Protecting the Prophet ﷺ from Abuse
The disbelievers abused the Messengerﷺ by countless ways. Their abuse was not restricted to abusing him personally and preventing people from listening to his invitation to Islam. They used to abuse him in the most special times of his personal life, i.e. when reciting the Quran in the Sacred Mosque in Mecca. However, Allah, Exalted is He, protected him from their conspiracy and harm and usually from their abuse, and attempts of preventing him from conveying the Message of Islam. In the following ayat, the Quran narrates about some of their abuse.
(When you recite the Quran, We put between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter a concealing veil.
And We put covers over their hearts lest they understand it, and deafness in their ears. When you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they aversively turn back.
We are fully aware of how they listen to it. When they listen to you, confiding to one another, the wrongdoers say, ‘Indeed, you follow none but a bewitched man.’
Consider how they cite examples for you! Thus, they have gone astray and cannot find the guiding path.
[Quran Surah al-Isra: 45-48]
Relationship with the Previous Part
In the previous part, Allah, Exalted is He, established proofs, denoting His Oneness, and confirmed that everything in the universe glorifies and praises Him. Then He has mentioned the disbelievers’ reaction when listening to the Quran.
Tafsir
(When you recite the Quran, We put between you and those who do not believe in the Hereafter a concealing veil.)[45]
O Prophet! When you recite the Quran, which guides to the right path, Allah, the able, puts between you and those who disbelieve in the Hereafter a concealing veil, preventing them from understanding the meanings of the Quran so they cannot benefit from its guidance.
Allah, Exalted is He, punishes them by such punishment because they disbelieve in the Quran, and refuse to listen to the invitation to follow the path of truth that Muhammad, the Messenger of Allah, brought, i.e. Islam.
(And We put covers over their hearts lest they understand it, and deafness in their ears. When you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they aversively turn back.) [46]
Allah puts covers over the hearts of the disbelievers, preventing them from understanding the Quran. He also puts deafness in their ears, preventing them from listening to the Quran so that they cannot benefit from its guidance. That is because they reject to follow the path of guidance.
(When you mention your Lord alone in the Quran, they aversively turn back.)
O Messenger! When you mention Allah in the Quran, testifying His Oneness, without mentioning the alleged deities of the disbelievers, the disbelievers will aversively turn back due to their arrogance and haughty refusal to affirm the Oneness of Allah, Exalted is He.
Then Allah, Exalted is He, mentions what demonstrates His comprehensive knowledge, and that He will recompense the disbelievers for their evil deeds.
(We are fully aware of how they listen to it. When they listen to you, confiding to one another, the wrongdoers say, ‘Indeed, you follow none but a bewitched man.’) [47]
Allah is fully aware of how the disbelievers listen to the Prophetﷺ when he recites the Quran and calls them to follow Islam, the path of guidance. They listen to him mockingly, disbelieving in the Oneness of Allah and the Islamic message.
Moreover, Allah fully knows how the disbelievers confide to one another when they listen to Messenger Muhammad when he recites the Quran, saying, ‘Indeed, Muhammad is a bewitched man, so do not follow him.’
The following ayah is consolation to the Messenger of Allah as well as it strengthens the hearts of believers so they keep on following Islam.
(Consider how they cite examples for you! Thus, they have gone astray and cannot find the guiding path.) [48]
O Messenger! Consider how the disbelievers cite examples for you. Sometimes they say that you are a bewitched man, other times they say that you are a poet, and so on. By describing you with such attributes, they indeed, have gone astray so they cannot find the guiding path.
Muhammad bin Ishãq reported in the biography of Prophet Muhammadﷺ that Muhammad bin Muslim bin Shihãp az-Zuhry said, ‘I was informed that once abû Sufyãn bin Harab, abû Jahal bin Hishãm, and al-A’khnas bin Shurayk went out to listen to the recitation of the Messenger of Allah when he was praying in his house during night. Each one of them sat at a different place listening to the recitation without knowing the place of the other ones. They spent the night listening to the prophet’s recitation. At dawn, they left their places. They met one another on their return. They blamed each other, saying, ‘Do not return to listen to Muhammad’s recitation. If someone of the foolish sees you, you will make him doubt.’ Then they returned to their houses. The next night, each one of them returned to the same place, and listened to the Prophet’s recitation. Once again, they spent the night listening to the Prophet’s recitation. They said to one another what they said the previous time, and then returned to their houses.
The third night, each one of them returned and sat at the same place, and spent the night listening to the Prophet’s recitation. At dawn, they left their places. They met on their return to their houses. They said, ‘We shall not leave this place until we make a covenant that we will never return to do so.’ They made a covenant and left one another.
In the morning, al-A’khnas bin Shurayk took his stick, and went to the house of abû Sufyãn bin Harab. He said, ‘Abû Hanzala! Tell me your opinion on what you heard from Muhammad.’ Abû Sufyãn said, ‘O abû Tha’laba! By Allah, I have heard things that I know, but I do not know what they mean. And I heard things I neither know what they mean, nor what they refer to.’ Al-A’khnas said, ‘So am I. By the one you swore.’
Then he left abû Sufyã, and went to abû Jahal. He entered his house and said, ‘O abû al-Hakam! What is your opinion on what you heard from Muhammad? Abû Jahal said, ‘What I heard! The family of banû Abd-Manãf and our family compete with one another. They fed people, so we fed people, they engaged in battles, so we engaged in battles, and they gave, so we gave. When we have become close to one another like two competing horses in a race, they said, ‘There is a prophet from our family to whom revelation from the heaven comes. How could we compete with that? By Allah, we will neither believe in him, nor trust him.’ Thereupon, al-A’khans left him.’
Learned Lessons
• Allah, Exalted is He, put veils over the hearts of the disbelievers, preventing them from understanding the Quran. He also put deafness in their ears so that they could not hear it. That is because they stubbornly refused to listen to the truth and follow it.
• Allah was fully aware of how the conditions of the disbelievers were when listening to the Messenger when he recited the Quran. They confided to one another and said that Messenger Muhammad was a magician so do not follow him.
• The attitude of the disbelievers towards the Prophetﷺ was strange. Sometimes they said that he was a magician, other times they said that he was insane, and other times they said that he was a poet. Thus, they became astray, and could not find the right path leading to the truth.
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