There is no reason for the Holy Prophet (S)’s having hidden...

There is no reason for the Holy Prophet (S)’s having hidden their names except that they were Qurayshites and celebrities; and to declare their names would certainly lead to punishing them; and to punish them would cause danger of apostasy; and to apostatize from Islam would mean that they would convince some of the Arab tribes to mutiny claiming that Muhammad (S) had given everything to his relatives and deprived people of Quraysh and the Arabs; and to arouse such a claim would create an ill reputation of Islam since it would be said that the Holy Prophet (S) disputed his believing companions and fought them; and to invent such an ill reputation would lead to new wars the results of which would not be better than the earlier ones.

Hence, the divine solution is to keep the matter hidden as long as those men admitted Islam. Because the narrations that recorded the plot of al-`Aqabah named famous Qurayshite personalities, the pro-Quraysh Hadithists have had to suspect them although most of them have had to regarded Ibn Jumay` and the other narrators who mentioned the names of the planners and the executors of that plot as trustworthy.

In addition, Sunni reference books of Hadith have recorded that Hudhayfah and `Ammar were frequently asked by Qurayshite chiefs whether they had seen them on that night with the executors of the plot or not and that such chiefs attempted to gain the acquittal of hypocrisy from Hudhayfah and `Ammar.

The same reference books have also recorded many narrations asserting that people could identify the hypocrites, after their death, by noticing whether Hudhayfah would offer the ritual Funeral Prayer for them or not. Finally, they have narrated that Hudhayfah did not offer the Funeral Prayer on any of the Qurayshite chiefs!

Third Event The story of Surah of Tahrim implies that one of the Holy Prophet (S)’s wives violated his instructions of concealing the news he had recounted to her exclusively and, backed by her well-wisher, worked for people of Quraysh against her husband. The Lord, again, informed His Prophet (S) about divulging the secret and the Holy Prophet (S) conveyed this divine information to her as well as her well-wisher who was also one his wives.