Section: How the Messenger of Allah ﷺ offered his noble self to the various Arab clans during the pilgrimage seasons, asking them to give him refuge, to help him, and to defend him against those who opposed and belied him—yet none answered his call, for Allah had kept that magnificent honor in store for the Anṣār, exalted is He.

Ibn Isḥāq said (1): After that, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came back to Mecca, and his people were more hostile than ever in their rejection of him and abandonment of his religion—save for a few believers who were weak and oppressed. During every pilgrimage season he would present himself to the Arab tribes, inviting them to Allah, informing them that he was a Messenger sent by Him, and asking them to believe in him and to shield him so that he might convey on Allah’s behalf what He had commissioned him with.

Ibn Isḥāq also said (2): Some of our companions—whom I do not suspect of error—related to me from Zayd ibn Aslam, from Rabīʿah ibn ʿAbbād al-Duʾalī (and Abū’l-Zinād transmitted it from him as well). Ḥusayn ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿUbayd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās likewise told me: I heard Rabīʿah ibn ʿAbbād relate to my father:

“I was a young lad with my father at Minā when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would stop at the encampments of the Arab tribes and say:

‘O sons of so-and-so! I am the Messenger of Allah sent to you. He commands you to worship Allah alone and not to associate anything with Him; to renounce these rivals you worship besides Him; to believe in me and affirm me; and to protect me until I make plain on Allah’s behalf what He has sent me with.’

Behind him stood a man with a slight squint, handsome and with two side-plaits, wearing a Yemeni mantle. Whenever the Messenger of Allah ﷺ finished his words and his call, that man would say:

‘O sons of so-and-so! This fellow only wants you to strip al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā from your necks, and to abandon your allies among the jinn from the clan of Mālik ibn Uqaysh, in favor of what he has brought of innovation and misguidance. So do not obey him and do not listen to him.’

I asked my father, ‘Father, who is this man who follows him around and refutes what he says?’ He replied, ‘That is his uncle ʿAbd al-ʿUzzā ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib—Abū Lahab.’

Imām Aḥmad has also transmitted this report (3) through Ibrāhīm ibn Abī’l-ʿAbbās: ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī’l-Zinād narrated to us from his father, who said: A man called Rabīʿah ibn ʿAbbād of Banū’l-Dīl—who had lived in the Age of Ignorance and later embraced Islam (4)—told me:

‘I saw the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in the pre-Islamic period at the market of Dhū’l-Majāz, calling out, “O people, say: ‘There is no god but Allah’ and you will prosper!” People had gathered around him, and behind him stood a man, handsome-faced, slightly cross-eyed, with two side-plaits, saying, “He is a renegade liar,” following him wherever he went. I asked about him (5) and they said, “That is his uncle Abū Lahab.”’