The Breaking of the Boycott and the Return from Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib

Context:

In the 7th year of the Dawah, after the conversions of Ḥamzah and ʿUmar, which deeply threatened Quraysh, all of the Qurashī sub-tribes gathered and agreed on a final strategy: total boycott and isolation of the Banū Hāshim until they handed over Muḥammad (SAW).

The terms were written in a formal treaty by Bughayd ibn ʿĀmir, sealed in a cloth pouch, and hung inside the Kaʿbah (which was kept locked). The treaty imposed a total boycott on the Banū Hāshim and their twin-clan Banū al-Muṭṭalib (collectively the descendants of Banū ʿAbd Manāf):

- No buying or selling of food, water, or goods

- No marriages with them or from them (existing marriages to be dissolved)

- No socializing or contact whatsoever

Abu Lahab's defection:

One notable exception: Abū Lahab, the Prophet's own uncle and bitter enemy, publicly sided with Quraysh and remained in the city. He was the one Banū Hāshim member who defected, prioritizing his personal comfort and his hatred of the Prophet over tribal loyalty. All others, Muslim and non-Muslim alike, followed Abū Ṭālib into the valley.

Life in the valley (Shi'b Abi Talib):

The Banū Hāshim owned several valleys (shiʿāb) outside Makkah. They moved to what became known as Shiʿb Abī Ṭālib. For two to three years they eked out an existence:

- Eating leaves, drinking rainwater, eating whatever shrubbery was available

- Bilāl (رضي الله عنه) narrated: "Our droppings became like goat droppings." This is how little they had to eat.

- Every few weeks, Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī (non-Muslim but a man of honor and conscience) would load a camel with food and grain and send it into the valley in the middle of the night. This was their primary supply.

- Ḥakīm ibn Ḥizām (رضي الله عنه), Khadījah's nephew, also secretly sent food.

- During the Ḥajj season (when foreign visitors came), the Prophet (SAW) would leave the valley and meet with visiting tribes to continue Dawah. Abū Jahl, meanwhile, would offer double the market price to foreign merchants not to sell to the Banū Hāshim, even though the foreign merchants were not bound by the boycott.

The Prophet's dua for famine:

The Prophet (SAW) made duʿāʾ against Quraysh: "Oh Allāh, send upon them a famine like the famine of Yūsuf." The duʿāʾ was answered. Makkah was struck by drought and severe famine. The people of Makkah were reduced to eating animal carcasses and chewing on dead animal skins. The famine began to soften some hearts.

The anti-boycott coalition:

Meanwhile, Hishām ibn ʿAmr, a Qurashī who was a grandson of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib through his mother ʿĀtikah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib (making him a maternal cousin of the Prophet), organized a secret coalition of sympathizers. Members included: Zuhayr ibn Abī Umayyah, Muṭʿim ibn ʿAdī, Abū al-Bukhtarī ibn Hishām, and others known to disapprove of the boycott.

Their strategy: plant themselves at different positions around the Nādī (the Meccan public assembly), then rise one by one in seemingly spontaneous sequence to challenge Abū Jahl's position. This would create the impression of widespread public opposition.

The confrontation at the Nadi:

Zuhayr ibn Abī Umayyah stood first: "For how long are we going to starve our own kith and kin? This is an evil thing that we have done."

Abū Jahl erupted: "Who are you to challenge this? We all agreed!" Hishām stood: "I did NOT agree. You forced this." Muṭʿim stood: "Neither did I." Abū al-Bukhtarī stood, and so on, each planted coalition member rising in sequence. Abū Jahl finally said: "Wallāhi, this is a plan all of you have hatched together." It was, but no one admitted it, and public sentiment had already swung against him. He could not stand alone.

The termite miracle:

Then came the decisive event. The Prophet (SAW) went to Abū Ṭālib in the valley and told him: "My Lord has informed me that the treaty they wrote has been eaten by termites, all of it except the phrase 'Bismika Allāhumma.'"

Abū Ṭālib asked: "Your Lord has informed you?" He said: "Yes." Abū Ṭālib said: "I will stake everything on this."

For the first time since the boycott began, Abū Ṭālib led a delegation of the Banū Hāshim (non-Muslims included) back into Makkah and to the Kaʿbah assembly. He announced: "My nephew has told me something. Let us open the treaty. If he is right, end the boycott. If he is wrong, I will hand him over to you right now."

Quraysh agreed, they thought this was a safe bet. They retrieved the parchment, opened the cloth, and found: only the phrase "Bismika Allāhumma" remained. Everything else, the entire document, had been consumed.

They were furious: "This is sihr (magic)!" But the word had been given. They could not go back on the public challenge they had accepted. The boycott was annulled.

Return to Makkah:

The Banū Hāshim returned to Makkah approximately in the 10th year of the Dawah, when the Prophet (SAW) was around 49 years old. But the relief would be brief: within months, Abū Ṭālib would die, and then Khadījah (رضي الله عنها). These losses marked what became known as ʿĀm al-Ḥuzn, the Year of Sorrow.

Abu Talib's Lamiyyah:

During the boycott, Abū Ṭālib composed what scholars, including Ibn Kathīr, consider possibly the most eloquent poem in the history of the Arabic language: the Lāmiyyah (اللامية), a poem of approximately 100 lines in which every single verse ends with the letter Lām (ل). Its content was not the wine and romance of typical Jāhilī poetry, it described Quraysh's treachery, the injustice of the boycott, and the honor of the Prophet (SAW). Ibn Kathīr said it surpassed all seven of the Muʿallaqāt combined, not only in style but in moral content.