until I reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, entered upon him, and conveyed to him what Abū Jahl had said. The Prophet rose in anger and set out for the mosque. In his haste he did not wait for the gate to be opened but clambered over the wall. I said to myself, “This is an ominous day,” wrapped my waist-cloth around me, and followed him.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered and began to recite:
“Recite in the name of your Lord who created—
created man from a clinging clot.”
When he came to the verses that allude to Abū Jahl—
“No indeed! Man surely transgresses
when he thinks himself self-sufficient” (96:6-7)—
a man said to Abū Jahl, “Abū al-Ḥakam, there is Muhammad!”
Abū Jahl replied, “Do you not see what I see? By Allah, the horizon of the sky has been blocked from me!” When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished the sūrah, he prostrated.

Imām Aḥmad recorded, through the chain of ʿAbd al-Razzāq ↠ Maʿmar ↠ ʿAbd al-Karīm ↠ ʿIkrimah, that Ibn ʿAbbās said: Abū Jahl declared, “If I see Muhammad praying at the Kaʿbah, I will trample his neck.” When this reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ he said, “Had he tried, the angels would have seized him in plain sight.” Al-Bukhārī also related it through Yaḥyā from ʿAbd al-Razzāq.

Dāwūd ibn Abī Hind, on the authority of ʿIkrimah from Ibn ʿAbbās, said: Abū Jahl passed by the Prophet ﷺ while he was praying and said, “Did I not forbid you to pray, O Muhammad? You know that no one in this valley has a larger following than I.” The Prophet ﷺ rebuked him. Gabriel then said: “Let him summon his council; We shall summon the guards of Hell” (96:17-18). By Allah, had he called his council, the guards of punishment would have taken hold of him. Aḥmad, al-Tirmidhī, and al-Nasāʾī (who declared it sound) transmitted this through Dāwūd’s chain.

Imām Aḥmad also narrated, through Ismāʿīl ibn Yazīd Abū Yazīd ↠ Furāt ↠ ʿAbd al-Karīm ↠ ʿIkrimah ↠ Ibn ʿAbbās, that Abū Jahl said, “If I see Muhammad praying at the Kaʿbah, I will go to him and stamp on his neck.” The Prophet ﷺ remarked, “Had he done so, the zabāniyah would have seized him before everyone’s eyes.”

Abū Jaʿfar Ibn Jarīr reported, through the chain Ibn Ḥumayd ↠ Yaḥyā ibn Wāḍiḥ ↠ Yūnus ibn Abī Isḥāq ↠ al-Walīd ibn al-ʿAyzār ↠ Ibn ʿAbbās, that Abū Jahl said, “If Muhammad returns to pray by the Maqām, I will kill him.” Thereupon Allah Most High revealed: “Recite in the name of your Lord who created…” down to the verse, “We shall seize him by the forelock— a lying, sinful forelock…” (96:15).