Abu Nuʿaym also related (1): “Sulaymān ibn Aḥmad narrated to us; Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyā al-Ghallābī narrated to us; al-ʿAbbās ibn Bakkār al-Ḍabbī narrated to us; Abū Bakr al-Hudhalī narrated to us, from ʿIkrimah, from Ibn ʿAbbās, who said:
Al-ʿAbbās [ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib] said: I travelled with a trade caravan to Yemen in which Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb was one of the company. When we reached Yemen I would host the party one day, escorting Abū Sufyān and the rest back, and the next day Abū Sufyān would do the same.
On the day I was providing the meal he said to me, “O Abū al-Faḍl, would you like to come over to my house and simply send your lunch along to me?”
“Yes,” I replied. I went with the company to his house and had the food sent over. When the men had finished eating they left, but he detained me and said:
“Do you know, O Abū al-Faḍl, that your nephew is claiming to be the Messenger of God?”
I asked, “Which nephew of mine?”
Abū Sufyān said, “Are you trying to keep it from me? Which of your nephews could make such a claim except one man?”
I said, “Which one, then?”
He answered, “Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh.”
I said, “Has he really done that?”
“Yes, indeed he has,” he replied; then he produced a letter from his son Ḥanẓalah ibn Abī Sufyān which read: “I inform you that Muḥammad stood in al-Abṭaḥ and declared: ‘I am a Messenger; I summon you to God—In the name of God, the All-Merciful, the Compassionate.’ ”
Al-ʿAbbās continued: I said, “By God, O Abū Ḥanẓalah, I find him truthful.” (2)
He retorted, “Steady, O Abū al-Faḍl! By God, I do not want you saying such a thing. I am not afraid that any harm will come upon me because of this statement. O sons of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, by God Quraysh have never ceased asserting that you suffer one misfortune after another (3), each of them reaching its limit. I adjure you, O Abū al-Faḍl—have you heard that said?”
“Yes, I have heard it,” I replied.
He said, “Then by God, this is your ill-omen!”
I answered, “Perhaps instead it will be our good fortune.”
Only a few nights passed (4) before ʿAbd Allāh ibn Ḥudhāfah arrived with the news, having already believed. Word spread quickly in the gatherings of Yemen. Abū Sufyān used to sit in an assembly there in which a Jewish rabbi also took part.
The rabbi asked him, “What is this report? I have heard that among you there is an uncle of the man who has made this claim.”
Abū Sufyān replied, “They speak the truth; I am his uncle.”
The rabbi said, “His father’s brother?”
“Yes,” he said.
“Tell me about him,” the rabbi requested.
He replied, “Do not ask me. I do not want him to claim this affair at all, yet neither do I wish to disparage him; someone else would be better than he.” Realising that Abū Sufyān was neither ignoring the matter nor willing to speak ill of him (5), the rabbi said, “There is no harm in him for the Jews—by the Torah of Moses.” (6)
Al-ʿAbbās said: The rabbi then called me, so I came; and the next day I went and sat in that same assembly, where Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb and the rabbi were present.
I said to the rabbi, “I have heard that you asked my cousin about a man of ours who claims to be the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, and he told you that he is his uncle, when he is not—”