In the name of Allah, the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful.
Ḥā Mīm.
A revelation from the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful;
a Book whose verses have been set forth in detail, an Arabic Qur’an for a people who understand. (Fussilat 41:1–3)

The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—went on reciting these verses. When ʿUtbah heard them he listened intently, leaning back on his hands, which he placed behind him—or behind his back—absorbing every word. When the Prophet reached the verse of prostration, he prostrated, then said,

“Have you heard, Abū al-Walīd?”

He replied, “I have.”

The Prophet said, “Then it is up to you.”

ʿUtbah returned to his companions, and they said to one another, “By Allah, Abū al-Walīd has come back looking nothing like he did when he left.”

When he sat down they asked, “What news do you bring, Abū al-Walīd?”

He answered, “By Allah, I have just heard speech the like of which I have never heard before. By Allah, it is neither poetry, [nor sorcery,] nor soothsaying. People of Quraysh, follow my counsel—leave this man to what he is doing and keep away from him. By Allah, what I have heard from him will surely become a momentous affair. If the other Arabs overcome him, you will have been spared by means of others; but if he prevails over the Arabs, then his dominion is your dominion, his honor your honor, and you will be the happiest of people through him.”

They retorted, “By Allah, Abū al-Walīd, he has cast a spell on you with his tongue!”

He replied, “This is my advice to you; do with it as you please.”

Yūnus then related, on the authority of Ibn Isḥāq, some lines of poetry composed by Abū Ṭālib in praise of ʿUtbah.

Al-Bayhaqī said (1): ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf al-Iṣbahānī informed us; Abū Qutaybah Salamah ibn al-Faḍl al-Adamī in Mecca informed us; Abū Ayyūb Aḥmad ibn Bishr al-Ṭayālisī narrated to us; Dāwūd ibn ʿAmr al-Ḍabbī narrated to us; al-Mathnā ibn Zurʿah narrated to us from Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, who said:

When the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—recited to ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, “Ḥā Mīm. A revelation from the Most Compassionate, the Most Merciful,” ʿUtbah went back to his people and said, “My people, obey me today in this matter and oppose me in whatever follows. By Allah, I have just heard from this man words the like of which my ears have never heard, and I do not know how to refute him.”

This report is extremely unusual through this chain.

Al-Bayhaqī also narrated (2) through al-Ḥākim, from al-Aṣamm, from Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Jabbār, from Yūnus (3), from Ibn Isḥāq:

Az-Zuhrī told me—he said: I was informed that Abū Jahl, Abū Sufyān, and al-Akhnas ibn Shurayq once went out at night to listen to the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—while he was praying during the night in his house. Each of them took a place to listen, none knowing where the others were. They spent the night listening until dawn broke; then they dispersed, and the road brought them together. They reproached one another, saying, “Do not come back; if some of your foolish tribesmen see you, you will plant something in their hearts.”

They departed, but when the second night came, each man returned to his place and again spent the night listening to him until dawn; then they dispersed, and the road again brought them together. Each said to the others what they had said the first time.