Stones at Ta'if, Grapes at the Vineyard Wall: The Sealed Nectar on the Prophet's Hardest Day

There is a road that climbs from Makkah into the mountains toward At-Ta'if. In Shawwal of the tenth year of Prophethood, the Messenger of Allah ﷺ walked that road with one companion, carrying nothing but a message and a hope.

In Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum (The Sealed Nectar), Shaykh Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri places this journey right after the Year of Sorrow. Abu Talib, his protector, had died. Khadijah, his beloved wife and the first believer, had returned to her Lord. The hostility of Quraysh grew sharper by the day. So the Prophet ﷺ looked beyond Makkah for people who might listen. What happened in At-Ta'if is one of the most painful scenes in the Seerah, and one of the most beautiful.

If you are carrying something heavy right now, this story is for you.

Ten days of closed doors

The Sealed Nectar dates the journey to the end of May or the beginning of June in 619 CE. At-Ta'if lay about sixty kilometres from Makkah, and the Prophet ﷺ went in the company of his freed slave Zaid bin Harithah.

He went first to the family of 'Umair, counted among the nobility of the town. Three brothers, 'Abd Yalail, Mas'ud and Habeeb, the sons of 'Amr bin 'Umair and chieftains of Thaqeef, heard him invite them to worship Allah alone. Their replies, preserved in the book, each cut in their own way. One answered with a scornful oath about tearing the covering of the Ka'bah. Another asked whether Allah could not find someone else to send. The third said he would never speak to him at all: if he were truly a Messenger, he was too great to be answered, and if he were lying, he was not worth answering.

The Prophet ﷺ did not argue. He stood up and left them.

But he did not go home. For ten days he stayed in At-Ta'if, speaking to one person after another, and every door stayed shut.

Most of us lose heart after one cold reply. He had just lost the two people who had held him up for a decade, and still he kept knocking.

Stones in the alleyways

At the end of those ten days, the people of At-Ta'if decided to hurry the unwelcome visitor out. The Sealed Nectar describes how they jeered at him through the alleyways and pelted him with stones as he left. Blood ran down both of his legs. Zaid tried to shield him and was wounded in the head. The crowd chased him two or three miles, all the way to the foot of the surrounding hills.

This is the man Allah describes with the words: "And We have not sent you, [O Muhammad], except as a mercy to the worlds" (Qur'an 21:107). Mercy to the worlds, walking a dusty road with blood on his legs.

When the people you wanted to help hurt you, it can feel like proof that you got everything wrong. Rejection is not always a sign that you are on the wrong path. Sometimes it is the same road the best of creation walked before you.

The prayer at the vineyard wall

Exhausted, the Prophet ﷺ took shelter in an orchard and rested against the wall of a vineyard. The Sealed Nectar says that at a time when the whole world seemed to have turned against him, he turned to his Lord. The book records the words of that prayer, which Muslims still repeat on their own hard nights. In its English translation, they begin:

> "O Allah! To You alone I make complaint of my helplessness, the paucity of my resources and my insignificance before mankind. You are the most Merciful of the mercifuls. You are the Lord of the helpless and the weak, O Lord of mine!"

And they reach this turning point:

> "But if Your wrath does not fall on me, there is nothing for me to worry about."

Read that line slowly. He did not begin by asking for the people of At-Ta'if to be punished, or even for the pain to stop. His first concern was whether Allah was pleased with him. If his Lord was not angry, then the stones, the insults and the long walk home were bearable.

We often measure a day by how people treated us. He measured it by how things stood between him and Allah.

Notice, too, how honest the prayer is. He names his weakness, his lack of means, and how small he looks in the eyes of others. Bringing your brokenness to Allah is not a lack of faith. It is worship.

A tray of grapes and a man from Nineveh

Then something small and gentle happened. The owners of the orchard, the two sons of Rabi'ah, were moved by kinship and pity. They sent their Christian servant, 'Addas, with a tray of grapes.

The Prophet ﷺ took the fruit and said, "In the Name of Allah." 'Addas was struck by the words and remarked that people in that land did not usually speak that way. The Prophet ﷺ asked where he came from and what religion he followed. 'Addas said he was a Christian from Nineveh.

The Prophet ﷺ said that he came from the town of the righteous Yunus, son of Matta. When 'Addas asked how he knew of Yunus, the Prophet ﷺ answered: "He is my brother. He was a Prophet and so am I." According to The Sealed Nectar, 'Addas then kissed his hands, and when his masters scolded him, he told them that no one on earth was better than this man.

