The Increasing Tyranny

The non-believers had finally understood that Abu Talib would keep on protecting his nephew and would not desert him, no matter what. On the other hand, they were constantly making all kinds of insidious plans to harm the Messenger of Allah and his biggest supporter, Khadija. For this reason, their sons-in-law were under great pressure to divorce the three daughters, whom they had married before the coming of the revelations. Their oldest daughter, Zaynab, was married to Khadija’s sister, Hala’s son, Abu al-As. And they had married their two daughters, Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum, to Abu Lahab’s two sons, Utba and Utayba.

The Qurayshi non-believers guaranteed the Messenger of Allah’s sons-in-law that if they were to divorce our Prophet’s daughters, they could wed any other girl they pleased in the land. Our Prophet’s uncle Abu Lahab, being the father-in-law of both, was among the first to advise so. After the revelation of Surah al-Masad, Abu Lahab’s wife Umm Jamil talked to her two sons, Utba and Utayba, saying, “Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum have rejected the religion of their forefathers. You must divorce them, you must leave them.” Abu Lahab also talked to his two sons.

“If you do not divorce Muhammad’s daughters, may my head become forbidden to you,” he swore.

Upon hearing this, Utba and Utayba agreed to divorce our Prophet’s daughters. The fact that their children’s families were being torn apart deeply saddened our Prophet and our noble mother Khadija. What’s more, there were no misdoings on their daughters’ part. The only reason was that they were both the daughters of the Messenger of Allah. Abu Lahab and his wife Umm Jamil were overjoyed that they had hurt the Messenger’s family by separating their sons from our Prophet’s daughters. Their joy, however, was only able to last until Ruqayyah got married to Uthman ibn Affan, one of the richest men in Mecca.

Contrary to what they were hoping for, this separation had brought much more goodness for the Messenger’s daughters. These new developments made the Qurayshi non-believers even more irritable and vicious. Not being able to tolerate the situation one bit, Abu Lahab started attacking the Messenger of Allah and his family even more. Not long after, he rose, one day, with fury and went directly to our Prophet’s daughter Zaynab’s husband Abu al-As.

“Leave your wife. We will wed you to whichever girl you desire in all the land,” he said to him.

Abu al-As was furious at these words. He turned to Abu Lahab with anger and scolded him saying, “No, I swear to Allah that I will not leave my wife. I do not desire any other girl from the Quraysh in place of my wife.”

Powerless to do anything, Abu Lahab returned to his home.

Saddened by this oppression, the Messenger of Allah sorrow deepened with a recent death. Abdullah, our Prophet’s second son who had been born after the coming of Prophethood, had gone on to Paradise just as his big brother Qasim had. Our beloved Prophet was very upset and full of grief. This was the second time he was going through the loss of a child. The non-believers were ruthless enough to use even this time of grief to their advantage and against our Prophet. To make matters worse, the person taking the lead in these heinous plans was none other than the Messenger’s very own uncle, Abu Lahab. In the morning right after the night of Abdullah’s death, Abu Lahab had rushed amongst the Quraysh crying out at the top of his lungs, “Last night, Muhammad’s progeny was cut off and brought to an end.” He had not failed to use the death of a little child as a means to attack the Messenger of Allah. Uqba, Ka’b, and As were also among this caravan of non-believers that ridiculed our Prophet. They talked of how Allah’s Messenger had no male children left and thus how his progeny was bound to dry up.

On one of these days, on his way back from visiting the Ka’ba, the Messenger of Allah ran into As, one of the Qurayshi non-believers, and stopped to talk to him for a while on the road. Later on, As joined the Qurayshi leaders, who were seating near the Ka’ba. They asked him,

“Who was it that you were talking to on the road?” His reply was, “I was talking to that ‘abtar’ man whose future generation is bound to go extinct! Leave him be! His sons have died, and his posterity has been cut off! His male children cannot live on. As time goes on, his name and reputation will not be heard of anymore. Then you will not have to worry about him anymore.”

As he finished his words, they laughed heartily amongst each other. Before long, however, Allah the Almighty sent Surah al-Kawthar to His Messenger. The verses explained that if there was anyone whose posterity would be cut off in this world, it would be those who showed enmity against the Messenger of Allah. As a matter of fact, Allah the Almighty actually did cut off the lineage of those who described our Prophet’s posterity as such. And He made our Prophet’s descent the greatest of all.