While we have done whatever we can with Abu Talib,
we have not tried Muhammad himself.
Should we not talk to him? Should we not debate with him?
So that he would tell us what we hate to hear?
Muhammad has not raised arms against us.
All he does is to advocate his religion verbally.
You are the most eloquent of people.
When people realize that you have debated matters with him
and won the argument, they will abandon him.
What if they learn the reverse?
Then you only have yourselves to blame.
Who will undertake the task?
No, by the Lord of the Kaabah.
I am your youngest. I defer to my elders.
What you said today has shown us that a person's standing
is not measured by age or wealth;
but by wisdom and sound argument.
When Quraysh made you, Umar, its ambassador and spokesman,
it was in recognition of these qualities of yours
Do not force me, Abu Al-Waleed.
By God, I will not accept while we have you,
and Suhail Ibn Amr, the best speaker in Quraysh...
and Abu Abd Shams, our eldest.
Then it is Abu Abd Shams.
They put it on your father's head.
I don't know whether it is good or bad.
People of Makkah, Elders of Quraysh!
People of Makkah! Listen to me
People of Makkah, I declare that I have set Salim free,
and have adopted him as a son.
As from today, he is Salim Ibn Abu Hudhaifah Ibn Utbah Ibn Rabeeah.
He inherits me and I inherit him.
I am so pleased for Salim.
A slave should be happy when another slave is set free.
I don't envy him, if that is what you mean.
Yes, I do. I do envy him...
He hardly set him free before adopting him
and giving him his name, so as to inherit him.
Is it because he is an Arab slave?
What are we in such slavery and blackness?
If there is a Creator,
why has he created white and black?
- Do you hate your color, Wahshi? - Don't you hate it?
- If I did, I would hate myself. - I hate it for myself.
How could I not hate it when these people disgrace me on account of my color?
Had I been like them, it won't happen.
- You are like them now, Wahshi. - Like them?
Aren't you looking at your color with their eyes?
If you are their slave,
they are enslaved by their desires.
They cannot see the truth and are always misguided.
What I am hearing is certainly strange.
I was standing above the masters today,
and I could not see among them anyone
who is lighter or freer in heart and soul than me.
Huh! And you used to accuse me of dreaming.
What did you think of what we heard the Quraysh people say today?
What do you mean?
Why! Doesn't a slave have ears to listen with?
I didn't listen until Abu Hudhaifah brought Salim
and declared him a free man.
You stand there and do not hear!
My master has taught me that when I am in attendance at their meetings,
I should not hear or see anything.
Their business is not mine. I am given orders and I obey.
Yes. I know that they were talking about Muhammad and his religion.
- And what do you think? - Think? Of what?
Are you being sarcastic, son of Hamamah?
How can a slave like me have an opinion about what troubles Quraysh?
Opinions lie here... and here.
A man looks for himself first.
A man! Well, when this quality becomes mine.
Why should I care about Muhammad?
You will not know until you have enquired and searched.
I don't need that in order to know my opinion.
So you have an opinion.
My opinion is that I don't care about Muhammad's religion
any more than about Quraysh's religion.
These belong to them and it is of no concern to the likes of me.
Well. Muhammad has not been sent to Quraysh alone,
or indeed to the Arab nation only.
He is a messenger to all mankind:
Arabs and non-Arabs, black and white. And...
How did you learn all this, son of Hamamah?
Had you been listening to the people as I have been,
you would have known what I know.
Did you say to all mankind?
To freemen and slaves?
If I were to believe in Muhammad tomorrow,
would he free me from bondage?
Had you listened well to what Quraysh said,
you would have known that they were very hostile to him, trying to stop him,
when he is of the best lineage among them
and the best in morality.
Do you think they will obey him if he ordered you to be freed?
If that is the truth, then no conditions can be imposed on it.
Truth is sought for its own sake
and is not valued by any immediate price.
On the contrary, we may be harmed for holding on to it, until it triumphs.
Then everyone will be judged in fairness and with justice.
Did you really hear all this as people spoke?
Is it true?
You! Ibn Abi Quhafah!
We used to consider you among our best,
until you were the first to join Muthammam.
You did not stop at joining him yourself,
but you spoilt several others.
Fie on you.
And you little shepherd!
