Whenever I drew near to one of those idols, a tall white man would appear to me and cry, “Back! O Muḥammad, do not touch it.”’ Umm Ayman concluded, ‘After that he never attended any of their festivals until he was commissioned as a Prophet.’

Abū Usāmah reported: Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr narrated to us, from Abū Salamah and Yaḥyā ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Ḥāṭib, from Usāmah ibn Zayd, from his father, who said: “There was a copper idol called Isāf—or Nāʾilah—against which the polytheists would rub themselves when they performed ṭawāf. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ performed ṭawāf and I went around with him. When I passed by the idol I touched it, and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Do not touch it.’ Zayd continued: We completed the circuit, and I said to myself, ‘I will touch it again and see what happens.’ So I touched it, whereupon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, ‘Were you not forbidden?’ This is a ḥasan (fair) ḥadith. Some transmitters have added through the chain of Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr that Zayd said: ‘By Allah, I never again touched any idol until Allah honoured him with the Revelation He sent down to him.’

Jarīr ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd also reported—from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl, from Jābir—who said: “The Prophet ﷺ once attended the gatherings of the polytheists and heard two angels behind him; one of them said to the other, ‘Let us go…’”