Al-Wāqidī said: The man who penned the scroll was Ṭalḥah ibn Abī Ṭalḥah al-ʿAbdarī.(1)
I say: The better-known report, however, is that the scribe was Manṣūr ibn ʿIkrimah, as Ibn Isḥāq related; his hand later became paralyzed so that he could no longer use it, and Quraysh would remark among themselves, “Look at Manṣūr ibn ʿIkrimah.”
Al-Wāqidī also stated,(2) “The document was suspended inside the Kaʿbah.”
Ibn Isḥāq recounts(3) that when Quraysh took this step, the clans of Banū Hāshim and Banū al-Muṭṭalib sided with Abū Ṭālib, withdrew with him into his mountain pass, and rallied around him. Abū Lahab—ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib—left Banū Hāshim and joined forces with Quraysh.
Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbdullāh narrated to me that Abū Lahab met Hind bint ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah after he had abandoned his people and supported Quraysh. He said, “O daughter of ʿUtbah, have you championed al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, abandoned those who abandoned them, and taken the side of those who defend them?”(4) She replied, “Indeed! May Allah reward you well, Abū ʿUtbah.”
Ibn Isḥāq further said,(3) “I was informed that Abū Lahab used to say—among other things—‘Muḥammad promises me things I cannot see, claiming they will happen after death. What, then, has he put in these two hands of mine?’ He would then blow on his palms and exclaim, ‘Perish the two of you! I see nothing in you of what Muḥammad says.’ Thereupon Allah revealed: ‘Perish the hands of Abū Lahab, and perish he!’ (Q 111:1).”
Ibn Isḥāq also said,(5) “When Quraysh united in this course of action and did what they did, Abū Ṭālib recited:
(Tawīl metre)
- Go—both of you—and because of the bond between us convey from me to Luʾayy, and especially to the clan of Kaʿb descended from Luʾayy;
- Do you not know that we have found Muḥammad to be a prophet like Moses, recorded in the earliest scriptures?
- And that among mankind he is beloved—and none excels the one whom Allah has singled out with His love.”