Muḥammad ibn ʿAmr, with his chain of transmission, reported:

Zayd said, “By the One who honoured him and sent down the Book to him, he never once touched an idol until Allah ennobled him with what He bestowed upon him and revealed to him.”(1)

It was also mentioned earlier that when Bahīrā adjured him by al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, he ﷺ replied, “Do not ask me by them, for by Allah I have never hated anything as much as I hate them.”(2)

As for the ḥadīth cited by the ḥadīth-master Abū Bakr al-Bayhaqī,(3) he said: Abū Saʿd al-Mālinī told us; Abū Aḥmad ibn ʿAdī the ḥāfiẓ told us; Ibrāhīm ibn Isbāṭ told us; ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah told us; Jarīr told us, from Sufyān al-Thawrī, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAqīl,(4) from Jābir ibn ʿAbd Allāh —may Allah be pleased with him—who said:

“The Prophet ﷺ used to attend the gatherings of the idolaters. On one such occasion he heard two angels behind him, and one of them said to the other, ‘Let us go and stand behind the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’ The second replied, ‘How can we stand behind him when only a short while ago he was touching the idols?’ After that the Prophet ﷺ never again attended the idolaters’ gatherings.”

More than one leading scholar rejected this report because of ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah; Imām Aḥmad even said of him, “His brother would never utter anything of this sort.”(5)

Al-Bayhaqī narrated from some scholars(6) that the meaning is simply that he was present with people who touched the idols, and that this was before revelation came to him. Allah knows best.

Earlier, in the ḥadīth of Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, it was stated that he withdrew from the idolaters’ assemblies until Allah honoured him with His message.(7)

It is also established that on the night of ʿArafah he would not stay in Muzdalifah; rather, he would stand with the people at ʿArafāt. Yūnus ibn Bukayr narrated from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq: ‘ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Bakr told me, from ʿUthmān ibn Abī Sulaymān, from Nāfiʿ ibn Jubayr ibn Muṭʿim, from his father Jubayr, who said: “I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, while he was still upon the religion of his people, standing on his camel at ʿArafāt among his people until they set off, and that was a divine enabling granted to him by Allah ﷻ.”’

Al-Bayhaqī(8) said: The phrase “upon the religion of his people” refers to what remained of the legacy of Abraham and Ishmael, peace be upon them.