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Seerah 04 · c. 5–1 BH · 8 events
Ṭāʾif, al-Isrāʾ and the final Makkan years
Ṭāʾif, Makkah, Minā · the Prophet ﷺ aged 49–53
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.
The journey to Ṭāʾif
Establishedc. 3 BH · Ṭāʾif
He ﷺ is driven out and stoned, and refuses to have the town destroyed.
He ﷺ walked some sixty miles to Ṭāʾif and spent ten days presenting Islam to the leaders of Thaqīf, who mocked him and set their slaves and children to line the road and pelt him until his sandals filled with blood. ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها narrates that he said no day was harder on him than the day of ʿAqabah at Ṭāʾif. The angel of the mountains came and offered to crush the town between the two hills; he ﷺ said, 'No — rather I hope that Allah will bring from their loins those who worship Allah alone.'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3231; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1795
The vineyard and ʿAddās
Traditional orderingc. 3 BH · Ṭāʾif
A Christian slave from Nineveh kisses his head and believes.
Withdrawing to a vineyard belonging to ʿUtbah and Shaybah, he ﷺ made the du'ā of Ṭāʾif. Their slave ʿAddās brought grapes; hearing him say 'Bismillāh', he asked what land he came from. 'From Nineveh.' 'The town of the righteous man Yūnus ibn Mattā?' ʿAddās was astonished that he knew of him, and accepted Islam there.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah (via Ibn Isḥāq)
Return under the protection of al-Muṭʿim
Establishedc. 3 BH · Makkah
Unable to re-enter Makkah unprotected, he ﷺ is given sanctuary by a non-Muslim.
He ﷺ sent word to several men before al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī agreed. Al-Muṭʿim armed his sons and stood with them at the Kaʿbah announcing his protection, and the Prophet ﷺ entered, made ṭawāf and prayed. He never forgot it: after Badr he said that had al-Muṭʿim been alive and asked him for these captives, he would have released them for him.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3139; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
Al-Isrāʾ — the Night Journey
Establishedc. 1–2 BH · Makkah to Jerusalem
He ﷺ is carried by night from the Sacred Mosque to al-Masjid al-Aqṣā.
Taken on the Burāq from the Kaʿbah to Jerusalem, he ﷺ led the prophets in prayer there. He was offered a vessel of milk and one of wine and chose the milk; Jibrīl said, 'You have been guided to the fiṭrah.' In the morning Quraysh demanded a description of Jerusalem; when he described it and their caravans on the road, Abū Bakr said, 'If he said it, he has spoken the truth' — and was named aṣ-Ṣiddīq.
- Qurʾān 17:1'Glory to Him who took His servant by night...'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3887; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 162
Al-Miʿrāj and the five prayers
Establishedc. 1–2 BH
The ascension through the heavens; ṣalāh is made obligatory.
He ﷺ was raised through the seven heavens, meeting Ādam, ʿĪsā and Yaḥyā, Yūsuf, Idrīs, Hārūn, Mūsā and Ibrāhīm, and reached Sidrat al-Muntahā. Fifty prayers were prescribed; on Mūsā's repeated counsel he returned and asked for reduction until they were five in performance and fifty in reward. The closing āyāt of al-Baqarah were given there.
- Qurʾān 53:13–18The sighting at Sidrat al-Muntahā.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 349; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 162
Presenting Islam to the tribes
Strong reportc. 2–1 BH · Minā
Season after season he ﷺ offers the message to pilgrim tribes at Minā.
At each Ḥajj he went from camp to camp — Kindah, Banū Ḥanīfah, Banū ʿĀmir and others — saying, 'Who will take me to his people, for Quraysh have prevented me from conveying the speech of my Lord?' Banū ʿĀmir asked for the rule after him as a condition; he answered that the matter belongs to Allah, and refused. Abū Lahab followed him through the camps contradicting him.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Musnad Aḥmad
The pledges at ʿAqabah
Establishedc. 2–1 BH · ʿAqabah, Minā
Men of Yathrib pledge allegiance in two successive years.
Six men of Khazraj believed in one season. The next year twelve returned and gave the First Pledge — not to associate anything with Allah, not to steal, commit fornication, kill their children or slander. Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr رضي الله عنه was sent back with them as teacher and imam, and Islam spread through the houses of Yathrib. The following year seventy-three men and two women gave the Second Pledge, undertaking to protect him as they protect their own families.
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 18
The plot at Dār an-Nadwah
Strong report1 BH · Makkah
Quraysh resolve to kill him with a young man from every clan, to divide the blood.
As believers slipped away to Yathrib, the chiefs met in their assembly house and considered imprisonment, exile and killing. Abū Jahl's proposal was accepted: a strong youth from each clan, striking as one man, so Banū Hāshim could not fight all of Quraysh and would accept blood money. That night ʿAlī رضي الله عنه lay in his bed, and he ﷺ left the house reciting Sūrat Yāsīn.
- Qurʾān 8:30'And when those who disbelieved plotted against you, to restrain you or kill you or expel you.'
Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah; al-Ṭabarī on 8:30