Uqbah ibn Abi Mu'ayt

ʿUqbah ibn Abī Muʿayṭ was among the four or five figures of Quraysh whom the Seerah identifies as the most recklessly cruel opponents of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم, more ignoble in their tactics than even Abū Jahl. He was a person who combined social status with willingness to commit acts that anyone with a sense of honor would have refused.

Two incidents define him above all others:

Choking the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم: ʿAbdullāh ibn ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ narrated, in Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī, that once the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم was praying beside the Kaʿbah when ʿUqbah came from behind, removed his garment, threw it around the Prophet's neck, and began to choke him. No one intervened. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم struggled until Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, having been told what was happening, rushed in and pulled ʿUqbah away. Abū Bakr's words in that moment, أَتَقْتُلُونَ رَجُلًا أَن يَقُولَ رَبِّيَ اللَّهُ, "Are you going to kill a man just because he says 'My Lord is Allah'?", were quoted by Allah in Sūrat Ghāfir (40:28).

The camel entrails (Ṣaḥīḥ Bukhārī): Abū Jahl publicly challenged the men of Quraysh: who would go to the carcass of a recently-sacrificed camel, retrieve the entrails and stomach from the dump, and throw it on the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم while he prayed? ʿUqbah stood up. This is the act: a nobleman of Quraysh, in fine clothing, reaching into a decomposing animal carcass with his bare hands out of hatred for one man, then carrying the blood and organs across the city and dumping them onto the back of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم in Sajdah. The weight was so great that the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم could not lift himself up. His daughter Fāṭimah, then approximately eight years old, ran to him crying and removed it. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم stood, raised his finger toward Allah, and made Duʿāʾ by name against every person involved, including ʿUqbah, three times.

ʿAbdullāh ibn Masʿūd رضي الله عنه witnessed both incidents and was powerless to intervene. He later swore by Allah: "I saw every one of those named by the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم dead at Badr. I saw their bodies dragged into the well of Badr." ʿUqbah was among them.