At the beginning of the fourth year of the Call, and for some months, the polytheists confined their harassment tactics to the above-mentioned ones. But on realizing the futility of these procedures, they decided to organize a full-scale opposition campaign.
They called for a general meeting and elected a committee of twenty-five men of Quraish notables with Abu Lahab, the Prophet’s uncle, as a chairman. Following some lengthy deliberations, they reached a decisive decision to take measures deemed to stop the tidal wave of Islam through different channels. They were determined to spare no effort, in combatting the new faith. They decided to malign the Messenger of Allah [ﷺ] and put the new converts to different sorts of torture using all available resources. It was easy to put the resolutions relating to the new converts who were deemed weak into effect. As for the Prophet [ﷺ], it was not easy to malign him because he had such gravity, magnanimity and matchless perfection of character that deterred even his enemies from committing any act of folly against him. He had, as well, Abu Talib, his uncle, who came from a noble descent and had an awe-inspiring clan to support him. This situation was a source of great worry to the infidels, but they felt that they could no longer exercise patience or show any tolerance before a formidable power marching steadily to annul their religious office and temporal authority.
Abu Lahab himself took the initiative in the new series of persecutions and started to mete out countless aspects of harmful deeds, hatred, and spite against Muhammad [ﷺ]. Starting with flinging stones at him, forcing his two sons to divorce their wives Ruqaiya and Umm Kulthum, the Prophet’s daughters, gloating over him on his second son’s death calling him ‘the man cut off with offspring’, and then shadowing his step during the pilgrimage and forums seasons to belie him and entice the bedouins against him and his Call [At-Tirmidhi].
His wife, Umm Jameel bint Harb, the sister of Abu Sufyan had also her share in this ruthless campaign. She proved that she was not less than her husband in the enmity and hatred she harbored for the Prophet [ﷺ]. She used to tie bundles of thorns with ropes of twisted palm-leaf fiber and strew them about in the paths which the Prophet [ﷺ] was expected to take, to cause him bodily injury. She was a real shrew, bad-tempered with abusive language, highly skilled in the art of hatching intrigues, and enkindling the fire of discord and sedition. She was deservedly stained as ‘the carrier of firewood in the Noble Quran. On receiving this news, she directly proceeded to the Mosque with a handful of pebbles to hurl at the Prophet [ﷺ]. Allah, the Great, took away her sight and she saw only Abu Bakr was sitting immediately next to the Prophet [ﷺ]. She then addressed Abu Bakr most audaciously threatening to break his Companion’s mouth with her handful of pebbles, and recited a line of verse pregnant with impudent defiance: “We have disobeyed the dispraised one, rejected his Call, and alienated ourselves from his religion.” When she had left, Abu Bakr turned to the Prophet[ﷺ] and inquired about the matter. The Prophet [ﷺ] assured him that she did not see him because Allah had taken away her sight.
Abu Lahab and his household used to inflict those shameful examples of torture and
harassment in spite of the blood relation that tied them for he was the Prophet’sﷺ
uncle and both lived in two contiguous houses. Actually, few of the Prophet’sﷺ
neighbours abstained from maligning him. They even threw the entrails of a goat on
his back while he was performing his prayers. He always used to complain about that
unbecoming neighbourliness but to no avail for they were deeply indulged in error.
