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Muhammam is one who is vehmently condemned. Allah, however, 
protected the Prophet’s nonour by revealing that the Quraysh 
abused one known as Muhammam, while the Prophet was 
“Muhammad” by name. 
As has been mentioned earlier, one of the most adamant 
enemies of the Prophet and his followers was Abu Jahl. His 
actual name was Abu Hakam, which literally means, Father of 
Wisdom, but his behaviour toward the Prophet and the early 

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Muslims earned him the title Abu Jahl, Father of Ignorance. 
Anyone who abandoned the local pagan religion for Islam was a 
renegade and Abu Jahl would take him to task for his treachery. 
He abused the Prophet openly, and would attempt to obstruct 
the Prophet from performing his prayers. 
One day Abu Jahl saw the Prophet performing his prayers 
and began harrassing and threatening him as he prayed. At last the 
Prophet caught hold of a piece of cloth around Abu Jahl’s neck 
and, shaking him strongly, quoted these two verses from the 
Qur’an: “Woe to you! Woe to you! Again, woe to you! Woe to 
you!” (75: 34-35) 
Abu Jahl shot back, “Muhammad! You are challenging me! 
By God, you and your Lord cannot do me any harm. I am the 
strongest man in this valley.” Eager for revenge, Abu Jahl asked 
his comrades, “Does Muhammad put his face on the earth in your 
presence?” 
“Yes.” They replied. “By Lat and Uzza,” Abu Jahl swore, “if 
I ever see him do so, I shall trample his face and neck into the 
dust.” The day came when Abu Jahl saw the Prophet
performing his prayers, so he marched toward him with the 
intention of carrying out his threat. Suddenly, onlookers saw him 
retreat before reaching the defenseless Muhammad , his arms 
clawing at the air. 
“What happened, Abu Hakam?” the people asked. “A trench 
of fire and a screen of devastation stood between him and me,” 
the dazzled Jahl replied. 
“The Prophet remarked to his followers, “Had he come 
near me, the angels would have swooped down upon every limb 
of his.” 
Uqba bin Abi Mu’ayt was another who earned eternal 
disgrace for his despicable treatment of the Prophet . Once, the 
Prophet was praying near the Ka’bah, while Abu Jahl and his 

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comrades were sitting nearby. Meanwhile, Abu Jahl asked the 
others, “Is there one who will bring the innards of a camel of 
Banu so-and-so and place it on Muhammad’s back while he is 
prostrating in prayer?” Uqba, anxious to prove his daring, got up 
and returned with the intestines of a slaughtered camel. He stayed 
to the side until he saw the opportunity to catch the Prophet in 
prostration. When the Prophet bowed his head to the earth, 
Uqba laid the camel intestines on the Prophet’s neck and 
shoulders. 
Abu Jahl and his followers burst into laughter, but the 
Prophet remained in prostration and did not raise his head. 
Someone informed the Prophet’s daughter Fatimah, who then 
came runnig to the Ka’bah. She removed the foul-smelling 
intestines from her father’s back, and he raised his head and 
prayed to Allah: “O Allah! Seize the Quraysh!” When Abu Jahl 
and his comrades heard Muhammad’s prayer, felt a very heavy 
weight on their hearts, because they believed that in Makkah, all 
prayers were granted. 
The Prophet continued to pray aloud in front of his 
enemies, mentioning each one by name and asking Allah to 
avenge him. 
The Quraysh were right about their misgivings regarding the 
Prophet’s prayer for retribution, for Allah soon answered it. In 
the Battle of Badr, which was the first battle the Musims faught 
against the Makkan pagans, each person the Prophet
mentioned in his prayer fell on the battlefield. 
It seemed as if the enemies of Islam far outnumbered the 
followers of the Prophet . All the notables, with the exception 
of a discerning, fortunate few like Abu Bakr and Uthman , used 
their wealth and power to persecute the Prophet . Besides Abu 
Jahl, the five prominent persons who used to ridicule the Prophet 
were Waleed bin Mugheera Makhzoomi, Aswad bin Abd 
Yaghuth Zuhri, Abu Zam’a Aswad bin Abdul Muttalib Asadi, 

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Harith bin Qays Khuzai, and As bin Wa’il Sahmi. The Prophet 
did not take revenge even once during the many years he lived hin 
Makkah after he began his mission. He was content with Allah’s 
promise that He Himself would deal with his opponents and 
detractors. In the end, Muhammad’s harshest enemies met with 
agonizing deaths. 
Waleed bin Mugheera was merely scratched by an arrow, and 
he thought nothing of it. The angel Jibreel, however, pointed 
towards the scratch and it became inflamed. The wound plagued 
Waleed for many years until he finally died. 
Likewise, Jibreel pointed towards the head of Aswad bin Abd 
Yaghuth and he developed boils that caused his death. Another 
source states that these boils resulted from sunstroke that Jibreel 
had inflicted on him. According to yet another narration, Jibreel 
pointed towards Aswad’s belly and he developed dropsy that 
caused his belly to swell so much that he died. 
When Aswad bin Abdul Muttalib became excessive in his 
persecution of the Prophet , the Prophet asked Allah to 
“snatch” his eyesight and to deprive him of fatherhood. In 
respose to his supplication, Jibreel was sent to strike his face with 
a thorny branch so that Aswad lost his eyesight. He then struck 
his son dead. 
Harith bin Qays, the last of these five previously named 
opponents of the Prophet , met a horrible death. As he lay 
dying, his stomach filled with yellow fluid, and the contents of his 
intestines began to flow from his nose. 
Divine intervention and retribution came to those most 
active and vocal in their hatred of Islam, but for the most part, 
the Prophet quietly endured all the hardships, just as prophet’s 
before him had done. Looking at his patience and unshakable 
faith, the believers were heartened during their sufferings in the 
cause of Allah. Verbal abuse and physical threats continued, so 

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the Prophet devised ways of defense. He took two steps to 
help secure the fledgling Muslims.