Chief of the Prophets — Page 56
Chapter Four 56 your son. We fully relinquish his rights, and in his place hand over Muḥammad sa to us, who has betrayed our ancestral religion and created unrest in the people. In this way the law of a life for a life shall be fulfilled and you shall have no complaints. Abū Ṭālib responded: What a strange justice! You wish for me to take your son and make him my own. I should feed him and give him drink, and in return give you my own that you may slay him? By God, this shall never happen. Representing the Quraish, Muṭ‘im bin ‘Adiyy said: Then, O Abū Ṭālib, your tribe has tried to reason with you in every manner and has restrained itself from fighting but you appear not to agree to any of their offers. Abū Ṭālib replied: By Allah, I am not being dealt with justice, and O Muṭ‘im, in the espousal of your people, I see that you are prepared to act perfidiously to me and my nephew. Well, if your intentions are so, what can I say? You may do as you wish. 1 Increased Hardships of Muḥammad sa and the Muslims When the Quraish saw that none of their schemes to stop Muḥammad sa from propagation were effective, all the tribes jointly made the decision that each tribe would use all possible means to revert their converts back to their faith thus isolating Muḥammad sa , and his mission would thus fail. All the tribes started following this plan, and another chapter of atrocities and challenges dawned for the Muslims. 1 Ibni Hishām and Aṭ-Ṭabarī.