mention al-Walīd ibn Mughīrah and a group.

Some say that they proposed worshipping Allah with him for a year, on condition that he worship their gods with them for a year. Others say that they asked him to touch their idols reverently. Still others say that they proposed sharing in one another’s worship, as Ibn Abī Hātim and others narrated from Ibn Ishāq, who said: Sa‘īd ibn Mīnā, the client of Abū al-Bakhtarī, related to me:

“Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, al-‘Ās ibn Wā’il, al-Aswad ibn al-Muttalib, and Umayyah ibn Khalaf met the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, and said: ‘Come, let us worship what you worship, and you worship what we worship, so that you and we may share in all our religious affairs. If what you have brought is better than what we have, we will have shared in it with you and received our portion of it. And if what we have is better than what you have, you will have shared in our religion and received your portion of it.’ Then Allah revealed the surah.”

This is also related from ‘Ubayd ibn ‘Umayr, whose account identifies ‘Utbah and Umayyah as those who spoke to him. These reports thus agree on one meaning: they asked him to adopt something of their religion, while they would adopt something of his. If all these reports are authentic, then different proposals were made to him on different occasions, with one group proposing one thing and another group proposing another. In any case, the address encompasses all polytheists, those who have gone before and those who will come until the Day of Resurrection.