Difficulties faced by the Prophet SAW

and his followers:

Faced by Prophet SAW

At the command of Allah, the holy Prophet SAW gathered the people of Makkah
at the safa hills and asked them that if he told them there was an army at the back
of the hill, would they believe him. They all replied that they would as they had
never heard him telling a lie. But when the Holy Prophet invited them to the
Oneness of Allah and his Prophethood, they all turned away. His own uncle Abu
Lahab condemned him and said May you perish forever. Did you call us for
this? The holy Prophet SAW was shocked as he had been betrayed by his own
family as well as the people of his tribe.
Another difficulty faced by the Holy Prophet SAW was when the

uraish

launched a propoganda campaign against him. They dubbed the Holy Prophet
SAW as a madman, soothsayer, poet and magician. Poets were commissioned to
ridicule the Holy Prophet SAW and produced abusive poems about him. They
wanted to demoralize the holy Prophet SAW.
In the 7th year of prophethood, the Quraish pressurized the uncle of the Holy
Prophet SAW to hand over his nephew to them but Hazrat Abu Talib refused. The
Quraish then decided to boycott the tribe of Banu Hashim. This meant that no other
tribe was allowed to have any dealings with them. The tribe of Banu Hashim was
forced to live in outskirts of Makkah. The holy Prophet SAW and his followers
suffered greatly. They were reduced ti starvation as the pagans did not allow any
food to be given to them. The boycott lasted for 3 years and then was lifted as the
Quraish saw that it was not working.
In the tenth year of prophethood when Prophet SAW was 50 years old, his uncle
abu talib died and the leadership of the Quraish was passed over to abu Lahab who
was hostile to muslims thus his protection was lost. In the same year, the beloved
wife of Prophet SAW died. This was a great blow for the Holy Prophet she
provided him with moral support and comfort. Thus the Prophet SAW suffered
greatly and this year was known as Year of grief or AmulHuzn.

After the persecution of the Quraish, the holy Prophet SAW decided to preach
Islam to the other cities as he saw that it was difficult to preach in Makkah. When
he went to taif, not only did the other people of taif reject his message, they pelted
him with stones till the extent that his shoes were filled with blood. Boys chased
him and his slave Zaid bin haris out of the city and also abused him verbally. Thus
the suffering increased for Prophet SAW but he still prayed for their guidance.
Points to check;
-safa hills event
- propoganda against him
-7th year- boycott
- year of grief
- visit to taif
BY FOLLOWERS
The Quraish also tortured the followers of the holy Prophet SAW. As the Quraish
were getting little success in persuading the holy Prophet SAW to stop preaching,
they started to presecute the weaker muslims. Thus the holy Prophet told the
vulnerable muslims to migrate to Abyssinia whose king Negus was a Christian and
a just ruler. So 15 muslims migrated to abysinia and left all their belongings behind
to escape the hostilites by Quraish. Later the Quraish followed muslims and asked
the king to expel them. However Negus heard both sides of the story and after
hearing muslims side he found true meeaning of islam and refused to hand them
over to Quraish delegation.
However, muslims still lived away from their home. Later more than about 70
muslims joined the group in abysinia. There were also individual persecutions
more specifically of the poor slaves. Bilal Al Habshi, a slave, used to be tied down
in the scorching heat of the desert in burning sand andwould have heavy stone laid
on the chest but not once did he renounce his religion and instead kept saying
One, One.