You thought high of yourself as you were given an opportunity.
You will never again find anyone among us to trust you with his sheep.
We will see you starving to death.
A sheep dog is better than you and the likes of you.
You will soon taste our punishment.
We will see if this one or anyone else can protect you.
You have no clan to protect you.
You are disgusting.
Peace! Peace! We have nothing to do with ignorant folk.
You shall have this.
God's messenger says the truth. Most certainly, he is Abu Jahl.
Isn't it amazing how God spares His Prophet their abuse?
They abuse Muthammam,
when he is Muhammad, God's messenger.
I was about to return his abuse, even though it would mean my death.
We have been commanded not to do so.
God's messenger is sent as a guide to give happy news and warnings,
using wisdom and kindly admonition.
They ultimately return to God.
You, Ibn Massoud, have memorized most of the Qur'an.
How do you overlook what God says:
"Do not revile those whom they invoke instead of God,"
"lest they revile God out of spite, and in ignorance."
"Thus have We made the actions of every community seem goodly to them."
"Then to their Lord shall they all return,"
"and He will explain to them all that they have been doing."
God and His messenger tell the truth.
It is as if I hear this verse for the first time now.
Welcome to my uncle.
None of your welcome!
Haven't I told you not to do it?
Haven't I, you son of my sister Hantamah?
What did you tell me not to do?
I told you not to disagree with me in front of others.
Haven't you seen how Utbah Ibn Rabeeah
praises your view and belittles mine?
Or do you want it to be said
that Umar is wiser than his maternal uncle?
Is this what brings you now? Listen, Abu Al-Hakam.
Why don't you call me Abu Jahl,
as Muhammad and his companions call me?
Are we not meeting for consultation?
What does consultation mean other than everyone stating their views,
then one view is accepted?
Otherwise, everyone will stick to their views
and people cannot agree on anything.
The stronger is then the winner.
It is indeed so: the stronger is the winner.
Then people will only talk the language of the sword
and the loser will scheme against the winner.
No, Abu Al-Hakam.
I will not refrain from stating my opinion to please you.
Yet, I am hostile to Muhammad and against his religion, but...
What is this noise? As if you are quarrelling!
Ask this son of yours.
It is as if you have not taught him to respect his elders,
particularly those who are his relations.
The best welcome to you all.
Welcome, come on in; welcome
Welcome; welcome
Sahlah! Here is your father and brother Abu Jandal,
together with my father and brother. Come and meet them.
Why didn't you tell me, your father, before telling the people?
Here is your father-in-law, Abu Yazeed. Why didn't you consult me?
I saw the other day
that you disliked seeing me eating with Salim in one plate.
And you don't care for what I dislike!
I dearly wish that you love what I love and who I love.
What if I don't?
I will do my best to please you.
But when the right and proper course is clear to me,
I make up my mind and do it.
Father!
- How are you, uncle? - What about you?
Are you happy with what your husband did regarding Salim?
How can I be unhappy when he is to me like my son?
Besides, I would not have disobeyed my husband, even if I did not like it.
You, father, would have been the first to rebuke me if I did.
- Salim! - Sir.
Come closer.
Sit down.
Obey your grandfather, lad.
Salim. You should know
that I was not in favor of what Abu Hudhaifah did for you.
However, since he has done it and called on people to witness it,
you have become one of my family.
What happens to you and what disgraces you
will affect and disgrace us.
We abide by our people's traditions.
Therefore, stick with your father, Abu Hudhaifah,
and be as good to him as he has been to you.
I will never leave him for the rest of my life.
And I would die for his sake.
I know, father, that you are the wisest
and most honorable of all people.
You don't need to flatter me when you are my son.
Were you to keep my company as I would have liked,
I would pave the way for you
to become the chief of our clan after me.
As I told you before, father.
I don't see myself suitable for the task.
Here is my brother, Al-Waleed,
and he is more suited and better deserving.
Bring me some water to drink, Salim.
This one goes to Khalid.
You need to examine your eyes.
You thought my eyes and ruling to be fine
in the first race which was in your favor.
Now that it goes against you, you criticize my eyesight.
You did not wish it to be said that Umar outraced Khalid twice,
when he is your cousin and belongs to your Makhzoom clan.
Therefore, you acknowledged the first and denied the second.
