Abu Sufyan's Bounty and the Failed Assassin

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

By 6 AH, with Abū Ṭālib, Abū Lahab, and al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah all dead, Abū Sufyān had become the undisputed senior-most leader of Quraysh, a position he would hold until his own conversion at the Conquest of Makkah, after which the Prophet ﷺ would honor him specifically by declaring his house a place of sanctuary and granting him considerable wealth. In the meantime, still firmly opposed to Islam, Abū Sufyān had placed a bounty on the Prophet's ﷺ life and supplied an unnamed Bedouin, recorded only in passing by Ibn Saʿd, his name never preserved, with a camel, provisions, and weapons to carry out the assassination under the pretext of coming to embrace Islam.

The Bedouin covered the distance to Madinah in just six days and entered the mosque with his fabricated story. The Prophet ﷺ identified him on sight as a man carrying treachery. The moment he said this, the Companions seized the man, and a hidden dagger fell from his belt, confirming the intent. The Prophet ﷺ told him that if he answered honestly he would be released; the man confessed the entire plot, and the Prophet ﷺ kept his word and let him go free. Having witnessed this mercy after being caught in an assassination attempt, the Bedouin himself embraced Islam on the spot. Dr. Qadhi notes this episode primarily as context for the assassination of Sallām ibn Abī al-Ḥuqayq that followed shortly after, underscoring that targeted attempts on the Prophet's ﷺ life were an ongoing feature of the conflict from the Qurashī side as much as from the Muslim side.