An Outline of Early Islamic History — Page 23
23 C h apter 6 Hounded out of Taif The Prophet found little response in Mecca. At the time of Hajj the Arabs came to visit the Kaaba from different places. He went round their camps. He called each tribe to Islam. The Quresh had their men everywhere. No one heard him. He next turned to Taif. It was a big town, some sixty miles to the south - east of Mecca. He stayed there for ten days. He met the chiefs of the city. They all laughed at him. Abdial, the leading man of the town, told him to depart. Then he set the young men of the locality at hi m. They stoned the Prophet for three miles. Ten miles outside the town, the Prophet rested for a while in a garden. Rejected and forlorn, he prayed to God for help. Then an angel said to him, “I would like to crush these people between two hills. ” The Prophet told him, “Nay, their children might yet worship the true God. ” “There is something lofty and heroic in this journey of Muhammad to Al - Taif; a solitary man, despised and rejected by his own people, going boldly forth in the name of God, like Jonah to Ninevah, and summoning an