The Conversion of Abu Sufyan at Marr al-Zahran

Shaykh Yasir Qadhi explains:

The Prophet ﷺ camped at Marr al-Ẓahrān, some twenty kilometres from Makkah, the last stop before the city. He told the ten thousand to light their fires freely: no more hiding their numbers, for the tide had turned and Makkah, now nearly emptied, could raise no defence. Al-ʿAbbās, still a secret convert, felt for his old people and begged leave to try to spare them a bloody conquest; the Prophet ﷺ lent him his own mule, Duldul, and sent him out.

❧The Encounter in the Night

Riding in the dark, dreading "what an evil morning it will be for Quraysh," al-ʿAbbās overheard three Qurayshī scouts, Abū Sufyān ibn Ḥarb (father of Muʿāwiyah), Budayl ibn Warqāʾ, and Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām, marvelling at the sea of fires. Budayl guessed it was Khuzāʿah come to their aid; Abū Sufyān knew they had neither the courage nor the numbers. Al-ʿAbbās called out, "Abā Ḥanẓalah!", "This is the army of Muḥammad ﷺ, and if he takes you tomorrow you will be executed. Come with me and I will seek his protection." Seeing ten thousand fires and no other option, Abū Sufyān mounted behind him, and they rode straight through the camp on the Prophet's ﷺ mule, unquestioned.

❧Umar's Sword and Umar's Love

They passed ʿUmar, who knew Abū Sufyān's eyes at once: "The enemy of Allāh! Praise be to Allāh who has delivered you with no treaty!", and rushed to the Prophet's ﷺ tent to ask for his execution. Al-ʿAbbās said, "He is under my protection," and when ʿUmar pressed, al-ʿAbbās played the tribal card: "Were he of Banū ʿAdī you would not want to kill him; you are bold only because he is of Banū ʿAbd Manāf." At that ʿUmar drew back: "Careful, ʿAbbās. By Allāh, the day you accepted Islam was more beloved to me than my own father's Islam would have been, only because your Islam was dearer to the Prophet ﷺ than my father's would have been." The Prophet ﷺ ended it: "Take him to your tent, and bring him to me in the morning."

❧The Reluctant Shahadah

By morning, after a night of al-ʿAbbās urging him, Abū Sufyān stood before the Prophet ﷺ, who asked, أَلَا آنَ لَكَ, "Is it not time you knew there is no god but Allāh?" Abū Sufyān, overwhelmed by his gentleness, said, "My father and mother be your ransom, how forbearing and kind you are, as for this, had there been other gods they would have helped me by now." (How hard it is to leave the faith one is raised in: after twenty-three years the chiefs still half-believed in al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā.) But at "Muḥammad is the Messenger of Allāh" he hesitated, مَا زَالَ فِي القَلْبِ مِنْهُ شَيْء, "there is still something in the heart", until al-ʿAbbās snapped that he had best accept, and he said the shahādah. (The Prophet ﷺ never coerced him; a half-hearted entry is left to Islam to win over, which it did.)

❧The Aman and the Parade

Knowing Abū Sufyān a man of pride, al-ʿAbbās asked the Prophet ﷺ to grant him an honour, and he declared: مَنْ دَخَلَ الحَرَمَ فَهُوَ آمِنٌ، وَمَنْ دَخَلَ بَيْتَهُ فَهُوَ آمِنٌ، وَمَنْ دَخَلَ بَيْتَ أَبِي سُفْيَانَ فَهُوَ آمِنٌ, "Whoever enters the Ḥaram is safe, whoever stays in his house is safe, and whoever enters the house of Abū Sufyān is safe." Then al-ʿAbbās stood him at the neck of the valley to watch the army pass, tribe after converted tribe under its banner, Sulaym, Muzaynah, until the green host of the Prophet ﷺ with the Muhājirūn and Anṣār came gleaming in armour. "The kingdom of your nephew has grown great," said Abū Sufyān. "Woe to you," said al-ʿAbbās, "it is not kingship, it is prophethood." "Then let it be that," he answered. Less than eight years from fleeing Makkah with only Abū Bakr, the Prophet ﷺ returned at the head of ten thousand, and to Allāh belongs all might. (Little did these two converts know their descendants, the Umayyads and the Abbasids, would rule Islam for nearly a thousand years.)