Imam Aḥmad (1) said: “Ibrāhīm related to us, Rabāḥ related to us, from Maʿmar, from Ibn Ṭāwūs, from ʿIkrimah ibn Khālid, from Jaʿfar ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Abī Wadāʿah, from his father, who said: ‘The Messenger of Allah ﷺ recited Sūrah al-Najm in Mecca and prostrated, and everyone with him prostrated. I raised my head and refused to prostrate—al-Muṭṭalib had not yet become Muslim that day—yet thereafter (2) he never heard anyone recite it without prostrating along with him.’”
Al-Nasāʾī (3) also recorded it through ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥamīd, from Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal with this same chain.
These reports may be harmonised with the earlier narration by saying that this man did in fact prostrate, but then lifted his head out of arrogance, whereas the elderly man singled out by Ibn Masʿūd did not prostrate at all. Allah knows best.
The point is that when the observer saw the idolaters prostrate in imitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, he assumed they had accepted Islam and made peace with him, leaving no dispute between them. News of this flew far and wide until it reached the emigrants in Abyssinia. They thought the report reliable, so a number of them returned in hope, while others remained where they were. Both groups acted well and were justified in what they did.
Ibn Isḥāq (4) listed those who came back. Among them were:
• ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and his wife Ruqayyah, the daughter of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ;
• Abū Ḥudhayfah ibn ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah and his wife Sahlah bint Suhayl;
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Jaḥsh ibn Riʿāb;
• ʿUtbah ibn Ghazwān;
• al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām;
• Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr;
• Suwaybiṭ ibn Saʿd;
• Ṭulayb ibn ʿAmr;
• ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf;
• al-Miqdād ibn ʿAmr;
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Masʿūd;
• Abū Salamah ibn ʿAbd al-Asad and his wife Umm Salamah bint Abī Umayyah ibn al-Mughīrah;
• Shammās ibn ʿUthmān;
• Salamah ibn Hishām;
• ʿIyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah—he and Salamah were detained in Mecca until after the battles of Badr, Uḥud (5) and the Trench;
• ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir, regarding whose migration to Abyssinia there is some uncertainty;
• Muʿattib ibn ʿAwf;
• ʿUthmān ibn Maẓʿūn, his son al-Sāʾib, and his brothers Qudāmah and ʿAbd Allāh, the sons of Maẓʿūn;
• Khunays ibn Ḥudhāfah;
• Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ ibn Wāʾil, who was held in Mecca until after the Battle of the Trench;
• ʿĀmir ibn Rabīʿah and his wife Laylā bint Abī Ḥathmah;
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Makhramah;
• ʿAbd Allāh ibn Suhayl ibn ʿAmr, who was detained until the day of Badr, when he slipped away to the Muslims and fought alongside them;
• Abū Sabrah ibn Abī Ruhm and his wife Umm Kulthūm bint Suhayl;
• al-Sakrān ibn ʿAmr ibn ʿAbd Shams and his wife Sawdah bint Zamʿah—he died in Mecca before the Hijrah, after which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ married her;
• Saʿd ibn Khawlah;
• Abū ʿUbaydah ibn al-Jarrah;
• ʿAmr ibn al-Ḥārith ibn Zuhayr;
• Suhayl ibn Bayḍāʾ;
• ʿAmr ibn Abī Sarḥ.
Altogether they numbered thirty-three men. ﵃