EVENTS
616 CE / Quraysh take Action. 7th Year of Prophethood
Important events and incidences that took place
Quraysh gathered together having reached the end of their tether to confer on how best to proceed from Muhammad’s refusal to cooperate. They drew up a document in which they vowed to boycott Banu Hashim and the Banu al Muttalib whereby they would not marry their women, nor give women in marriage to them, or sell anything to them or buy anything from them. They drew up this written contract and solemnly pledged themselves to observe it hanging it up in the interior of the Ka’bah so as to make it even more binding.
This caused Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib to join Abu Talib to retreat into his valley, but Abu Lahab, also from the Banu Hashim, abandoned his clan and instead sided with Quraysh supporting them against Prophet Muhammad and his allies.
LESSONS & WISDOMS
616 CE / Quraysh take Action
A closer look at the events; in search of deeper meanings and drawing lessons
The Qurashites were determined not to allow people to perceive the conversion of Hamza and Umar as a sign that the Muslims were gaining the upper hand. They decided to place an interdiction on the whole clan of Hashim who, with the exception of Abu Lahab, were resolved to protect their kinsman Muhammed whether they believed in him or not. The clan of Muttalib refused to agree to the ban and forsake their Hashimite cousins, and so they too were included in the ban.
The benefits that can be derived from this passage of the biography are that:
1) People are of different natures and dispositions and though the Muslims suffered at the hands of the Qurashites they were also aided by some of them. Hence we find that there will always be people sympathetic towards Islam even if they don’t share the bond of faith. One can accept help from them just as the Muslims accepted the help from some people of the Quraysh; like Hisham.
2) Just as the Qurashites used an economic boycott to quash the plight of the Muslims so too does Islam condone boycotting to further the goals and purposes of the religion. An example of this is found in the story of Thumamah ibn Uthaal who placed an economic boycott upon the Makkans after his conversion with great success. The focus of the boycott is to secure a benefit or ward off a harm. If an opposing outcome is likely, the boycott should not be adopted.
3) What gave the Muslims the patience to endure such tribulation was their obedience to God and their willingness to endure humiliation in this world for the sake of God’s blessing in the next. Neither Muhammad, nor his devout followers, were seeking worldly gain, leadership, or wealth. All this was offered to them for a compromise in their call and faith but they chose hunger and hardship by adhering to their divinely revealed principles.
4) It should be dully noted that the non-muslims amongst the clan of Hashim and al-Muttalib chose to protect Muhammad and not hand him over to the Quraysh based on their tribal fanaticism and not because they believed in the truth of Islam. Such tribal mentality of solidarity amongst clan-folk was common place in Arabia and formed the basis of their conduct.
EDICTS & RULINGS
616 CE / Quraysh take Action
Revelation and rulings particular to this year
At this time the persecution of the Muslims was nearing its height. Therefore a problem had arisen in regard to the utterance of a blasphemous word, without actual disbelief, under unbearable conditions. The problem was that if one did so how he should be treated. The following verse 101, from the Quranic chapter an-Nahl, relates to believers who, under torture or threat of death, ostensibly “recant” in order to save themselves. Although the Qur’an makes it clear in several places that martyrdom in the cause of God is highly meritorious, “God does not burden a soul with more than it can bear”:
He who disbelieves in God after his having believed, not he who is compelled while his heart is at rest on account of faith, but he who opens (his) breast to disbelief- on these is the wrath of God, and they shall have a grievous chastisement.
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Abu Lahab’s attitude and conduct towards the Prophet and his message had always been one of contempt and ridicule. As Mawdudi indicates, the peak of Abu Lahab’s abstinence to his nephew came about during the boycott of the entire clan as Abu Lahab was the only person to join with the enemies against his own relatives. And so it is probable that the chapter al-Lahab was revealed around this time:
“Perish the two hands of Abu Lahab, and perish him! His wealth and his children will not benefit him; he will be burnt in a Fire of blazing flames! His wife too, who carries wood. Around her neck is a twisted rope of palm fibre.”
CONTENTIOUS NARRATIVES
616 CE / Quraysh take Action
Muhammad an ‘Impostor’
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