The Trial of ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah

The next account is the account of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him). ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb says: "When we decided to make hijrah to Madīnah, I agreed with ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah and Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ to be company and to go together to Madīnah. We set an appointed time to meet at Sarif" — an area outside Makkah — "and said, if morning comes and any of us is missing, that means the person is detained, and we should just go ahead and migrate." Morning came, and Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ did not show up, so ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb and ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah were on their own. They reached Madīnah, and this was before the hijrah of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him); the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the last one to migrate.

Abū Jahl was the half-brother of ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah through their mother. So Abū Jahl and his brother al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām went all the way to Madīnah to bring ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah back. They went to Madīnah and told ʿAyyāsh: "Your mother has made an oath that she will not comb her hair, and she won't take shelter from the sun, until you come back" — she would remain in the heat under the sun of Makkah, and she would not comb her hair until he came back. The exact statement was: "Your mother has warned that she won't allow a comb to touch her hair until she sees you, nor will she shelter from the sun." ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb was listening. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb told ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah: "These people want to deceive you. They want to entice you and take you back. It's a trick. And regarding the oath of your mother — when her hair is filled with lice, she will comb it, and when she feels the severe heat of Makkah, she'll take shelter. So forget about it, and don't go with them." ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said of himself, lastu bi-l-khibbi wa lā al-khibbu yakhdaʿunī — "I am not a man who tricks others, neither do I allow anybody to trick me." He told ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, "Don't go with them." ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, feeling sorry for his mother, could not be convinced, and decided he was going to go with them. ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb told him, "Well, if you insist, then at least take this camel of mine with you. This is a fast and strong camel. If you ever, ever feel suspicious, run away."

So ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, Abū Jahl and al-Ḥārith ibn Hishām were now on their way back to Makkah. Everyone had his own camel. Abū Jahl started complaining about his camel — what a horrible camel, it's too difficult, it's slow — and then he told ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, "Can you please switch camels just for a while? This camel of mine is causing me trouble." ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah, being the nice man he was, agreed. So they now stopped the camels, and they had the camels kneel down. As soon as the camel of ʿAyyāsh reached the ground, both men attacked him and tied him up, and they dragged him into Makkah, and they enticed him, and he apostatised. And the same thing happened to Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ, the third partner, who was detained in Makkah.

ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb said: "We used to say among ourselves, the Muslims, that whoever stayed behind and was enticed by the disbelievers, Allah, the Almighty and Majestic, would never forgive them." That was the understanding they had, and that was also the understanding going around among the ones who stayed behind. They felt that they had lost hope — that was it, they had apostatised, there was no way Allah could forgive their sins. And that was their common understanding for a while, until the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) made hijrah to Madīnah and received the revelation.