The Dinner of the Banu Hashim: The First Open Preaching

When Allah revealed: وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ, "And warn your closest relatives" (al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:214), the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم understood: the time for private Dawah to individuals was over. He had now been commanded to preach openly, beginning with his own tribe.

He moved in two stages. The first was to his immediate subtribe, the Banū Hāshim and Banū ʿAbd Manāf, the children and grandchildren of his great-grandfather ʿAbd Manāf. This was the inner circle. And rather than gather them in a public venue, he brought them to his own house, a private, intimate setting, not yet the public proclamation that would come later.

He asked ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib رضي الله عنه, who was young, living in the household at that time, to prepare food. They had very little; a single leg of lamb and some broth. Yet the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم invited over forty of the adult men of Banū Hāshim. They came.

❧The first attempt: foiled by Abū Lahab

The food was in one plate. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم ate first and blessed it. And one of the first miracles of this period occurred: over forty men ate to their fill from a single plate. Each of them said it was as if he had the whole plate to himself. They drank from a single cup of soup, and each drank to his fill.

Abū Lahab, the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم paternal uncle, one of the seniors of Banū Hāshim, sensed what was coming. He knew that when the food finished, his nephew was going to make an announcement. So before the meal was complete, he stood and announced that he had to leave, and because he was a senior elder, a number of others took the opportunity to also excuse themselves, and the gathering dissolved. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم recognized this as a deliberate tactic.

❧The second attempt: the speech

A few days later, the same gathering was repeated. This time, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم did not wait. Before anyone could leave, he stood and began with the Khuṭbat al-Ḥājah:

إِنَّ الْحَمْدَ لِلَّهِ نَحْمَدُهُ وَنَسْتَعِينُهُ

This particular form of opening, which the Arabs had never heard before, was inspired by Allah to the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. It became the standard of all his speeches. Then he said:

"O Banū ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, I do not know of any Arab before me who has come to his people with something better than what I am bringing to you. I am coming to you with something that will give you your Dīn and your Dunyā, this world and the next. If you turn away from idolatry and turn to Allah, He will give you all the good of this world and Paradise in the next."

This was the first time that many of his own relatives had heard the message directly from his mouth, in his own voice, in his own home. Before this, Abū Lahab had heard rumors. Others had heard that something was being preached. But now it was in front of them.

Abū Lahab responded with irritation. He did not address the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم directly, a telling detail, but spoke to the others around him: "This seems to be an unworthy message. We have our ways and the ways of our forefathers. Who does this young man think he is to oppose what our forefathers did?" He was the only one to express open hostility. The others neither accepted nor rejected, they had heard, but they were not yet reacting.

ʿAlī رضي الله عنه, the youngest in the room, stood and said: "O Messenger of Allah, I will help you."

The scene captured in miniature what the whole mission would become: the one person who stood up to oppose it was Abū Lahab, and the one who stood up to support it was the youngest, showing that Imān, not age or prestige, was what determined who a person was.