The man they had sent as an observer came back, and they asked him, “Woe to you—what did you see?”
He answered, “A wonder of wonders! By Allah, the moment he knocked on Abu Jahl’s door the man came out as if his soul had left him and said, ‘Give this man his due.’
“‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘Do not move until I bring it out to you.’ He went inside, produced the full amount, and handed it over.”
Before long Abu Jahl himself arrived, and they said to him, “Woe to you—what is the matter? By Allah, we have never seen you act as you just did!”
He said, “Woe to you! By Allah, the instant he knocked on my door and I heard his voice I was filled with dread. I stepped outside, and above his head was a stallion camel—never have I seen a beast with such a massive head, neck, or tusks. By Allah, had I refused, it would have devoured me.”
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Al-Bukhari (1) related: ʿAyyāsh ibn al-Walid told us; al-Walid ibn Muslim told us; al-Awzāʿi told us, from Yaḥyá ibn Abī Kathīr, from Muhammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Taymī, who said: ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr narrated to me:
“I asked Ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs, ‘Tell me the harshest thing the idolaters ever did to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ.’
“He replied, ‘While the Prophet ﷺ was praying in the Ḥijr of the Kaʿbah, ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayt came up to him, threw his cloak around his neck, and throttled him violently. Abu Bakr—may Allah be pleased with him—rushed forward, seized ʿUqbah by the shoulder, pushed him away from the Prophet ﷺ, and said, “Would you kill a man merely for saying, ‘My Lord is Allah,’ when he has brought you clear proofs from your Lord?” (Q 40:28).’ ”
Ibn Isḥāq corroborated this, saying: “Yaḥyá ibn ʿUrwah told me from his father, who said: I said to ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr….” ʿAbadah reported it from Hishām, from his father, saying: “It was said to ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs….” Muhammad ibn ʿAmr narrated from Abū Salamah: “ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs told me….”
Al-Bayhaqi (2) said: “Sulaymān ibn Bilāl transmitted it from Hishām ibn ʿUrwah in the same manner as ʿAbadah.”
Al-Bukhari alone recorded the report, citing it in several places of his Ṣaḥīḥ (3). In some versions he explicitly names ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs, which is plausible since ʿUrwah narrates from him; yet attributing it directly to ʿAmr himself is likewise plausible given the timing of the episode.
Al-Bayhaqi (4) also narrated—from al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Ahmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Yūnus, from Muhammad ibn Isḥāq—who said: “Yaḥyá ibn ʿUrwah told me from his father ʿUrwah that he said: I asked ʿAbd Allah ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀs….”