Ibn Isḥāq next cites lines of verse by Ḥassān in which he extols al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī and Hishām ibn ʿAmr for their part in tearing up that tyrannical, wicked, and oppressive parchment. Al-Umayyī records many other poems on the same subject, but we shall be content with what Ibn Isḥāq has transmitted.
Al-Wāqidī said: “I asked Muḥammad ibn Ṣāliḥ and ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, ‘When did Banū Hāshim leave the mountain pass?’ They replied, ‘In the tenth year of the mission—that is, three years before the Hijrah.’”
I add: In that very year, after their release, Abū Ṭālib, the Prophet’s uncle, passed away, and so did his wife Khadījah bint Khuwaylid, as will be detailed later, God willing.
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After describing the annulment of the parchment, Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—may Allah have mercy on him—relates numerous accounts showing Quraysh’s hostility toward the Messenger of Allah, their efforts to dissuade the Arab tribes and every pilgrim or visitor to Mecca from him, and the miracles Allah displayed at his hands as proof of his truthfulness and guidance. These signs refuted their charges of oppression, aggression, trickery, madness, sorcery, soothsaying, and fabrication—yet Allah prevails over His affair.
Among the reports he mentions—without a formal chain—is the story of al-Ṭufayl ibn ʿAmr al-Dawsī. He was the honored and obeyed chieftain of the Daws tribe. When he arrived in Mecca, the notables of Quraysh met him and warned him about the Messenger of Allah, forbidding him to meet or even listen to him.
He said, “By Allah, they persisted with me until I resolved not to hear a single word from him or speak to him. Indeed, when I set out for the Mosque the next morning, I had stuffed my ears with cotton lest any of his words reach me, for I did not wish to hear them.
“I entered the Mosque and found the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—standing in prayer by the Kaʿbah. I positioned myself near him, and Allah willed nothing but that I should hear part of what he was reciting; I heard words of great beauty.
“I said to myself, ‘Woe to me! I am an intelligent man, a poet; the good and the bad are not hidden from me. What prevents me from listening to what this man says? If what he brings is good, I shall accept it; if it is bad, I shall leave it.’
“So I waited until the Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—finished and returned to his home. I followed him; when he entered, I followed him inside and said, ‘O Muḥammad, your people have told me such-and-such.’
“By Allah, they kept frightening me about you until I stuffed my ears with cotton so as not to hear your words. But Allah decreed that I should hear them, and I heard words of beauty. Present your message to me.”
“The Messenger of Allah—peace and blessings be upon him—then presented Islam to me and recited the Qur’an, and by Allah I had never before heard speech so …"