Hence it was not easy for Quraysh to take a decisive action.

Hence it was not easy for Quraysh to take a decisive action. After mutual consultations the chiefs of Quraysh decided to remove the very foundation of this faith and the founder of the new religion by different means. They proposed to achieve this purpose by approaching him sometimes with allurements and at other times by extending to him various promises and occasionally by using threats and torture.

For ten years Quraysh behaved in this manner and eventually they decided to kill the Holy Prophet. In order to save him, therefore, Allah ordered him to quit Makkah. During the aforesaid period the chief of the family of Bani Hashim was Abu Talib. He was a man who possessed a noble nature and a magnanimous spirit, and his house was an asylum for the needy and the orphans.

Besides being the chief of Makkah and possessing some offices with regard to the Holy Ka'bah he enjoyed a very high position in the Arab society and as he had been the guardian of the Prophet after the demise of Abdul Muttalib, the other chiefs of Quraysh approached him in the form of a group [^2] and addressed him thus: "O Abu Talib! Your nephew abuses our gods, speaks ill of our religion, laughs at our thoughts and beliefs and considers our forefathers misguided.

Ask him to keep aloof from us or surrender him to us and refrain from supporting him".[^3] The elder of Quraysh and the head of the family of Bani Hashim replied to them in a tactful manner and in a soft tone, and consequently they abandoned their activities. However, Islam was penetrating and expanding day after day and the spiritual rapture of the religion of the Prophet and the attractive and eloquent words of the Heavenly Book (the Qur'an) were lending support to it.

The Prophet especially presented his religion before the people in the months in which fighting was prohibited, when a large number of pilgrims gathered in Makkah. His eloquent and sweet speeches and his attractive beliefs impressed many persons. In the meantime the Pharoah of Makkah also realized that the Holy Prophet had gained popularity amongst all the tribes and had acquired many followers amongst the settled and unsettled Arab tribes.

They, therefore, decided to approach the Prophet's only supporter (Abu Talib) once again and to make known to him the dangers to which the liberty of the Makkans and of their religion had become subjected owing to the propagation and expansion of Islam.