In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful.
Mawaddah Association presents:
Events in Ramadan.
To recount the mercy of the All-Merciful, the grace of the Master.
The conversion of the Banu Thaqif to Islam.
In Ramadan of the ninth year after the Hijrah.
The eyes of the Messenger, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, were gladdened by the conversion of Thaqif.
After stubborn refusal,
And a wild aversion that lasted for twenty years.
The history of the Islamic call
Tells the story of Thaqif and their conversion, a story with a dark beginning,
And a radiant ending.
This story begins back in the Age of Ignorance (Jahiliyyah),
When Thaqif inhabited Ta'if.
Ta'if was one of the suburbs of Makkah,
With impregnable fortifications and towering heights,
Sheltered by formidable mountains.
Its protection could not be breached, nor its heights attained.
Furthermore, it was
A garden of lush, verdant landscapes,
With cool breezes,
Abundant in fruit,
With pleasant harvests and low-hanging clusters.
Most of the dwellings in Ta'if belonged to the Banu Thaqif.
They held sovereignty and prestige there,
For they were a proud and haughty people,
Fair-faced and of noble lineage.
Moreover, they were masters of the deep ignorance of the Jahiliyyah,
And worshippers of idols.
They had built a great Ka'bah for Allah so they could perform pilgrimage to it,
Circumambulate it, and offer sacrifices to it.
When Allah sent His Messenger with the religion of guidance and truth,
And commanded him to warn his closest kinsmen,
He proclaimed the command and declared the truth openly.
The Quraysh confronted him with harm and persecution,
Yet his resolve did not weaken, nor did his determination falter.
Instead, he began to present himself to the tribes,
Seeking their protection so that he might convey the messages of his Lord.
Three years before the Hijrah,
Allah took the soul of Khadijah bint Khuwaylid,
And after her, the Messenger’s uncle, Abu Talib, passed away.
The Quraysh then intensified their persecution of the Messenger, peace be upon him,
And their fools acted against him with extreme aggression.
At that point, the Messenger, peace be upon him, turned
His face toward Ta'if,
Seeking support from Thaqif,
Hoping to find protection with them against his own people,
And hoping they would accept his call,
So that he might be strengthened by Islam, and Islam strengthened by them.
No sooner had the Messenger, peace be upon him, reached Ta'if
Than he went to three of its leaders:
'Abd Yalil ibn 'Amr and his two brothers, Habib and Mas'ud.
He presented himself to them and called them to Allah,
Enticing them with His reward and warning them of His punishment.
Some of them acted arrogantly,
And some mocked him.
One of them said to the Messenger, peace be upon him:
"May the coverings of the Ka'bah be torn if Allah has truly sent you!"
The second said: "Could Allah not find anyone to send other than you?"
And the third said mockingly:
"By Allah, I will never speak to you!
If you are a Messenger from Allah as you claim,
Then you are too significant for me to reply to you.
And if you are lying about Allah,
Then it is not fitting for me to speak to you."
At that, the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, stood up, deeply distressed and heavy-hearted.
He disliked that his people should hear of this, lest they increase in their persecution.
He asked them to keep his visit a secret,
But they did not.
They incited their fools against him,
And stationed two rows of their wicked men along his path, with stones in their hands.
When the Messenger, peace be upon him, passed between them,
Every time he lifted a foot, they pelted it with stones,
And every time he placed a foot, they pelted it with stones,
While they insulted him, reviled him, and shouted at him.
His feet were torn and his heels bled.
They did not stop until they had gathered the people against him,
And forced him into an orchard belonging to 'Utbah ibn Rabi'ah and his brother Shaybah,
Who were from Quraysh, and then they left him.
The noble Messenger, peace be upon him, sat in the shade of a tree,
Having reached the limit of his exhaustion.
He raised his gaze to the heavens and said:
"O Allah, to You I complain of the weakness of my strength,
The scarcity of my resources,
And my insignificance before the people, O Most Merciful of the merciful.
You are the Lord of the oppressed, and You are my Lord.
To whom will You entrust me?
To a distant person who treats me harshly,
Or to an enemy to whom You have given control over my affair?
If You are not angry with me, then I do not care,
But Your protection is more encompassing for me.
I seek refuge in the light of Your Face, which illuminates the darkness,
And by which the affairs of this world and the Hereafter are set right,
From Your anger descending upon me,
Or Your wrath befalling me.
To You is the plea until You are pleased,
And there is no power nor strength except by You."
When the two sons of Rabi'ah saw him in this state,
Their compassion was stirred,
For they were from Quraysh.
They called a servant of theirs named 'Addas,
Who was a Christian,
And said to him:
"Take a cluster of these grapes,
Place it on this tray,
Then go to that man,
And tell him to eat from it."
'Addas approached the Prophet, peace be upon him,
And placed the tray before him.
When the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
Reached out his hand to take from it, he said:
"In the name of Allah, the Entirely Merciful, the Especially Merciful."
'Addas looked into his face,
Then said:
"By Allah, these are words that the people of this land do not say."
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to him:
"And from the people of which land are you, 'Addas?
And what is your religion?"
He said: "I am a Christian from the people of Nineveh."
