After the first revelation on the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, the first one to accept Islam was his wife Khadija رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا. After some time, the second revelation came down through the Angel Jibril عَلَيْهِ ٱلسَّلَامُ. This revelation comprised the first 7 verses of Surah Al-Muddassir:
يٰۗاَيُّہَا الْمُدَّثِّرُ
O you enveloped in your cloak!
قُـمْ فَاَنْذِرْ
Arise, and warn,
وَرَبَّكَ فَكَبِّرْ
and magnify the glory of your Lord,
وَثِيَابَكَ فَطَہِرْ
and purify your robes,
وَالرُّجْزَ فَاہْجُرْ
and shun uncleanness,
وَلَا تَمْنُنْ تَسْتَكْثِرُ
and bestow not favour in order to seek from others a greater return,
وَلِرَبِّكَ فَاصْبِرْ
and persevere for your Lord’s sake.
Through this revelation, Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى commanded His Messenger, the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ to rise up and start spreading the message to the people. The Prophet decided to start by preaching to his close family and friends. After his wife Khadija رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا, the next to believe on his Prophethood was his cousin Ali رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ, followed by Zayd Ibn Haritha رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ, the adopted son of the Prophet.
The first person outside the family was Abu Bakar رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ, one of the renowned merchants of Mecca and a close friend of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ. The message of Islam kept on spreading quietly within the close circle of the Prophet. By the end of the first three years of the Prophethood, around 30 people embraced Islam.
Till then, the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ was conducting his preaching by personal interactions with the individuals and that too, somewhat secretly. Now, it was the time for him to openly reach out to the general public.
In those days, the traditional way of inviting people to listen to someone was that the person would climb up the nearby hill and call the people to come and listen to him. It was a norm of that era and people used to adopt this method for conveying something of importance to others. The Prophet decided to use this option to publicly convey the message of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى.
The Prophet Addresses the General Public
So, one day, the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, while standing on the top of the nearby hill, called the Meccans. By that time, the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ had gained popularity among the people and they respected him as the one who never lies. Hence, quite a large number of people gathered there. The Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ asked the people, “If I warn you that a huge army is coming from behind this hill to attack you, would you believe me?” The entire audience unanimously said, “Yes, we will believe you because you are a truthful person, and we know you very well as As-Sadiq.”
At this stage, the Prophet said, “I am the Messenger of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى, who has sent me to you people to invite to the true religion. So, worship only One Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى, Who is the Creator of this whole universe. Stop worshiping the Idols, which are nothing but pieces of stone carved by yourself.” He also warned them that the previous nations were destroyed for not paying heed to what their Prophets conveyed to them.
Despite acknowledging the truthfulness of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, the audience was not willing to leave the religion and norms and practices of their ancestors. So, they turned back without further listening to him. As the Meccans were inclined to pay heed to his preaching, the Prophet decided to focus on the foreigners who used to come to Mecca for Pilgrimage and trade.
The Prophet Meets the Foreigners
When the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ started preaching the general public openly, the Quraysh of Mecca started to oppose his efforts. They were afraid that their political and economic interests were at stake. So, they launched oppression against the believers, especially the already oppressed and poor segment. This was aimed at preventing the people to accept the preaching of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ.
On the other hand, the Prophet was committed to spreading the message and warning of Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى to the entire mankind. After realizing that most of the Meccans were not inclined to listen to his preaching, he decided to shift his attention to the people coming to Mecca from the outer world, mostly for trading and pilgrimage. By that time, a clear but somewhat hidden battle was already on between the Quraysh and the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ.
While the Prophet was attempting to reach out to the foreigners, the Quraysh were also striving to prevent the foreigners from meeting the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ. They proactively approached the foreigners at all the entry points to Mecca and warned them to avoid meeting and listening to the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, pretending him to be a magician. But their efforts did not succeed as much as they expected. Although they managed to restrict them from meeting the Prophet freely, the message could not be stopped from spreading.
The traders and pilgrims coming from other parts of the world did get familiarized with what the Prophet was conveying to the people. While back home, they talked with their people about a daring personality who was challenging the approach of the Quraysh by rejecting their practice of idolatry and inviting the people to worship only One Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَى, and that too by putting his own life at risk, at the hands of the Quraysh. Hence, the preaching of the Prophet reached quite a considerable number of people outside the Arabian Peninsula.
Maltreatments Faced by the Followers of the Prophet
Once the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ started preaching publicly, the hardliner Quraysh also unleashed their oppressive acts openly against him and his followers. Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab turned out as the main persecutors and the leaders of the tyrants. Life was practically made horrible for the believers, especially the poor and weak segment, including the slaves.
Bilal Ibn Rabah رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ was one such case. He was a slave. His master was Umayyah Ibn Khalf. When he adopted Islam, he was put under immense torture by his master, under the provocation of Abu Jahal. He was dragged into the streets of Mecca and was asked to leave Islam but he did not. The Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ deputed Abu Bakar رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ to negotiate liberation of Bilal رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ from the slavery of his master Umayya. Eventually, Abu Bakar رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ paid the price to Umaaya and got Bilal رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ liberated from slavery. Later on, Bilal رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهُ became the first “Caller to Prayers” (Mu’azzen).
Another instance was the brutal death of the two followers of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, Sumayya and her husband, who were slaves of Abu Jahal. They were tortured so intensively that eventually, they died. There are so many other instances of persecution and maltreatment of the believers by the Quraysh during the early days of Islam.
Persecutions Faced by the Prophet
The Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ also faced maltreatment and harassment by the Quraysh, led by Abu Jahal and Abu Lahab. The Prophet used to go to Ka’aba along with his companions and sometimes alone for meditation and prayers. The scoundrels of Quraysh always created problems for the Prophet and his companions. They would throw filth on the Prophet while he was offering prayers in the Ka’aba. They also used to spread thorns on his path to Ka’aba.
Abu Lahab, himself, used to throw stones on the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ. In an attempt to further torture the Prophet, he ordered his two sons to divorce the two daughters of the Prophet, Ruqayya and Umm Kulsum, who were married to them. At his instigation, miscreants of Quraysh used to spit on the Prophet and his followers. They would often throw dust on them.
The Year of Sorrow and Migration
During all this hard time, Abu Talib and Khadija رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا had been a great support for the Prophet, both morally and physically. In the year 619 CE, Khadija رَضِيَ ٱللَّٰهُ عَنْهَا the wife of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ died. Abu Talib, the compassionate uncle of the Prophet, also died soon after that. The Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ often recalled this year as the “year of sorrow,” as he lost his two beloved supporters, one after the other, in the same year.
After the death of his wife and uncle, life became even more difficult for the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, in Mecca. Eventually, the Prophet instructed his followers to migrate from Mecca.
This was the eventual fallout of the preaching of the Prophet Muhammad صَلَّى ٱللَّٰهُ عَلَيْهِۦ وَسَلَّمَ, publicly in Mecca. The persecutions, maltreatment, and physical harassment by the Quraysh compelled the Prophet and his companions to migrate out of Mecca. The migration of a group of believers to Abyssinia was the first migration in the history of Islam, followed by the historic migration of the Prophet to Medina in 622 CE. It also happens to be the starting date of the Hijri Calendar, the Islamic date system based on the movement of the moon.
