—who called out, “Allah has heard the words your people have spoken to you and their rejection of you, and He has sent the Angel of the Mountains so that you may command him as you wish regarding them.”
The Angel of the Mountains then called me, greeted me with peace, and said, “O Muhammad, Allah has heard what your people have said. I am the Angel of the Mountains; your Lord has sent me so that you may order me as you wish. If you wish, I will crush them between the two Akhshab mountains.”
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “No; rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their descendants—or, he said, from their loins—people who will worship Allah alone without associating anything with Him.”
[Reported by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.]
Al-Bakkaʿī narrated from Ibn Isḥāq: Yazīd ibn Ziyād related to me from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Qurazī that when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached Ṭāʾif, he approached a group of Thaqīf who were, on that day, their leaders—three brothers: ʿAbd Yālīl ibn ʿAmr, together with his brothers Masʿūd and Ḥabīb. One of them was married to a woman of Quraysh from the clan of Jumāḥ. He sat with them and invited them to Allah. One of them said, “He would strip the coverings of the Kaʿbah if Allah is truly the One who sent you!” Another said, “Could Allah not find anyone besides you to send?” The third said, “By Allah, I will never speak to you.”
This incident is also reported in the narration of Ibn Shihāb, with some additional wording: When the Prophet ﷺ felt secure he is reported to have said, “O Allah, to You I complain of my weakness, my lack of resource, and my lowliness before people. O Most Merciful of the merciful, You are the Lord of the oppressed and You are my Lord. To whom will You entrust me? To a distant stranger who will scowl at me, or to an enemy whom You have given power over me? If You are not angry with me, I do not mind, yet Your protection is broader for me. I seek refuge in the light of Your noble Face, which has illuminated the darkness and by which the affairs of this world and the Hereafter are set aright, lest Your wrath descend upon me or Your displeasure befall me. To You belongs the blame until…"