The Boycott

The Boycott  (32)

The Prophet ﷺwas also sent to his people to warn them that
if they continued rejecting the call to faith, Allah might at any time punish them severely. He cautioned them but they waited and watched. Nothing happened, so their inherent arrogance grew, and they challenged the Prophet ﷺ to hasten Allah’s punishment. Allah replied to their request in the following three verses:

“And they ask you to hasten on the punishment! But Allah will not fail in His Promise. Verily, a day with your Lord is like a thousand years of your reckoning.” (22: 47)

“They ask you to hasten on the punishment. Indeed, Hell will
encircle the unbelievers.” (29: 54)

“Are the plotters of wickness not afraid that Allah will cause
the earth to swallow them up? Or that Allah’s punishment will seize them unexpectedly, or that He may call them to account in the midst of their daily affairs when they have no chance to escape? Ot that He may cause them to waste away gradually? Truly, your Lord is kind and merciful.” (16: 45-47)

Again, the Makkans found a way to evade the truth. They
remained stubborn in their opposition, and made further demands of the Prophet ﷺ, asking him to enact miracles even as they hoped he would be unable to perform them. Thus, they wavered, sometimes approaching the Prophetﷺ with
compromises, and at other times challenging him to do the impossible.

Many of the Makkans felt that the only solution was the sword⁦⁩, while others feared the consequences of killing their adversary.

The Makkans had already asked Abu Talib to hand over Muhammadﷺ so that they could kill him, a demand he had refused. Despite his seeming unconcerned at their threats, he was secretly afraid, and with good reason, that the Quraysh were plotting to assasinate the Prophet ﷺ. Abu Talib acted fast and called on the members of Banu Hashim and Banu Al-Muttalib to meet at the Ka’bah. He convinced them to pledge that they would protect their clansman, Muhammad , but Abu Lahab, another of the Prophet’s uncles and self-proclaimed sworn enemy, refused to take the pledge. He declared he was on the side of the Quraysh.

The Polytheists would not be outsmarted. They held a meeting at Haneef Banu Kinana to decide best how to counter Abu Talib’s successful maneuver. Eventually they came up with the idea of a total boycott. Henceforth the members of Banu Hashim and Banu Al-Muttalib were to be treated as outcasts. The other clans from the Quraysh could not marry their daughters, transact business with them, keep company with them, nor would they accept any peace overtures from these two clans until they handed over the Prophet ﷺ .
Once all the people present had agreed with the points mentioned above, Baghid bin Amit bin Hashim put this pact in writing and the parchment was hung in the Ka’bah. When the deed was done, Baghid’s hand, or at least some of his fingers were paralyzed. The boycott proved devastating. The Muslims as well as all
the members of Banu Hashim and Banu Al-Muttalib (Muslims as well as non-Muslims), with the exception of Abu Lahab, were forced to withdraw from Makkah and live in She’eb Abi Talib. Unable to buy food from the Makkans, they found themselves reduced to eating leaves and roots. The situation became so horrific, that the cries of the children echoed over the valley. Few sympathisers dared smuggle any food for fear of punishment.

Hakim bin Hazam, however, managed now and then, to send some flour to his aunt, Khadeejah.

Many caravans carrying food and other goods passed by
where the Muslims and the exiled clans lived. The refugees however, could only come out to meet the caravan to buy food during the forbidden months, those months where fighting was prohibited. The Makkans, however, used to offer much higher prices to the caravan merchants for their goods so that the refugees could not compete with them.

Despite such grim circumstances, the Prophet never ceased inviting non-Muslims to Islam. He was particulally active during the time of Hajj. It was at this time that he would speak to tribes that had travelled to Makkah from all over Arabia.

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Read from first part https://islamicreminder.org/the-history-life-of-prophet-muhammad-pbuh/