Utbah ibn Rabi'ah

ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah was one of the senior noblemen of Quraysh and a distant relative of the Prophet ﷺ. He was the father of Hind bint ʿUtbah (who later married Abū Sufyān) and is remembered throughout the Seerah for displaying pockets of humanity and common sense that set him apart from the most fanatical of the Prophet's opponents. After the devastating rejection and wounding at Ṭāʾif, when the Prophet ﷺ sat bleeding and exhausted in the shade of a garden belonging to ʿUtbah and his brother, ʿUtbah sent a bunch of grapes to him via a Christian slave named ʿAddās, an act of personal sympathy during one of the Prophet's lowest moments. He is also recorded in early accounts as having made a private proposal to the Prophet ﷺ: that if wealth and honor were what he sought, Quraysh would provide it, if only he would stop his preaching, an offer the Prophet ﷺ famously declined by reciting Surah Fuṣṣilat. Before the Battle of Badr (2 AH), ʿUtbah initially refused to join the Quraysh army, his reasons appear to have included a reluctance to fight his own kin, since the Muslim army contained many relatives from the Prophet's extended family and community. His brother Shaybah convinced him that failing to march would bring permanent shame ('ayb) upon the family. He ultimately went. On the day of Badr, ʿUtbah showed the most moral clarity of any Qurashi leader: he galloped on his red camel throughout the ranks urging the Quraysh not to fight, saying the shame of killing one's own cousins and brothers would outlast any victory. He even offered to take all blame on himself, 'Tell them I was a coward, I don't mind.' The Prophet ﷺ, watching from the opposite side, said: 'If there is any good in that army, it is the man on the red camel.' Despite this wisdom, Abū Jahl's taunting provoked ʿUtbah into a rage and he stepped forward for the Mubārazah (pre-battle duel). He and his son al-Walīd and his brother Shaybah were the first to die at Badr, killed by Ḥamzah, ʿAlī, and ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith respectively in the opening duel. The Prophet ﷺ had pointed to the very spot where ʿUtbah would fall, the night before the battle.