Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām's Peace Bid

Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām went to ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, one of the prominent leaders of Quraysh, and said, "Shall I suggest something? If you do, you will carry the honour of this day until the end of time." ʿUtbah said, "What is that?" He said, "You withdraw this force back to Makkah, and you take care of the blood of your ally, ʿAmr al-Ḥaḍramī" — the man killed in the sacred month, in the raid of ʿAbdullāh ibn Jaḥsh, and ʿAmr al-Ḥaḍramī was an ally of ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah. So part of the reason this army of Quraysh was coming out was not only to protect their caravan but also to avenge the death of ʿAmr al-Ḥaḍramī, and the man responsible for answering for that was ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah, because ʿAmr al-Ḥaḍramī had been his ally. So Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām was saying, let us withdraw this army back, and you pay the blood money of ʿAmr al-Ḥaḍramī, and let us spare ourselves this fighting — we are fighting with our own relatives. ʿUtbah liked the idea and said, "Consider it done. However, I want you to go and convince" the man he feared might spoil this idea — Abū Jahl — "go and convince him."

And then ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah stood up and said, "O Quraysh, by fighting Muhammad and his Companions, you will accomplish nothing. If you do attack him, each of you will always be looking at others who will dislike looking back at you — you will be known to have killed their cousin or a member of their tribe. Go home and leave Muhammad up to the other Arabs. If they kill him, that will be accomplishing your aims, and if otherwise, he will find you not to have been exposed to the risk of what you now plan." What were they going to do, he said — kill their own brothers, their sons, their fathers, these being the very people they were facing? Better to go back and leave his affair to the Arabs; if they got rid of him, that was what they wanted, and if he ended up winning, he would not take revenge on them, since they would not have been the ones who fought him. So ʿUtbah was speaking to the people of Quraysh, and Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām went to convince Abū Jahl.