By means of seductions...

By means of seductions, threats and through the Jews, the Koreishites tried to force people of Yathrib, which lay on the way of their commercial artery. They threatened their trade with Syria with cessation and asked them to forsake the Prophet. They failed there too. Hence, they decided to engage themselves in a war against the Hashemite Prophet. They fought against him in the battles of Badr, Uhud, and al-Khandaq - and they failed in all.

They used the Jews as a weapon against him - but they failed again. They also sought the support of the Persians and the Romans - but they failed. After eight years of his migration, the Prophet surprised the Koreishites when he conquered their capital Mecca, with an irresistible army. Thus, the Koreishites had to give up and surrender to the Prophet.

Afterwards, the Prophet declared public amnesty to the chiefs of the Koreishite clans and gathered them in the Holy Masjid under the swords of his soldiers to explain to them their arrogance, tyranny, denial of the Verses of God, malice towards the Prophet of God, wronging the Hashemites and Muslims, and waging wars against Islam.

He then released them, and they have been called – ‘the released ones.’[^1] After the Conquest of Mecca Although their hearts were full of feelings of rage and arrogance after they had to submit to son of Hashim and accept their having been released just like slaves, the Koreishites adopted another principle: Muhammad’s state is ours.

He is that ‘generous brother and son of that generous brother’ and that kind son of Koreish; therefore, we have to enter his state and save it from the hands of the strange ones. Hence, they dedicated all efforts to prevent the Prophet from preparing a Hashemite individual as his successor. In other words, they decided to prevent the Hashemites from having both prophecy and leadership.

As some of them believed that it was difficult to lay hold of Muhammad’s state, they planned to assassinate him so as to stop the whole matter.[^2] They also failed here because of the will of the Heavens. Thus, they had to find another way.

They came to ask the Prophet to grant them a share in his state, but he rejected because he had already appointed somebody as his successor: During his life, the Prophet (S) named ‘Ali ibn Abi-Talib as his successor and the coming leader of the Islamic Ummahh (community). As a matter of fact, the source of this decision was the decree from the Heavens.