Utbah ibn Rabi'ah

ʿUtbah ibn Rabīʿah was a senior leader of the Banū ʿAbd Shams branch of Quraysh, a distant relative of the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم through the line of ʿAbd Manāf. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم himself called him "a man of wisdom."

He appears twice in the Seerah at pivotal moments, each time on the side of reason, yet outside Islām.

The first: when the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم returned from Ṭāʾif, bleeding and exhausted after the people had driven him out, he rested in a garden that ʿUtbah and his brother Shaybah owned. ʿUtbah saw the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم state and, moved by pity, sent their Nestorian Christian servant Addas with a bunch of grapes.

The second: he volunteered to Quraysh as their negotiator, "I know him since childhood, let me talk sense with him", and went to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم with three offers: wealth, kingship, or marriage to any woman he chose. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم waited for him to finish, asked "Are you done, O Abā al-Walīd?" and then began reciting Sūrat Fuṣṣilat. At the verse warning of punishment like that of ʿĀd and Thamūd, ʿUtbah jumped up and put his hand over the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم mouth, trembling. He returned to Quraysh and advised them to leave the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم alone, "this speech will have importance."

They never listened. On the morning of the Battle of Badr, ʿUtbah rode a red camel between the two armies, calling out: "O people! There is your brother! There is your cousin! Do not kill each other!" The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم pointed to him and said: "If Quraysh have any good left in them, they will listen to the man on the red camel." Abū Jahl overruled him. ʿUtbah died that day in the single combat, killed by ʿAlī, Ḥamza, or ʿUbaydah ibn al-Ḥārith, along with his brother Shaybah and his son al-Walīd.