Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Khālid and others narrated: Qays told us, “I heard Khabbāb say: I came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was reclining on his cloak in the shade of the Kaʿbah. We had suffered greatly at the hands of the idolaters, so I said, ‘O Messenger of Allah, will you not supplicate to Allah for us?’ He sat up, his face reddening, and said: ‘Indeed, those who were before you: one of them would be raked with iron combs, stripping the flesh and sinews from his bones, yet that would not turn him from his religion; and a saw would be placed on the crown of his head and he would be sawn in two, yet that would not turn him from his religion. By Allah, this matter will certainly be completed until a rider travels from Ṣanʿāʾ to Ḥaḍramawt fearing none but Allah.’” Agreed upon. Al-Bukhārī, in the report of Bayān ibn Bishr, adds: “…and the wolf for his sheep.”

Al-Bakkāʾī reported from Ibn Isḥāq, who said: Ḥakīm ibn Jubayr told me on the authority of Saʿīd ibn Jubayr: I said to Ibn ʿAbbās, “Did the idolaters inflict such torment on the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ that they would have an excuse for abandoning their religion?” He replied, “Yes, by Allah. They used to beat a man, starve him, and leave him without water until he was unable even to sit upright from the hardship he had suffered, and he would eventually yield to the trial they demanded. They would ask him, ‘Are al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā your gods besides Allah?’ and he would answer, ‘Yes.’ A dung beetle would crawl past them and they would say, ‘Is this beetle your god besides Allah?’ and he would say, ‘Yes,’ simply to ransom himself from the torment they laid upon him.”

Al-Zubayr ibn ʿUkāshah told me that he was informed that a group of men from the Banū Makhzūm went to Hishām ibn al-Walīd after his brother al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd had embraced Islam, for they had resolved to seize some of their young men who had become Muslim—among them Salamah ibn Hishām,