Yunus (AS) also knew darkness, and the Qur'an tells us that "he called out within the darknesses, 'There is no deity except You; exalted are You. Indeed, I have been of the wrongdoers'" (Qur'an 21:87). On the worst day in At-Ta'if, a man from the city of Yunus walks up with grapes, and the brotherhood of the Prophets becomes the first door that opens.

Allah did not send an army that afternoon. He sent a servant with fruit. Never look down on the small mercy that arrives in the middle of a large pain. It may be Allah telling you that He has seen you.

The angel of the mountains

On the way back toward Makkah, at a place called Qarn Al-Manazil, also known as Qarn Ath-Tha'alib, the Prophet ﷺ looked up and saw a cloud shading him. Jibril was in it.

We have the Prophet's own account of this in an authentic hadith. 'Aishah asked him whether he had ever faced a day harder than the day of Uhud. He told her that the hardest treatment he met from his people came when he presented himself to Ibn 'Abd Yalail bin 'Abd Kulal and was refused. He walked away overwhelmed with sorrow and did not recover until he reached Qarn Ath-Tha'alib. There Jibril called to him: Allah had heard what his people said to him, and had sent the Angel of the Mountains to do whatever he wished with them.

The Angel of the Mountains greeted him and offered to bring the two mountains of Makkah, Al-Akhshabain, down upon them. The Prophet ﷺ replied: "No but I hope that Allah will let them beget children who will worship Allah Alone, and will worship None besides Him." (Sahih al-Bukhari 3231; see also Sahih Muslim 1795)

He had the power to answer every stone, and he chose to hope for their children.

He was not weak in that moment. Allah had placed the choice in his hands, and he chose mercy. The Sealed Nectar calls it a concise answer, "fully indicative of the Prophet's matchless character."

Listeners he could not see

The Sealed Nectar continues at Wadi Nakhlah, where the Prophet ﷺ stayed for a few days. While he recited the Qur'an there, a group of jinn came and listened, and he did not know they were there until Allah revealed it:

> "And [mention, O Muhammad], when We directed to you a few of the jinn, listening to the Qur'an. And when they attended it, they said, 'Listen attentively.' And when it was concluded, they went back to their people as warners." (Qur'an 46:29)

Surah Al-Jinn records their words: "Indeed, we have heard an amazing Qur'an. It guides to the right course, and we have believed in it" (Qur'an 72:1 and 72:2).

The people of At-Ta'if had refused to listen. Yet in the quiet of a valley, others were listening, and they carried the message home.

Sometimes your effort lands where you cannot see it. Allah knows exactly who is listening.

Walking back into Makkah

Zaid asked how he could return to Makkah after Quraysh had driven him out. The Prophet ﷺ replied that Allah would surely bring relief and would support His religion and His Prophet.

He sent word to Al-Akhnas bin Shuraiq for protection, and was refused. He sent to Suhail bin 'Amr, and was refused again. Then Al-Mut'im bin 'Adi agreed. He armed his people, and the Prophet ﷺ entered the Sacred Mosque, prayed two rak'ahs, and went home under their guard. He never forgot that favour.

And At-Ta'if itself? In Ramadan of the ninth year after the Hijrah, The Sealed Nectar tells us, a delegation from Thaqif came to Madinah. The man they chose to send was 'Abd Yalail bin 'Amr. That is the name of one of the three brothers who had turned him away years before. After days of listening to the Qur'an in the mosque, they accepted Islam.

What At-Ta'if teaches a tired heart

Your pain is not a sign that Allah has left you. The most beloved of creation had his hardest day right after his greatest losses, and Allah was with him at every step.

Bring your weakness to Allah honestly. The prayer at the vineyard wall begins with helplessness, not a show of strength.

Ask first, "Is my Lord pleased with me?" If the answer is yes, what people say loses much of its power over you.

Choose mercy when you could choose revenge. The Prophet ﷺ was offered the mountains and asked for his enemies' children to be guided instead.

Allah says, "For indeed, with hardship will be ease. Indeed, with hardship will be ease" (Qur'an 94:5 and 94:6). The road out of At-Ta'if was covered in stones. It still led home, and beyond home, to everything Allah had promised.

May Allah send peace and blessings upon our beloved Prophet ﷺ, who bled for our guidance and prayed for those who hurt him, and may He make us people who turn to Him first when the world turns away.