Section: Their relentless persecution of the powerless Muslims

Ibn Isḥāq relates: When Quraysh realized how many men and women from the various clans had become companions of the Messenger of Allah—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—they incited one another against them. Each clan fell upon the Muslims in its own ranks, tormenting them and trying to force them back from their religion. Yet Allah protected His Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, through the agency of his uncle Abū Ṭālib.

When Abū Ṭālib saw what Quraysh were doing to Banū Hāshim and Banū al-Muṭṭalib, he summoned his kinsmen to stand where he stood: to bar all harm from reaching the Messenger of Allah and to shield him with their own lives. They gathered around him, rose with him, and answered his call—everyone except Abū Lahab, the enemy of Allah. On that occasion Abū Ṭālib composed verses in which he praised them and urged them to persist in their protective zeal and support for the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him:

[Al-Ṭawīl]
Whenever Quraysh assembles one day to boast,
ʿAbd Manāf is the core and very heart of the pride they claim.
And when the nobles of ʿAbd Manāf are numbered,
In Hāshim lie the choicest and the most ancient of those names.
Should they vaunt themselves, then Muḥammad surely
Is the Chosen One, the noblest branch from that same frame.
Both low and high of Quraysh together charged against us,
Yet failed to prevail—their counsels went wide of the aim.
Of old we never left an outrage unredressed:
When necks were bent in tyranny, we straightened them again.
We guard the sanctuary on every day of peril,
And thrust from its stones whoever dares profane.
Through us the withered branch revived; indeed,
In our embrace its roots are watered, its shoots regain their rain.

Section: The objections the idolaters raised against the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and the arrogant demands they made for signs and breaches of the natural order—not in search of guidance and right direction, but out of sheer defiance. For this reason they were not granted much of what they asked or longed for, because the All-True, exalted be He, knew that even if they were to witness with their own eyes what they demanded, they would persist in their rebellion, wandering blindly, and they would still