The consequences and reactions of Opposition to the Qur'¡n

Torturing Muslims

With the daily increase in the number of Muslims,[1] Quraysh who had not reached any conclusion with Ab£-±¡lib, who were observing Ban£-H¡shim’s support for the Holy Prophet and who had earned nothing from threatening his life, started torturing Muslims in the hope of stopping them from following Islam. The problem for Quraysh was that the newly-converted Muslims did not belong to one tribe so that they could have been discouraged somehow; rather, a few of these new Muslims belonged to different tribes. A look at the immigrants to Abyssinia, who due to the tortures by the infidels had to leave Mecca, reveal that these escapees were from the following tribes: Ban£-`Abd Shams, Ban£-Asad, Ban£-`Abd al-D¡r, Ban£-Zuhrah, Ban£-Makhz£m, Ban£-Juma¦, Ban£-`Ad¢, Ban£-°urayth, Ban£-Am¢r and Ban£-Umayyah. For this reason, the infidels decided to torture Muslims inside their own tribes so that through the interference of other tribes their prejudice might not be excited and not to show any harsh reaction.

Most of torture was leveled against the young who had converted to Islam. These young people, as we have already mentioned, were mostly slaves or strangers who had no tribal protection of any sort.[2] Y¡sir and his son `Amm¡r, Bil¡l ibn Rab¡¦, Khabb¡b ibn al-Aratt, Ab£-Fukayhah, Am¢r ibn Fuhayrah, ¯uhayb ibn Sin¡n, and, among women and female slaves, Sumayyah, Umm-`Ubays, Zinn¢rah, Lab¢bah (or Lubaynah) and finally Nahdiyyah[3] were tortured by various means such like keeping them hungry or thirsty, imprisonment, striking and hitting, being forced to lie on the hot sands of the desert of Mecca at noon or to wear iron coats, or being tied up with rope and ridiculed by children.

Emigration to Abyssinia

Having been protected by Ab£-±¡lib and Ban£-H¡shim, the Holy Prophet was safe from the aggressions of Quraysh. However, since Muslims were unprotected and vulnerable, the Holy Prophet recommended that they might migrate to Abyssinia and told them, “It is a land of truth and there lives a just king.”[4] In those days, the only safe place for Muslims was Abyssinia. Neither Iran nor Rome or the dominated areas by these super-powers, such as Damascus or Yemen, would accept the Muslims. Besides, Abyssinia was a well-known land to Muslims because Meccans used to make trade journeys to that land.[5] Furthermore, people of Abyssinia were Christians; they had a lot in common with Muslims, such as belief in God. It is said that the Abyssinian people were Ya`q£bian Christians who considered God as one entity and not part of a Trinity. For this reason, they were close to the Islamic monotheism.[6]

On the Prophet's recommendation, a group of fifteen[7] defenseless Muslims in the fifth year after the Divine Mission secretly headed for Abyssinia and arrived there through Shu`aybah port or the Red Sea. This group stayed there for two or three months. Upon the spread of the rumor that people of Quraysh embraced Islam and ceased torturing Muslims, they returned to Mecca.[8]

However, since the torture of Muslims continued, a group of them headed for Abyssinia. This time, there were one hundred and one Muslims (both men and women).[9] They were sponsored by Ja`far ibn Ab¢-±¡lib. With the passage of time, Muslims' migration brought about worry to the people of Quraysh who, then, dispatched an envoy to the royal court of al-Naj¡sh¢, asking for the Muslims' deportation. Realizing the conspiracy, Ab£-±¡lib wrote a letter to al-Naj¡sh¢ asking him to protect the Muslims.[10]

After Quraysh had set forth their claim for the return of the Muslims to Mecca, Ja`far ibn Ab£-±¡lib vehemently defended the Muslims. The king of Abyssinia was greatly moved; he consequently refused to let the Muslims go and decided to protect them.[11]

Of course, the emigrants included both the tortured ones and others from the strongest tribes whom nobody dared to punish. However, Mecca remained an area of pressure, torture and suppression of beliefs. By sending them to Abyssinia, the Holy Prophet had in mind to build up a center for struggle against idolatry. At the same time, he planned to keep Muslims out of danger. As we know, the Muslims’ stay in Abyssinia was accompanied by Islamic propagation, because al-Naj¡sh¢ accepted Islam and established some relations with the Holy Prophet.[12] Quraysh, most probably, were worried of this issue; they therefore dispatched their representatives to that area to stop such relationships.

In accordance with some documents, the Holy Prophet followed the news of the emigrants; he received the news of the apostasy and later death of `Ubaydull¡h ibn Ja¦sh.[13]

This time, the Muslim emigrants stayed there even longer. Eleven of them passed away there. Thirty-nine of them returned to Mecca prior to the Holy Prophet's emigration. Twenty-six men and some women returned to Mecca after the Battle of Badr. The last group, supervised by Ja`far Ibn Ab¢-±¡lib, returned home on the 7^th year of Hegira and met the Holy Prophet after the Conquest Khaybar.[14]