The Mountain of Safa: Public Proclamation to All of Quraysh

Two Quranic commands signaled the end of the private Dawah period. The first was Sūrat al-Ḥijr 15:94:

فَاصْدَعْ بِمَا تُؤْمَرُ وَأَعْرِضْ عَنِ الْمُشْرِكِينَ

"Proclaim brazenly what you have been commanded, and turn away from the polytheists." The word ṣadaʿ means to come out openly and fearlessly, not gently or softly, but with clarity and confidence. And with it came the instruction to not be derailed by what the idolaters do in response.

The second, even more specific, was Sūrat al-Shuʿarāʾ 26:214:

وَأَنذِرْ عَشِيرَتَكَ الْأَقْرَبِينَ

"Warn your closest relatives." After the private gathering in his house, and after preaching first to the Banū Hāshim at dinner, the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم now made the declaration public to all of Makkah.

❧The mountain of Ṣafāʾ

The mountain of Ṣafāʾ, closest to the Kaʿbah, was the traditional platform of public announcement in Makkah. It was taller then than it is now, over fourteen centuries of people climbing and descending have eroded it down. To climb to the top of Ṣafāʾ was to say: I have a message for this city. No one did it idly.

Makkah had perhaps a thousand inhabitants. When a voice cried from the top of Ṣafāʾ, it reached everyone. The Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم climbed and began calling out the tribes by name:

"O Banū ʿAbd al-Dār! O Banū ʿAbd Manāf! O Banū Hāshim!"

This was the equivalent of a town hall, an announcement to all of Quraysh. People stopped what they were doing. They came and gathered at the base of the mountain.

❧The question of trust

Before he said anything about prophethood, he asked them a question: "If I were to tell you that there is an army on the other side of this mountain, about to attack, would you believe me?"

He stands on the mountain, he can see what they cannot. The hypothetical is real: he is saying, I have knowledge you don't have. Would you trust my report without going to verify it yourself?

They answered without hesitation: "Yes. Mā jarrabnā ʿalayka al-kadhib, We have never, in all our lives, found you to say a lie. You are al-Amīn."

And then he told them what he had actually been sent to warn them about: "Then know, I am a warner sent by Allah to warn you of a severe punishment on the Day of Judgment, unless you leave your idolatry and turn to Him alone."

❧Calling them by name: closest last

He then called out the tribes of Quraysh, beginning with the most distant branches and working inward to his closest relatives. He called by clan: "O Banū Kaʿb ibn Luʾayy, save yourselves from the fire of Hell. I will not be able to help you." "O Banū Murrah ibn Kaʿb..." "O Banū ʿAbd Manāf..." And progressively closer and closer, until he reached the Banū Hāshim. Then he called by name:

"O Ḥamza ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib..."

"O Ṣafiyyah bint ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, the aunt of the Messenger of Allah..."

Each name followed by the same phrase: "You need to save yourself from the fire of Hell. I cannot help you."

Then the last name. The most beloved person to him after Khadijah. And to her he added something he said to no one else:

"O Fāṭimah bint Muḥammad, save yourself from the fire of Hell. I will not be able to save you from the punishment of Allah. But in this world, you ask me for anything that I have, and it is yours. I am your father. Whatever I have is for you. But in the Hereafter, I cannot stand between you and Allah's judgment."

The message was the same for all of them, but this addendum to Fāṭimah revealed the depth of the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم love for her, and the even deeper principle that this love could not cross the line of divine accountability. Even the people most beloved to him were not exempt.

❧Abū Lahab's response

When the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم finished, Abū Lahab did what Abū Lahab always did, but this time in public, in front of all of Quraysh. He bent down, picked up a handful of sand or pebbles, and hurled it toward the Prophet صلى الله عليه وسلم. To throw sand at someone in the Arab tradition was an act of supreme contempt and dismissal, the equivalent of saying "you are not worth even my dirt."

And he said, we seek Allah's refuge from these words, but they are the words he said:

تَبًّا لَكَ يَا مُحَمَّد، أَلِهَذَا دَعَوْتَنَا؟

"Tabban laka yā Muḥammad, may you be ruined. Is this why you called us here?"

He was the Prophet's صلى الله عليه وسلم own uncle. The son of his grandfather ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib. The man who had seen him grow up. And in front of all of Quraysh, he cursed him.

❧Allah's response: Sūrat al-Lahab

Allah سبحانه وتعالى responded with five verses that will be recited until the Day of Judgment:

تَبَّتْ يَدَا أَبِي لَهَبٍ وَتَبَّ ۝ مَا أَغْنَىٰ عَنْهُ مَالُهُ وَمَا كَسَبَ ۝ سَيَصْلَىٰ نَارًا ذَاتَ لَهَبٍ ۝ وَامْرَأَتُهُ حَمَّالَةَ الْحَطَبِ ۝ فِي جِيدِهَا حَبْلٌ مِّن مَّسَدٍ

"Perish the two hands of Abū Lahab, and he has already perished. His wealth will not benefit him, nor what he earned. He will be burned in a fire of blazing flame. And his wife, the carrier of firewood. Around her neck a rope of palm-fiber."

Abū Lahab is the only enemy of Islam mentioned by name in the Quran, not by title, not indirectly, but by his actual name. Every Muslim who recites this Sūrah until the Day of Judgment invokes the curse of Allah upon him for what he said that day on the mountain of Ṣafāʾ.