"He Played With You"

Abū Sufyān left and went back to Makkah, and he met the people of Makkah and told them: jiʾtu Muḥammadan fa-kallamtuhu fa-lam yarudda ʿalayya shayʾā — I came to Muḥammad and spoke to him, and he did not give me any answer. Thumma jiʾtu Ibna Abī Quḥāfah fa-wa-llāhi mā wajadtu ʿindahu khayrā — then I went to Abū Bakr, and I did not find any good with him. Thumma jiʾtu ʿUmara fa-wajadtuhu aʿdā al-ʿaduww — and then I went to ʿUmar, and I found him the worst enemy. Thumma jiʾtu ʿAliyyan fa-wajadtuhu alyana al-qawm — and then I went to ʿAlī, and I found him the softest of the people I met. Wa qad ashāra ʿalayya bi-amrin fa-ṣanaʿtuh, fa-wa-llāhi mā adrī hal yughnī ʿannī dhālika shayʾan am lā — and he advised me to do something, and I did it; and by Allah, I do not know whether it will do me any good or not.

They said to him: what did he tell you to do? He said: amaranī an ujīra bayna al-nās, fa-faʿaltu — he told me to offer protection among the people, and I did. The people of Quraysh said to him: hal ajāza dhālika Muḥammad? — did Muḥammad approve that? He said: no. They said: wayḥak, mā zāda al-rajulu an laʿiba bik — woe to you! ʿAlī did nothing but make a fool of you. He turned you into a toy; he played with you. He gave you advice that would do you no good; in fact, it added to your humiliation. Abū Sufyān probably knew that, but he had nothing else to do.

Al-Suhaylī comments here on the issue of offering protection, because Fāṭimah said that nobody can offer protection in the presence of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) when the Messenger of Allah has made the decision; while there is another hadith that says: wa yujīru ʿalayhim adnāhum — protection can be offered by the lowest of them (Abū Dāwūd 2751). And there is the story of Umm Hāniʾ, when she gave protection and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) approved that protection. Al-Suhaylī says: al-murādu bi-al-ḥadīthi man yujīru wāḥidan aw nafaran yasīrā — the protection is approved and passed when it is the protection of one individual or a small group. But here it is a matter of offering protection to an entire people — to Quraysh — and that is why no one can offer that protection. However, protection can be offered to one person or a small number of people, as in the situation of Umm Hāniʾ, which will come: she offered protection to two, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) said: qad ajarnā man ajarti yā Umma Hāniʾ — we protect whomever you have given your protection to, Umm Hāniʾ (al-Bukhārī 357).