You are not the referee we accept.
He is my cousin and clansman,
but I am also your maternal uncle, and your close and intimate friend.
You were, until you have ruled now in favor of your cousin.
Ayyash! It is impossible to make people satisfied.
- That's true - The one who is most miserable
is the one who accepts to judge between people.
And you? Who do you think has won this race?
The one I placed my bet with Salamah on.
That's me, then?
You placed your bet on him, thinking little of me.
- I have won the bet twice. - Twice?
I bet on you the first time, and you didn't fail me.
He gave us equal shares of his negative thinking:
I in the first and you in the second.
Why don't you say that I shared my positive thinking between you equally:
Umar in the first and you in the second?
And he won in both. Amr Ibn Al-Aas is certainly lucky.
How ill you think! It wasn't luck.
I looked at Umar's horse after the first round
and saw him perspiring profusely, unlike Khalid's horse.
I realized that he tired himself out in the first round
and he would be beaten in the second.
Huh! So, it is the horse, not the horseman, that failed.
A horse is secondary to the horseman.
Don't try to change facts, Umar.
Isn't that Hamzah Ibn Abd Al-Muttalib?
Yes, indeed, it is him going out hunting, as usual.
How about joining him for a hunting outing?
After what happened between us and the Hashim clan?
Hamzah has not accepted Muhammad's religion.
As for us, our elders have forbidden us from getting involved in this affair.
Except Umar.
He took a lead and spared the elders of Adiy.
He is indeed a top horseman
No young man in Quraysh can match you in clothes and appearance.
- Good morning to both of you. - Good morning.
Where to, Abdullah?
I have something to attend to.
Have you something which you conceal from me?
It is not something to reveal or conceal.
Won't you come with your father and brother to our people's meeting?
Or do you dislike your father's company?
I neither like it nor dislike it.
If my company and the company of others are the same to you,
then come with me.
Birds of a feather flock together.
And you don't like my feather.
Father, I cannot argue with you.
Whenever we discuss something, you say you are unable to...
What do you do in your meetings
other than endlessly argue about Muhammad and his companions?
You say endlessly. Don't you realize what he has done to us?
You tell me, father. What has he done to you?
He has reviled our religion and our idols
And you support your gods and idols more than they support themselves.
Do you not go to them whenever you have a serious problem
to implore them for help?
Don't you draw lots near them to decide your course of action?
Don't you offer sacrifice for them to win their pleasure?
They should be the ones to defend themselves and you.
Leave Muhammad to these idols and they will take care of him.
That is, unless you are in doubt about their ability.
Go away, you undutiful son. I don't need you.
Look at you.
Can't you find any better clothes to wear?
What will people say about us?
Don't worry, father.
People know how generous you are to all and sundry.
They won't doubt your generosity to your relatives.
And if they do, my brother's appearance will give them the lie.
Would you like to come with me, Abu Jandal?
No. You come with me, Abu Jandal.
I don't know what has happened to this lad.
He will not obey me, when the entire clan of Amir Ibn Luayy obey me.
How come that you are born to one father
and you differ so markedly.
What difference you mean, father?
His daring, and your politeness.
I never thought that daring and politeness are opposites.
Isn't cowardice the opposite of daring,
and rudeness the opposite of politeness?
Which of these characteristics do you mean
in distinguishing between me and my brother?
Or do you mean them all?
Ooh! How come my two sons are so eloquent today?
We take after our father, Suhail Ibn Amr, Quraysh's finest speaker.
Yet, your normally lucid argument did not serve you well today to reply to Abdullah.
Which of you should defend the other:
yourselves or your gods and idols?
We defend them, so that they will protect us.
It may be so!
Peoples of Quraysh! As the pilgrimage season approaches,
people will be arriving from all over the place.
They must have heard about your friend.
So you had better agree what to say about him.
We must guard against having conflicting opinions,
for then you belie one another.
You, Abu Abd Shams, have debated with Muhammad and listened to him.
You tell us what in your view we should say.
No, I prefer to listen to your views.
We say that he is a soothsayer.
He is certainly not that. We have known soothsayers.
What he says is nothing like their rhymes.
We'll say he is a madman.
He is not.
We have seen madness and what it does.
It is nothing like its seizure or hallucination.
