The Threats Quraysh Was Making

These points should clear some misconceptions or misunderstandings about what was happening in the time of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). It needs to be looked at in the context of the situation: it was a very difficult time for the Muslims, and Quraysh was threatening them. As soon as the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) made hijrah to Madīnah, the people of Quraysh sent a letter to ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy telling him: you have given sanctuary to these people — using a derogatory term for them — and you either give them up and hand them over, or we will kill you and leave your women widows and your children orphans. So they were threatening the people of Madīnah. It is not as though Quraysh were turning a blind eye to the Companions of Allah among them; they were taking this hijrah issue very seriously, so the threat was there.

Another example is when Saʿd ibn Muʿādh went to visit Makkah. He was friends with Umayyah ibn Khalaf, so he went to Umayyah and said, "I want to make ṭawāf around the Kaʿbah, so tell me about a time when it would be empty, when there would not be crowds of people." So they waited until a late hour and went to make ṭawāf. So Umayyah ibn Khalaf and Saʿd ibn Muʿādh, who were friends in the Jāhiliyyah, were making ṭawāf, and Abū Jahl came to them and asked Umayyah, "Who is this man with you?" Umayyah said, "This is Saʿd ibn Muʿādh." And Saʿd ibn Muʿādh was well known — he was the head of al-Aws, one of the two tribes in Madīnah who had become Muslim. So Abū Jahl told Umayyah, "I do not want to see you having this man make the round around the Kaʿbah, when they have given sanctuary to Muhammad and his followers." Saʿd ibn Muʿādh responded by saying, "If you prevent me from making the round, I am going to prevent your caravans from reaching al-Shām, because the caravans of Quraysh pass right by Madīnah." So they exchanged threats. This shows that the people of Quraysh were plotting against Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Companions, and that is why there was a militarisation effort going on in Madīnah — it was to protect the Muslim community.