Islam is a way of life. Its ethos is based on love, benevolence, clemency and empathy. Despite this, people today, as well as those who lived 1400 years ago had always had malice against Islam, and have been busy working against it and trying to demonize it.
No matter how much it is tried, truth never remains hidden. We will see in this message how Abu Jahl, who was one of the staunchest of the enemies of Islam, had himself reasoned why he didn’t accept Islam and always gave pain to Prophet Muhammed ﷺ.
Those leaders of Makkah whose daily work was to bring agony to Muslims, defame Islam, and stop people from accepting Islam, used to listen to the Quranic verses while hiding themselves. By doing this they used to quench their thirst which they had for Arabic literature.
Once Akhnas bin Shareeq, Abu Sufyan (who had not accepted Islam by then), and Abu Jahl hid themselves and kept listening to the Qur’an for three consecutive days while Sayyiduna Rasoolullah ﷺ recited it. The following day Akhnas bin Shareeq asked Abu Jahl: “Tell me the truth. You have listened to what Mohammed (ﷺ ) has been reciting. Tell me what you think of it (Qur’an).” Abu Jahl replied: “We always competed against the children of Abd Munaf. When they distributed food among people we did the same. When they helped the travellers in transportation we did the same. When they practised charity we did the same. But while we were working with them shoulder to shoulder, the people of Abdul Munaf said: ‘We have a prophet among us, who receives revelations from the heavens.’ From where can we bring this match and equality? I swear that we will never believe in it (Qur’an).” (Ibn Hisham: 1:338, Egyptian print)
This was that a reason why Abu Jahl and other prominent leaders of Quraish rejected Islam, Quran, and the noble message brought by Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. Their leadership and their statuses were more important to them. Believing in Prophet Muhammad ﷺ they thought would result in losing all of them. It’s a different thing that Prophet Muhammad ﷺ never challenged their leadership, but mean and materialistic mind of Abu Jahl thus couldn’t see the truth. Additionally, his denial was not on the basis of rationality or proof, but because of his own stubbornness, jealousy, narrow mindedness, prejudice and opposition just for the sake of opposing.
Learning: Despite all this, Sayyiduna Rasoolullah ﷺ never ill-willed for Abu Jahl. This in itself is a miracle. But the bitter opposer of Islam didn’t change himself. Hence if we see today people with similar mentality, we can just pray for their hidayah and carry on.