Let us say he is a poet.
No. We know everything about poetry and its different meters.
His words are unlike poetry.
We say he is a magician.
- He is a magician - He is not.
We have seen magic and magicians.
Muhammad has nothing of their trickery.
What shall we say, then, Abu Abd Shams?
What Muhammad says is certainly beautiful.
It is like a date tree with solid roots and rich fruit.
Every one of these suggestions you have made
is bound to be recognized as false.
Are we, then, to describe to the Arabs
the beauty of what Muhammad says,
then tell them to reject it?
What is this Abu Abd Shams?
The closest thing is to say that he is a sorcerer
who repeats magic words
which make a man fall out with his father, brother, wife and clan.
Tell me. Was what I said right?
I mean I couldn't find anything to describe him to the Arabs other than sorcery.
By God, his fine, sweet words make a man fall out with his father, brother and wife.
One believes in him and the other does not,
and thus they fall out.
Perhaps you are right, father.
The people have agreed to what you said.
Father, you are asking us, and I will tell you straight.
I wonder, father, how can you entertain clear contradiction?
Wasn't it you who gave the Qur'an a most beautiful description?
If anyone of Muhammad's companions was asked to describe the Qur'an,
he wouldn't say more than what you said.
How can you, then, advise people to say that it is fabricated sorcery?
Where is the fabrication, father?
Hold it, Al-Waleed.
You are only accusing your father of fabrication.
No. I am hoping that he will be absolved of it.
Yes, the people have obeyed him,
knowing that it is false, with my father's own testimony.
They will take it against him, even though they may adopt his view.
It is not a characteristic of the Arabs that their honored men should lie.
As for the Arab delegations in the pilgrimage season,
they will listen to Muhammad as my father has done,
and will find in it what my father has found.
They are, after all, the most articulate of people.
They have ears, minds and hearts like we have.
They will then know that the accusations we level at Muhammad
are false and unfair.
They dislike these ugly qualities and denounce them.
Yes. By Al-Lat, you are absolutely right, Al-Waleed.
I found myself totally confused.
Give us, then, your advice.
What shall we tell the people?
With what shall we accuse him?
By God, I cannot believe my ears.
Say to the people what you say to one another.
Then we will be helping Muhammad against ourselves.
If you don't want to say the truth, then keep quiet.
Then all we can do
is to try our best to prevent people from meeting him.
What made him so articulate today,
when he used to be weak in expression and physically?
Khalid! Say no evil about your brother.
If he is only your half brother,
he is still my son and he is, in my view, your equal.
Don't take airs on account of your physical strength
and that you are in charge of Quraysh's military force.
Two types of people have gained the top position among the Arabs:
one with his sword and the other with his forbearance and kindness.
Allah-u akbar. (God is great).
What is this?
Woe is me! Woe to your mother, Abu Hudhaifah! Woe to your father.
I've always thought that I would die before I would see this.
What shall I tell people if they know of this?
What people, father?
Would I fear people when it is God alone who I should fear.
Does your God command you to be undutiful to your father?
No, He commands me to be dutiful to my father all my life.
He couples this with belief in His oneness, which is the core of Islam.
God says: "Your Lord has ordained..."
Read the verses, Salim. You know the Qur'an better than me.
"Your Lord has ordained that you shall worship none but Him,"
"and that you must be kind to your parents."
"Should one of them, or both, attain to old age in your care,"
"never say 'Ugh' to them or chide them,"
"but always speak gently and kindly to them,"
"and spread over them humbly the wings of your tenderness,"
and say, 'My Lord, bestow on them Your grace,"
"even as they reared and nurtured me when I was a child.'"
Indeed everyone of us is required to treat his parents with kindness,
even if they continue to disbelieve in God
and try hard to force their child to disbelieve.
He should not obey them in that, but should continue to treat them well.
"Should they endeavour to make you associate as partner with Me"
"something of which you have no knowledge, do not obey them,"
"but even then bear them company in this world's life with kindness,"
This one who used to be your slave
is now leading you in the knowledge of your Qur'an and your religion.
Is this why I saw him leading you in prayer?
Yes, father. It is a gift God has given him.
He only needs to hear the verse of the Qur'an from God's messenger
and he would learn it by heart.
