The boycott is broken

Hishām ibn ʿAmr had been secretly bringing loaded camels to the mouth of the valley at night. He went to Zuhayr ibn Abī Umayyah, whose mother was of Hāshim, and shamed him: 'You eat and dress while your uncles are starving?' They gathered al-Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī, Abū al-Bakhtarī and Zamʿah, and next morning Zuhayr circled the Kaʿbah and announced that the document would be torn. Abū Jahl objected and was overruled. Al-Muṭʿim went to tear it and found the termites had eaten it already, exactly as the Prophet ﷺ had told Abū Ṭālib.

• Cruelty broke down because ordinary men inside Quraysh could not stomach it any longer.
• He ﷺ announced what had happened to the document before anyone had opened it.

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

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.

• Relief came partly through the conscience of men who had not yet believed.
• The report of the termites is well known in the sīrah literature and is transmitted through Ibn Isḥāq rather than the ṣaḥīḥ collections.

Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah (via Ibn Isḥāq)

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'.

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

• The three questions were designed by people with scripture — and answered without a single error.
• Even the Messenger ﷺ was corrected on certainty about tomorrow.

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