Jealousy and the Honours of Quraysh

Number nine, jealousy and hatred. Al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah, one of the elders of Quraysh, said: if Allah wanted to choose a prophet, how come He didn't choose me? I am more wealthy and wise, older than Muhammad (peace be upon him). And there was a similar claim made by a man in al-Ṭāʾif. Now, the two prominent towns of the Ḥijāz were Makkah and al-Ṭāʾif. So Allah (swt) revealed the āyah: why wasn't this Qur'an revealed to a great man from one of the two towns, referring to Makkah and al-Ṭāʾif.

Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah, who was from al-Ṭāʾif, was visiting Makkah, and this hadith is narrated by al-Bayhaqī: Al-Mughīrah ibn Shuʿbah said, my first contact with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) happened one day when I was walking with Abū Jahl in the streets of Makkah, and we ran into Muhammad (peace be upon him). He walked up to us and spoke to Abū Jahl and said, why don't you follow me, believe in Allah, believe in Islam? He was giving Abū Jahl daʿwah. Abū Jahl responded by saying, O Muhammad, when are you going to stop cursing our gods? If you want us to testify that you have fulfilled your mission, we will testify for you; and if I knew that you were telling the truth, I would have already followed you. Muhammad (peace be upon him) left.

The meaning of the words of Abū Jahl — if you want us to testify that you have fulfilled the message — is because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was telling them again and again that his role is to convey a message; it isn't his role to convert them, that is up to Allah; all he wants to do is fulfil his mission. So Abū Jahl was saying, if you want us to witness for you, in front of Allah, we'll do so; we'll tell Allah that you have done your job, but just leave us alone. Because if I knew that you were telling the truth, I would have already followed you.

So Muhammad (peace be upon him) left, and al-Mughīrah said, Abū Jahl looked at me and said, I know that he's saying the truth, but there's something holding me back. The descendants of Quṣayy said, we want the nadwah — we gave it to them; we want the ḥijābah — we gave it to them; we want the liwāʾ — we gave it to them; we want the rifādah and siqāyah — we gave it to them. And now, when we started picking up and competing with them, and we were running neck to neck, they come up and say that we have a prophet among us. How can we compete with that? By God, we're never going to accept this.

These, as already described in the account of Quṣayy ibn Kilāb, are the honours of Quraysh: the nadwah is the assembly of Quraysh, the ḥijābah is the guardianship of the Kaʿbah, the siqāyah and rifādah are providing the pilgrims with food and water, and the liwāʾ is the banner of war. Abū Jahl is saying that this is a matter of competition, a power struggle between Quraysh and the family of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him). They have been given all of the authorities of Makkah, and now Quraysh want to catch up with them, compete with them. They can compete with them in providing for the pilgrims and things like that, but they can't compete in prophethood; none of them can compete with the Qur'an that has been given to Muhammad (peace be upon him). So they were never going to admit that that's the truth, because if they do, that means the family of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) would have won against them. So it's a matter of power and authority.

So here is the element of jealousy and hatred, and not willing to give up power. And that is why, again and again in the Qur'an, it is usually those who are the most outspoken and violent in their rejection of the message of the prophets who are the ones in authority, the people in power. Why? Because they feel that this is a message that will change the status quo, and will strip them of their ability to take advantage of others and to enslave others. This is a religion that frees people from worshipping people into worshipping Allah. These are referred to in the Qur'an as al-malaʾ. Whenever al-malaʾ occurs in the Qur'an, it is referring to the leadership. This comes up with Firʿawn; it comes up with the people of ʿĀd, and Ṣāliḥ: it is al-malaʾ.