He helps me in learning, and leads me in prayer.
There is no harm in that.
The world and all on earth have gone mad.
It is Muhammad's doing.
He elevates the low and lowers the nobles.
No. He puts them all on the same level.
The only criterion of distinction is God-fearing, which is here...
Only God knows it and gives it its measure.
If it is true that he tells you to be dutiful to parents, as you have said,
is this how you are dutiful?
By disobeying me and changing your religion?
It is out of dutifulness to you that I call on you to accept it.
By God, I won't.
Quraysh shall not say that Utbah changed his religion
and broke away from his people.
You have argued with me long enough.
I swear that you must revert to the religion of your father and your people.
You swear? By what, father? By Al-Lat and Al-Uzza?
By these idols that you make,
and when you have made them, you prostrate yourselves before them!
Thus, what you make becomes the maker,
and what you create becomes the creator?
Is this better, or God, the One, the Almighty,
who has created mankind and ordered them to worship Him alone
and to acquire His attributes?
Be merciful, as you love God to bestow mercy on you.
Be fair as God is fair to you.
Be kindly as you want God to be kind to you.
Be kind and generous as you wish that God is kind and generous to you.
Be a united community just as God is One.
Which is better: this or a diversity of deities like your own disunity,
and idols you make in your own shape and as you wish?
Since when things have turned upside down
so that man makes his god?
What's happening here?
You must have sent for us because of something serious!
Abu Hudhaifah, answer them.
Say to your brother-in-law, Abu Sufyan.
Say to your father-in-law, Abu Yazeed...
say to your sister...
What have you perpetrated now?
Is there anything happening in these days of ours
other than what Muhammad has done?
Has your son deserted?
You've done it, have you?
May God blacken your face and blacken what this day has brought us.
What disgrace! What disgrace!
Beat up this ingrate, undutiful one.
Raise against him the young of the Abd Shams clan
to hurt him and imprison him until he reverts.
Otherwise, he will cause us everlasting disgrace.
Pick up your clothes and come with me.
You shall not remain his wife now that he has deserted.
I follow his faith, father.
I will never leave him or leave my religion.
How wicked! Confound the two of you!
Abu Abd Shams and myself try hard to make people abandon Muhammad,
and our peoples follow our lead,
then we find the enemy in our homes and our offspring?
What authority does that leave us among people?
They will tell us: attend first to your own households.
And they will be right to say it.
All the while you have been debating about Muhammad,
taking a step forward and a step back.
Start with your own, so that people will appreciate your action.
The people! The people! All you think of is people.
I call on you to the truth and you call me to obey people!
The truth is what we found our people doing,
and what they found their forefathers doing.
Who is better: a person who chooses for himself,
works today for his future and paves the way for those who follow,
or one who blindly follows the dead, and consecrates his past?
You say the people... well, which people?
Don't you see that Muhammad's followers increase?
Aren't they people?
Where will you be when God makes His faith triumph?
By God, it will happen
What will you say when the majority of people will follow it?
Will you say that it was false at first but now it is right?
Is that how the truth is determined?
If this happens in your lifetime, people will have taken a lead over you.
What will your position be then?
Now you are hostile to the Prophet
because you fear for your ranks and positions.
If you want to retain these, take a move now and embrace Islam,
so that your ranks under it will be the same as now.
Or as the position of this one?
Perhaps lower, since he embraced Islam earlier.
It behoves us, then, to be more determined in our hostility to Muhammad,
and to prevent people from listening to him
so that his followers do not increase.
Even if this means resorting to the sword.
All power comes from God.
God is enough for me; He is the best Guardian.
I can't take this anymore.
Abu Sufyan, won't you sit down and listen to what I say?
I would rather spare my ears.
And you, Abu Yazeed?
And you brother!
Our old man fears his people after they have made him their chiefs.
You are young, with a vibrant heart.
Our father will not abandon his people,
and I won't abandon my father.
Even if he is leading you to suffering in hell?
I don't understand these words: fire, hell, heaven.
I would love to beat you up, but it would please our opponents.
I would rather wait until my father has made his judgement.
Honourable Arabs!
You are certainly aware that we are the people of the Haram and its custodians.
Whenever anyone tries to harm us,
God will be sure to turn the scales against him.
