The
Ban

Now as more and more people gathered around Muhammad,

worshipping the One God in the way that he showed them,

the leaders of the tribes of the Qureysh became more and more angry.

And the muslims around them felt the force of that fury.

Those strong enough to defend themselves

would still have to listen to insults and lies,

while the weak and powerless faced beatings and torture.

And the worst of them in insult and cruelty was a man called Abu Lahab,

who constantly urged them all to make life unbearable for the muslims,

and he had a nephew,

Umar son of Khattab,

who needed little encouragement to be harsh,

rough and brutal,

with the muslims.

But Umar had a change of heart and became muslim,

to the shock of Abu Lahab

and the rest of the Quraysh.

And Umar was not going to pray in hiding when others were at the Ka'aba

praying to idols made of wood and stone.

So Umar began to make his prayers at the Ka'aba

and invited others to pray with him.

And when there were a lot of muslims, the Qureysh would stay away.

But Abu Jahl was not one to accept such humiliation,

and came up with a plan to turn Muhammad's family against him.

Muhammad's family,

the clan Hashim,

gave him protection because he was family,

whether they thought he was a Messenger or not,

but Abu Lahab thought he would give them

a reason to change their minds.

He got the tribes to agree to have nothing to do with the Hashim,

either marrying with them

or buying from them

or selling to them,

until such time as the Hashim themselves outlawed Muhammad,

or until such time as Muhammad gave up his new religion.

Only the clan of Muttalib

refused to forsake their cousins the Hashim,

so they were included in the Ban.

Forty Qureysh leaders agreed to this Ban,

which was written down and placed in the Ka'aba,

and it caused the Hashim clan great hardship.

The Hashims were mostly gathered together

in a part of Makkah where Abu Talib the head of the family lived,

and the Messenger and his wife Khadija lived amongst them.

And in the months that followed

the ban on trade meant that many people suffered badly,

but still they wouldn't betray Muhammad.

More than two years the Ban dragged on,

and the Hashim and Muttalib clans came close to starvation,

until at last a group of the Qureysh with friends and family in the Hashim,

challenged Abu Lahab and demanded that the Ban be ended,

and while Abu Lahab argued

one of the challengers called Mut'im

went into the Ka'aba to get the Ban and tear it up.

Now the Ban had been written on vellum,

a piece of treated animal skin,

and when Mut'im emerged he had a smile on his face,

and in his hand was just a tiny piece of vellum.

For the Ban had been eaten by worms,

and all that was left were the first words that were written,

"In Your Name, O God".

And the men of the Qureysh took this as an omen,

and the Ban was declared over straight away.