The Meccans first ignored Prophet Muhammad (saw), and then they disrespected him. As many more people accepted Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) call that many more the Meccans became more violent. After the Meccans tried to turn Prophet Muhammad (saw) away from the religion of Islam and when they could not do it, then they started to persecute Prophet Muhammad’s (saw) followers. When this did not work either, then the opposing Meccans decided to persecute Prophet Muhammad (saw) himself. By this time, two main tribes from the city of Yathrib (about 300 km (200 mi) north of Mecca) had invited Prophet Muhammad (saw) to live there. The clan leaders invited Prophet Muhammad (saw) to Yathrib as a neutral religious authority to judge argument. In return, the leaders promise to accept Prophet Muhammad (saw) as a Prophet and support the new religion of Islam.
Prophet Muhammad (saw) never gave up to spread Islam and his duties even during the time when his family and companions were being tortured and tested in a very inhumane manner. Prophet Muhammad (saw) and his family including relatives (Ahlulbayt family (Imam Hassan (as), Imam Hussein (as), Bibi Khadija (as). e.c.t.) were included in the torture by the evil people and all most of them did not give up at all. Many of the people from the ahlulbayt family were being tortured and most of them were being tortured either by been taken as prisoners, slavery e.c.t. As Islam was spreading, the Quraysh tribes could not tolerate that Islam is spreading, and now the Quraysh tribes became the prophet Muhammad and his family enemies and became a big obstacle for the spread of Islam.
One of the examples of the pains that our Holy Prophet faced was:
He used to pass a particular road while going to mosque. In one of the houses on that particular road, a Yahudi lady used to live. Whenever the prophet passes under that Yahudi lady’s house, she used to drop litter on him. The Holy prophet did not get angry nor changed his way but He did pass that road everyday and each day He passed that place knowing that one day She will realise and will accept Islam because of his outstanding behaviours, as usual, the yahudi lady did tip out the litter from her window. One day, while the Prophet was passing, something surprising happened, No litter had been dropped out from that window. He was astonished, He made his way to that house, knocked the door and asked for that lady who used to drop litter on him. The lady was scared, but with no choice left she came in front of the prophet and asked the prophet that you have come to take your revenge when I am sick and weak. The prophet replied, “ Lady, I have not come to take revenge on you but I came to ask about well being as no litter was thrown on me and I was surprised, I thought there is something wrong somewhere, So I just came to ask you about your well being and your health, Oh lady, How are you and how are you doing, May you recover fast by the grace of Almighty Allah, and he prayed for her”. Upon seeing
All this, that lady got in to tears and fell into the legs of the Prophet, asked for forgiveness of her ill treatment towards the Holy prophet. She then asked for Kalema, accepted Islam.
From this, we can realise how the prophet tolerated the ill treatment from those ignorant and stubborn Arabs and how hard he had struggle to spread Islam. We also learn from the same story that how polite we should be with our fellow human beings regardless to their colour, faith or culture.