You are well aware of what happened to those who brought the elephant here.
Now appears among us this man of whom you must have heard.
He claims to have some basis for what he says, but it is untrue.
He causes our bonds of kinship to be severed,
berating our forefathers and reviling our gods.
We see him followed only by the low and imbeciles among us.
I say this about him,
knowing that he is one of the Quraysh people.
I should have been the first to try to hide his evil from the Arab delegations,
on account of his being my relative.
But he invented something, then tried to publicize it
and call on people to accept it.
I know that if I don't denounce him to you,
you would have denounced us on his account.
Had I not disowned him before you,
you would have put the blame on us for his action.
It behoves us, then, to give you sincere advice,
just as we have been honest and sincere in our custody of this Haram.
We discussed the situation before your arrival.
We felt that we either cover up, in view of his being our blood relative,
or we have to warn the Arabs against his sorcery and temptation.
We chose what is better for you, rather than what is better for him,
even though he belongs to us.
You, people of Arabia.
I appeal to you by the sanctity of this place to be fair.
Had what he has invented been good,
wouldn't we have been the first to follow him
when we are his own people and tribesmen?
Would we have left him to others in preference to ourselves
when he has been saying that if we follow him
all Arabs would submit to our authority?
We say in response:
the Arabs have recognized our rights and our standing.
Why should we be hostile to them?
He is indeed a sorcerer
who wants men to fall out with their own people and families,
We have refused to follow his line.
Would we let the Arabs end up with what we have rejected from our kinsman?
Fairness says no... and honor and integrity say no.
Therefore, stay away from him as we do.
Discard him as we have done,
so that you remain safe from his sorcery,
and you can complete your pilgrimage
and then return to your people sound and healthy.
It is as Abu Yazeed has said.
I am his uncle, Muhammad's uncle.
No, he is Muthammam.
I should have been the first to protect and defend him.
However, honor and integrity would not let me.
I wouldn't conceal my testimony for the truth,
because this is the trust left me by my father, Abd Al-Muttalib
whom you knew well,
and whose praises have been sung by all and sundry.
I used to love this Muham... This Muthammam.
Indeed I married my two sons to his two daughters.
Yet when he started his falsehood,
I disowned him
and made my two sons divorce his daughters.
Yes, indeed, I used to love him,
but I love my religion and this, my city more than I love him.
I declare before you all that he is a liar.
Be warned against him and don't come near him
so that you will be safe from his sorcery.
You heard his own uncle's testimony.
What is there left to say?
Nothing more need be said.
Have your legs collapsed to make you depart and leave me?
Enough, father. Why do you rebuke me,
when my brother Abdullah refused to go out with you in the first place.
I have given up on him.
What harm would it have done you to stay with me until I have finished.
You would learn from me the art of speech making.
It is often the case that words are sharper than the sword.
I have tried, father.
By God, I have tried, in order to please you, but I got tired out.
People may differ, even father and son.
Whoever is similar to his father does no injustice.
Since I am unlike you, am I unjust?
What is so funny?
Abu Jandal went out with you against his will.
Do not force your son to do what he dislikes.
Otherwise he will show you what is different from his true feelings.
Tell him, Abu Jandal. Speak out and do not worry.
Tell him what you told me.
I... I said nothing.
I will speak out then.
Father, you may have come back today,
pleased with yourself because of what you said about Muhammad.
By God, you are the most eloquent person in Quraysh.
But eloquence may serve its speaker or count against him,
just like a sharp sword you use to prevent injustice
or to perpetrate injustice.
That is what is unjust, father;
not that your son is different from you.
You know that what you said today about Muhammad is neither right nor true.
To be inarticulate but truthful is much better than to be articulate but false.
You defend Muhammad
as though you are one of his followers.
Have you sat with him, Abdullah?
Or maybe you have listened to that deserter convert,
Abu Hudhaifah, your brother-in-law, and your sister Sahlah.
If I do, you will be the first to know, and I won't care.
Where did you get this, then?
From you all. From you yourself.
Ever since we were young, you said of him: Muhammad is the man of trust,
the kindest, most merciful and truthful of people.
Then we wake up one day to find you describing him as sorcerer and liar.
If we believe you today, we hold you as being liars yesterday.
You believe us both today and yesterday.
That cannot be.