Persecution and steadfastness

The accounts of persecution sit beside Qur'anic teaching on endurance, faith and refuge. Some links are established occasions; others are related reading.

1. Abū Lahab cursed him ﷺ on aṣ-Ṣafā

   Ibn Kathīr explains the setting through a report recorded by Al-Bukhari from Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما. The Prophet ﷺ climbed a mountain and called Quraysh together. They agreed that they would believe him if he warned of an approaching enemy, so he warned them of severe punishment. Abū Lahab responded by cursing him and objecting to being gathered for this purpose. The sūrah was then revealed. Ibn Kathīr distinguishes the opening prayer against Abū Lahab from the closing statement about his fate. Abū Lahab was the Prophet’s ﷺ uncle, but he repeatedly harmed him and treated him and his religion with hatred and contempt.

   Ibn Kathīr cites Ibn ʿAbbās رضي الله عنهما and others as explaining that Abu Lahab’s gains include his children. He also mentions a report from Ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه that, when the Messenger of Allah ﷺ called his people to faith, Abu Lahab claimed he could use his wealth and children to buy his way out of the painful punishment on the Day of Judgement, even if his nephew’s message was true. The āyah answers this claim, rejecting Abu Lahab’s confidence that his possessions and family could secure his escape.

   Al-Masad 111:1–5Read the year

2. Believers tortured for their faith

   Related reading · not an occasion of revelation

   This is a strong judgment against the persecutors, not a description of the believers who suffered in the trench.

   Their sitting and watching exposes deliberate cruelty: they did not merely give orders from a distance but remained present to witness the suffering.

   Ibn Kathīr highlights the deliberate contrast: the believers’ gardens stand opposite the Fire and Hell prepared for their persecutors. Their suffering does not determine their final outcome.

   The passage concerns earlier persecution. This connection does not date its revelation to Quraysh's torture.

   Al-Burūj 85:1–11

3. Migration to Abyssinia and later to Madinah

   Ibn Kathīr says this may concern the migrants to Abyssinia. He also reports explanations of the good settlement as Madinah or good provision, seeing no contradiction between them.

   Their reliance accompanied real sacrifice: they left their homes and loved ones seeking Allah's pleasure and reward.

   These were vulnerable people oppressed in Makkah who later escaped, leaving homeland, family and wealth to seek Allah’s pleasure. They joined the believers and patiently bore further hardship.

   An-Naḥl 16:41–42, 16:110

4. Endurance through persecution and the boycott

   Related reading · not an occasion of revelation

   Through all of it, the Prophet ﷺ did not change course. His resolve and courage did not weaken. He kept going to the Kaʿbah and praying in public, and whenever visitors came to Makkah for trade or pilgrimage in the sacred months and the seasons of gathering, he used the chance to call them to Islam. The boycott was meant to silence him; it did not

   The question rebukes the expectation of faith without trials. Ibn Kathīr explains that believers are tested according to their religious commitment, with the prophets facing the severest tests.

   Testing is like a furnace refining metal: it exposes the difference between sincerity and hypocrisy rather than creating that difference.

   Ar-Raḥīq cites this in a broader account of perseverance, not as a revelation dated to the boycott's first year.

   Al-ʿAnkabūt 29:1–3