Ibn Hishām relates:

When al-Aʿshā reached Mecca—or somewhere close to it—some of the idolaters from Quraysh intercepted him and asked about his purpose. He told them that he had come intending to see the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, in order to embrace Islam.

They said to him, “Abū Baṣīr, he forbids fornication.”

Al-Aʿshā replied, “By God, that is a matter for which I have no desire.”

They then said, “Abū Baṣīr, he forbids wine.”

Al-Aʿshā answered, “As for this, by God, I still have some attachment to it. I shall turn back, reflect on it for this year of mine, and then come to him and accept Islam.” So he turned back, and he died that same year, never returning to the Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him.

Ibn Hishām records the story here, even though he often criticizes Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq—may God have mercy on him—and this is one of the points on which Ibn Hishām himself is open to censure. Wine was only declared unlawful in Madinah after the expedition against Banū al-Naḍīr, as will be explained. Hence it appears that al-Aʿshā’s intention to come and accept Islam was after the Hijrah. One of his own verses points to this:

O you who ask where she has set her course—
Indeed, her appointment is with the people of Yathrib.

It would therefore have been more fitting for Ibn Hishām to postpone this story until after the Migration rather than place it here. God knows best.

Al-Suhaylī (1) said: “This is an oversight on the part of Ibn Hishām and those who followed him, for everyone agrees that the prohibition of wine was not revealed until Madinah, after the Battle of Uḥud.”

He also said (2): “Some say that the one who addressed al-Aʿshā was Abū Jahl ibn Hishām in the house of ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah.”

Abū ʿUbaydah reported that the speaker was ʿĀmir ibn al-Ṭufayl, in the land of Qays, while al-Aʿshā was on his way to the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him.

He added: Al-Aʿshā’s statement, “then I will go to him and embrace Islam,” does not, by unanimous agreement, remove him from the state of disbelief. God knows best.

Ibn Isḥāq (3) then mentions here the story of the man from al-Irāshī: how he sought redress from the Messenger of God, peace and blessings be upon him, against Abū Jahl over the price of a camel he had sold him, and how God humbled Abū Jahl and forced him to pay the price immediately. We have already presented that incident earlier, at the beginning of the account of the revelation and the persecution inflicted by the idolaters at that time (4).