The mission of God’s messengers is to deliver His messages intact to the people addressed by these messages. If a messenger is sent to his own community, then his mission is completed once he makes that particular community aware of God’s message and what it requires of them. Since Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) was sent to all mankind, in his own generation and all future ones, he delivered it to his own people and then at the first opportunity he addressed it to all kings and heads of state in neighboring areas. He also established a base for it in Abyssinia, sending around a hundred of his companions to live there and preach the message of Islam. God has undertaken to preserve the message so as it would remain available to all who wish to know the divine faith at any time. It is the task of Muslims in every generation to make the Islamic message known to people, both at the individual and community levels.
The Prophet (peace be upon him) did not lose a chance of calling on people to accept Islam, making it clear to them that this was what God wanted of them and that he himself has no gain to make other than the fulfillment of the task God had assigned to him. It did not matter if his interlocutor was a hardened opponent of his message, he still called on him to believe. Many of us find this difficult to appreciate, because we consider it a waste of time to speak about Islam to those whom we know to take a hostile attitude to it. Not so the Prophet. He never despaired of receiving a positive response even from the most hardened enemy.
All Muslims know that Abu Jahl was the most hostile opponent of Islam in its early days. The Prophet addressed him on several occasions, hoping that he would change his attitude. Sometimes the Prophet spoke to him in front of others, and on other occasions he spoke to him alone or in the presence of one or two people. It is worthwhile to find out what he had to say to such a hostile person and look at his response.
Al-Mugheerah ibn Shubah reports: “The first time I met God’s Messenger was when I was walking with Abu Jahl in some alleyway in Makkah. We met God’s Messenger there, who said to Abu Jahl: ‘Abu Al-Hakam! I am inviting you to believe in God and His Messenger. You will be well advised to believe in Him.’ Abu Jahl said: ‘Muhammad! Are you going to stop abusing our deities? Is it not true that your objective is that we testify that you have delivered your message? Well, we do confirm that you have done. By God, were I convinced that what you say is the truth, I would have followed you.’ God’s Messenger then left us. Abu Jahl turned to me and said: ‘By God, I know that he says the truth, but there is something that stops me from acknowledging that. The Qusayy clan (to which the Prophet belonged) claimed the honor of custody of the Kaaba and we accepted. Then they claimed the honor of providing drinks to the pilgrims, and we acquiesced. They then established the Nadwah and we approved their action. We also agreed that they should carry the flag. Following that, they provided generous hospitality and we did the same. We were definitely equal in this when they claimed that one of them is a Prophet sent by God. I will certainly not accept him as such.’”
This was not the only time that Abu Jahl spoke candidly of the reason that made him take a very hostile attitude toward Islam. It was not that he doubted the Prophet’s claims. He knew him to tell the truth. But to him it was a matter of tribal pride. If he were to accept that Muhammad was God’s Messenger, this meant acknowledging yet another position of honor to his tribe. To him that was too much. His own clan were totally unlikely to achieve any similar honor. Hence, rather than accepting such a secondary position, he would lead a campaign to suppress the truth. That was certainly a very narrow perspective that ruined Abu Jahl and those who followed his lead. The same attitude is adopted by people in all generations. They do not look at the issues involved with any desire to determine the truth and follow it. They rather look at their own interests and shape their attitude according to what they feel to serve such interests.
We see the two attitudes clearly in contrast when the Prophet met a group of people from Yathrib, which was later to be known as Madinah. The group was led by a man called Abu Al-Haysar Anas ibn Rafi’, of the Abd Al-Ashhal clan that belonged to the Aws tribe. They arrived in Makkah seeking an alliance with the Quraysh against their neighbors, the Khazraj tribe with whom they were often at war. When the Prophet said to them: “I can offer you something better than what you have come here for.” In answer to their questioning, he replied: “I am God’s Messenger to mankind. I call upon people to worship God alone, associating with Him no partners. He revealed to me His book containing His message.” He further explained the principles of Islam and read them a passage of the Qur’an. A member of the group called Iyas ibn Mu’adh, who was still a boy in his teens, said: “By God, this is better than what we have come here for.” His leader, Abu Al-Haysar, took a handful of sand and threw it in Iyas’s face, saying, “Leave us alone. We have come here for a different purpose.” The Prophet then left them.
Soon after their return, the Battle of Bu’ath broke out between the two Arab tribes in Madinah, the Aws and the Khazraj. Iyas soon died and those who attended him at his deathbed reported that he glorified God and praised Him until he died. They had no doubt that he was a Muslim.
Three points are clear in this story. The first is the Prophet’s awareness of what was going on in Makkah, so that he could meet new arrivals and explain the message of Islam to them. This delegation came for a particular purpose, but the Prophet offered them what was better for them than forging an alliance against a neighboring tribe. He offered them a faith that would change their attitude to life in general, which could mean reconciliation with their opponents rather than war.
Secondly, the leader of the group was not prepared to listen to anything that would divert his delegation from the mission assigned to them by their tribe. Like Abu Jahl, he had a fixed attitude that would not allow consideration of the merits of anything outside his terms of reference.
Thirdly, the youngest man in the group had more insight than his leader. Unfortunately, he was too young to carry any influence with the group. Therefore, the people of Madinah had to wait further before they were able to consider the message of Islam and accept it. Nevertheless, the fact that this young man accepted Islam on this occasion meant that people close to him learned about Islam and its message. This might have served as a preliminary alert for the people of Madinah who were frequently told by their Jewish neighbors that the emergence of a new Prophet delivering a divine message was imminent.