Ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭāʾifī related—through ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Khālid ibn Abī Jabal al-ʿAdawānī (1), from his father—that he once saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the eastern quarter of Thaqīf, standing with a bow—or, he thought, a staff—in his hand on the day he came to seek their support. He heard him recite: “By the heaven and the Night-Visitor” (al-Ṭāriq 86:1) until he finished the entire sūrah.
He said, “I memorised it in the Days of Ignorance while I was still a polytheist, and then I recited it again after I embraced Islam. Thaqīf later summoned me and asked, ‘What did you hear from that man?’ I recited it to them, whereupon some of the Quraysh who were present remarked, ‘We know our companion best; had we believed what he says to be true, we would certainly have followed him.’
It is furthermore established in the two Ṣaḥīḥs (2)—through the chain of ʿAbd Allāh ibn Wahb, who reported from Yūnus ibn Yazīd, from Ibn Shihāb, from ʿUrwah ibn al-Zubayr—that ʿĀʾishah narrated: she asked the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, “Has any day befallen you that was harder than the day of Uḥud?” He replied:
“The worst that I suffered at the hands of your people occurred on the day of al-ʿAqabah (3). I presented myself to Ibn ʿAbd Yālīl ibn ʿAbd Kulāl, but he did not grant me what I sought. I departed, overwhelmed with sorrow, and did not regain my senses until I found myself at Qarn al-Thaʿālib. I raised my head, and there was a cloud shading me. I looked and saw Gabriel—peace be upon him—within it. He called me, saying, ‘Allah has heard what your people have said to you and how they have answered you. He has sent the Angel of the Mountains for you to command him concerning them.’
The Angel of the Mountains then called to me, greeted me, and said, ‘O Muḥammad (4), Allah has heard what your people have said to you. I am the Angel of the Mountains; your Lord has sent me so that you may order me as you wish. If you desire, I will crush them between the two mountain ridges (5).’
The Messenger of Allah ﷺ answered, ‘No; rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins those who will worship Allah alone, associating nothing with Him.’
[Section]
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq (6) also mentioned that a group of jinn listened to the recitation of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on his return from al-Ṭāʾif. He spent the night at Nakhlah and led his Companions in the dawn prayer there, and it was then that the jinn who had been directed toward him heard his recitation.