AyaSeerah

Seerah 03 · c. 7–5 BH · 7 events

The boycott and the Year of Sorrow

Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib, Makkah · the Prophet ﷺ aged 46–49

Phase 03
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The chapter, narration by narration

What happened, and who reported it

Every event is graded by the strength of the report behind it, and can be added to your spaced-repetition queue the way an āyah or a root can.

  1. The pact of boycott

    Strong report

    c. 7 BH · Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib

    Quraysh write a document banning trade and marriage with Banū Hāshim.

    Unable to stop the daʿwah and unable to reach him ﷺ while Abū Ṭālib protected him, Quraysh drew up a written agreement: no buying or selling with Banū Hāshim and Banū al-Muṭṭalib, no marriage, no social contact, until they surrendered Muḥammad ﷺ. The document was hung inside the Kaʿbah, and the clans withdrew to the valley of Abū Ṭālib.

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah

  2. Three years in the valley

    Traditional ordering

    c. 7–5 BH · Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib

    Hunger in the Shiʿb; the believers eat leaves and hide the cries of children.

    For roughly three years the two clans lived confined, buying only what sympathisers smuggled in at night at inflated prices. Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ رضي الله عنه described eating the leaves of trees. The Prophet ﷺ used the Ḥajj seasons, when fighting and boycott were suspended, to continue meeting pilgrims and presenting Islam.

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; al-Mubārakpūrī, ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm

  3. The document is annulled

    Traditional ordering

    c. 5 BH · Makkah

    Five men of Quraysh move to break the pact, and the parchment is found eaten away.

    Hishām ibn ʿAmr, Zuhayr ibn Abī Umayyah and others, ashamed of what was being done to their relatives, agreed to tear up the pact. The Prophet ﷺ told Abū Ṭālib that Allah had set the termites upon the document, leaving only the words 'In Your name, O Allah'. When it was brought out, it was as he said, and the boycott collapsed.

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah (via Ibn Isḥāq)

  4. The three questions from Yathrib

    Strong report

    c. 5 BH · Makkah / Yathrib

    Quraysh send to the rabbis of Yathrib for tests, and receive three questions.

    An-Naḍr ibn al-Ḥārith and ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ were sent to the Jewish scholars of Yathrib, who told them: ask him about youths who disappeared long ago, about a man who travelled to the ends of the earth, and about the rūḥ. If he answers, he is a prophet. He ﷺ said 'Tomorrow I will tell you' without saying 'in shāʾ Allāh', and revelation was withheld for a period before al-Kahf came with the answers — and with the instruction never to say 'I will do that tomorrow' without 'unless Allah wills'.

    • Qurʾān 18:23–24'And never say of anything: I will do that tomorrow — except: if Allah wills.'
    • Qurʾān 17:85The answer on the rūḥ.

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Ibn Kathīr, introduction to Sūrat al-Kahf

  5. The death of Abū Ṭālib

    Established

    c. 3 BH · Makkah

    His uncle and protector dies refusing the shahādah.

    At his uncle's deathbed the Prophet ﷺ said, 'O uncle, say lā ilāha illā Allāh — a word by which I may plead for you before Allah.' Abū Jahl and ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Umayyah kept repeating, 'Will you leave the religion of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib?' He died on that word. The Prophet ﷺ said he would seek forgiveness for him until he was forbidden, and Allah revealed that it is not for the Prophet to ask forgiveness for the polytheists.

    • Qurʾān 28:56'Indeed you do not guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills.'
    • Qurʾān 9:113The prohibition on seeking forgiveness for those who die upon shirk.

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3884; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 24

  6. The death of Khadījah رضي الله عنها

    Established

    c. 3 BH · Makkah

    The first believer, and the shelter of his home, dies within the same year.

    Khadījah bint Khuwaylid died shortly after Abū Ṭālib, around three years before the Hijrah, aged about sixty-five. She had spent her wealth on the daʿwah and never once doubted him. Jibrīl brought her greetings of peace from her Lord and news of a house in Paradise of hollowed pearl, with no noise and no fatigue in it. Years later ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها said she was never jealous of any woman as she was of Khadījah, for how often he would remember her.

    Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3820, 3818; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah

  7. ʿĀm al-Ḥuzn — the Year of Sorrow

    Strong report

    c. 3 BH · Makkah

    With both protections gone, Quraysh grow bolder and Makkah closes around him ﷺ.

    The sīrah writers name this the Year of Sorrow. After Abū Ṭālib's death the harassment became physical in public: dust thrown on his head, filth placed on his back in prayer. Abū Lahab, now clan chief, withdrew protection. It is from this pressure that the journey to Ṭāʾif and then al-Isrāʾ follow.

    Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Ibn Kathīr, al-Bidāyah wa-n-Nihāyah

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