The Messenger, peace be upon him, said to him:
"From the village of the righteous man, Yunus ibn Matta."
'Addas said:
"O 'Addas,
What makes you know who Yunus ibn Matta is?"
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:
"He is my brother;
He was a prophet, and I am a prophet."
At that,
'Addas threw himself upon the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
Kissing his head, his hands, and his feet.
When his two masters saw this, they said:
"Woe to you, 'Addas!
Why are you kissing the head, hands, and feet of this man?"
He said: "O my masters,
There is nothing on earth better than this."
They said: "Woe to you, 'Addas!
Do not let him turn you away from your religion,
For your religion is better than his."
The Messenger, peace be upon him, departed from Ta'if,
Having despaired of any good from Thaqif,
And headed toward Makkah, sorrowful and heavy-hearted,
After having experienced a day the likes of which he had never known.
It was narrated from 'A'ishah, may Allah be pleased with her,
That she said to the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him:
"Has there come upon you a day harder than the day of Uhud?"
He, peace be upon him, said:
"I have encountered from my people what was harder,
And the hardest I encountered from them was the day of Thaqif,
When I presented myself to 'Abd Yalil,
And he did not respond to what I wanted.
So I departed, overwhelmed with grief,
And did not recover until I was at Qarn al-Tha'alib.
I raised my head,
And suddenly I was under a cloud that shaded me.
I looked, and there was Jibril,
And he called to me and said:
'Allah has heard what your people said to you and how they responded.
He has sent to you the Angel of the Mountains,
So that you may command him to do with them as you wish.'
The Angel of the Mountains called to me,
Greeted me, and said:
'O Muhammad,
I am the Angel of the Mountains,
And my Lord has sent me to you so that you may command me as you wish.
If you wish, I will crush them between the two mountains.'"
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said:
"Rather, I hope that Allah will bring forth from their loins
Those who will worship Allah alone and associate nothing with Him."
Thaqif remained clinging to their disbelief,
Holding fast to their fortifications for a long time.
The Messenger, peace be upon him, migrated to Yathrib,
And found there support such as he had not found in Ta'if.
He defeated polytheism at Badr,
And Allah granted him the clear victory on the day of Makkah.
Many of the Arab tribes embraced Islam,
Yet Thaqif did not convert.
Instead, they remained devoted to their idol, al-Lat,
Worshipping it instead of Allah.
On the day of Hunayn,
Thaqif had a notable force within the army of polytheism,
And they fought against the Messenger, peace be upon him,
And his Companions in a fierce and bloody battle.
The killing was intense among the Banu Malik of Thaqif,
Until seventy of their men were killed.
Among the dead
Were two great leaders of the people.
Then Thaqif retreated to Ta'if,
And fortified themselves within it.
The Messenger, peace be upon him, turned his face
After Hunayn toward Ta'if,
With an army of his Companions,
And besieged it with a severe siege,
And bombarded it with a catapult.
He, peace be upon him, was the first to use a catapult in Islam.
However, the fortified city held out against the attacks of the Muslim army.
On one of the days of the siege,
A group of the Companions of the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him,
Crawled toward one of the walls of Ta'if under a protective cover to breach it,
The Thaqif tribe then launched red-hot iron hooks at them.
They emerged from beneath them.
The archers then showered them with arrows.
They killed several men among them.
The siege laid by the Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, on Ta'if lasted for about twenty days.
He then departed from it after a group of his Companions had been martyred beneath its walls.
Among them was 'Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr al-Siddiq.
He was struck by an arrow.
He remained ill from it until he passed away.
While the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, was returning from Ta'if,
he was joined by one of the leaders of Thaqif, 'Urwah ibn Mas'ud al-Thaqafi.
He announced his conversion to Islam.
He asked the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, for permission to return to his people to call them to Allah.
The Messenger of Allah, peace be upon him, said to him,
"They will kill you if you return to them,"
knowing their pride and intensity.
He replied,
"O Messenger of Allah,
I am dearer to them than their own eyes."
The Thaqafi leader, 'Urwah ibn Mas'ud, was confident in his standing among his people.
He returned to them and announced his Islam before them.
He said to them,
"By Allah, O my people, I have come to Chosroes in his kingdom,
and Caesar in his majesty.
Yet I have never seen a king among his people like Muhammad is among his Companions.
I have seen a people who would never abandon him for anything.
Consider what your opinion is, for he has offered you guidance.
Accept what he has offered you, for I am a sincere advisor to you."
However, the Thaqif did not honor their leader nor did they respond to him; instead, they killed him.
While 'Urwah was breathing his last pure breaths,
he requested that he not be buried with his people,
but rather that his grave be placed with the martyrs who had fallen at the walls of Ta'if from the Muhajirun and the Ansar.
And excellent are they as companions.
Thus, he is buried outside of Ta'if.
Thereafter, the Thaqif began to return to their senses and reflect upon their situation.
They saw the Muslims in their sincerity of faith,
the purity of their intentions, and the precision of their order.
They held them in high regard, and it became difficult for them to persist in their war and hostility against them.
They saw that the word of Islam was spreading and its banner was rising,
and that they had no power to resist it.
So Allah expanded their chests to Islam,
and directed their hearts toward faith.