Section: His ﷺ journey to the people of al-Ṭāʾif to invite them to the religion of Allah, their rejection of him, and his return to Mecca

Ibn Isḥāq (1) said: When Abū Ṭālib died, Quraysh inflicted upon the Messenger of Allah ﷺ a degree of harm they had never dared during his uncle’s lifetime. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ therefore set out for al-Ṭāʾif, seeking from the tribe of Thaqīf support and protection against his own people, and hoping they would accept what he had brought them from Allah, Exalted is He. He travelled to them alone.

Yazīd ibn Abī Ziyād related to me, from Muḥammad ibn Kaʿb al-Quraẓī, who said:

When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached al-Ṭāʾif he approached a company of Thaqīf who were their chiefs and nobles—three brothers: ʿAbd Yā Lail, Masʿūd, and Ḥabīb, sons of ʿAmr ibn ʿUmayr ibn ʿAwf ibn ʿUqda ibn Ghīra ibn ʿAwf ibn Thaqīf. One of them was married to a woman of Quraysh from the clan of Jumāḥ. The Prophet ﷺ sat with them, invited them to Allah, and asked for their support in embracing Islam and standing with him against his people who opposed him.

One of them—while stripping the coverings of the Kaʿbah (2)—said, “If it is Allah Who has really sent you….”
The second said, “Could Allah not find anyone other than you to send?”
The third declared, “By Allah, I will never speak to you. If you are truly a messenger from Allah, as you claim, then you are too important for me to reply to; and if you are lying against Allah, it is not fitting that I converse with you.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ rose from them, despairing of any good from Thaqīf. He had said to them—as I have been told—“If you insist on what you have done, then at least keep it to yourselves.” (3) He disliked that the news should reach his people and provoke them (4) further against him. They did not comply; instead they set their ruffians and slaves upon him, who reviled him and shouted at him until a crowd gathered and drove him into an orchard belonging to ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah and Shaybah ibn Rabīʿah, who were inside it. Those fools of Thaqīf who had been pursuing him then left him.

He went to the shade of a vine trellis (5) and sat beneath it while the two sons of Rabīʿah looked on, witnessing what he had endured from the simpletons of al-Ṭāʾif. It is also related that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ met the woman from Banū Jumāḥ and said to her, “What tribulations we have met at the hands of your in-laws!” (6)

When he had calmed, he said—as it is reported—:
“O Allah, to You I complain of my weakness, my lack of resources, and my lowliness in the eyes of people. O Most Merciful of the merciful, You are the Lord of the oppressed, and You are my Lord. To whom will You entrust me? To some distant one…"