The Siege duration
Three years
Some clauses of the exclusionary siege
1 - Not to marry any of their women to Banu Hashim, and not to marry them.
2 - They should not buy anything from them or sell them anything, whatever its kind.
3- Not to meet with them on any matter.
4 - To be one hand against Muhammad and his followers.
5 - Spreading spies and informants on the Hashemites so that no one brings them food.
6 - They warned everyone coming to Makkah Al-Mukarramah against dealing with Muslims, and they were threatening anyone who tried to sell Muslims something by looting his money.
The Quraysh found that Muslims are increasing day by day, and the policy of torture and persecution has not deterred them from their faith, and that the immigrants of Abyssinia enjoy the protection of its king, and the Muslims of Mecca are openly praying since Omar embraced Islam, and the Messenger of God abstained from Banu Hashim for that so, the Quraysh thought of a comprehensive confrontation with which they would confront Muhammad, his companions and those who supported them, so they agreed to boycott the Banu Hashim, so that they should not marry them, nor marry them, nor sell them anything, nor do they buy anything from them until they hand Muhammad over to them and they kill him, and they wrote this in a newspaper known as “Al-Muqata’a newspaper”
They hung it in the hollow of the Kaaba, to ensure its implementation, and they took covenants between themselves to abide by the implementation of what was stated in the newspaper.
The Banu Hashim and Banu Abd al-Muttalib, their Muslim and their unbeliever, except for Abu Lahab, insisted on supporting and protecting Muhammad, and in the face of this boycott, they were forced to leave Mecca and seek refuge in the corridors of Abu Talib in Jabal Abu Qubais.
(One of the mountains surrounding Mecca) Quraysh surrounded them and they could not leave it except during the sacred months.
Eyes were on the Banu Hashim and did not leave food or sale to reach them - except that they beat them to it and bought and Abu Jahl used to call out to the merchants who came to Mecca not to sell any of their trade to Banu Hashim and buy it from them.
Double its price, so if one of Bani Hashim went out to buy food or something else, the merchant doubled the price of the commodity, He can't buy it, and he goes back to his children without food while they are crying out for hunger, the siege was prolonged on the Messenger of God and Bani Hashim, and they spent all they owned and had nothing left of money or food.
Mrs. Khadija's spending
Khadija spent all she had
Spending Abu Talib (uncle of the Prophet)
Although even though he is a polytheist and not a Muslim he spend all he has
What did they eat after they spent everything they had?
they almost perished from starvation, so they had to eat the leaves of the trees and everything they thought would stop them.
Saad bin Abi Waqqas, may God be pleased with him, says:
he was one of the besieged. I went out one night to urinate, and I heard clanking under the urine. If a piece of the skin of a dry camel was, I took it and washed it, then burned it, ground it and dried it with water, so I made three strong with it, one of them said, “One night I trampled on something wet, so I lifted it to my mouth and swallowed it, so I don’t know what it is until now.
And carry the Messenger, may God bless him and grant him peace, and those with him
The trouble of this boycott with patience and steadfastness, and the Qur’anic verses were sent down to increase their stability and demand them to be patient and defy the siege and boycott, and that did not deter the Messenger from spreading his call, He used to go out during the seasons of Hajj and trade, inviting all of the Mecca delegation to Islam
Some of Unbeleivers:
these people criticized the Quraysh for their position on Banu Hashim and admired the steadfastness of Muhammad and his companions, so they approved of Islam and embraced it, and this was contrary to what the Quraysh wanted from the boycott.
Uncovering the cloud and a practical test of the Prophet’s sincerity
And God wanted the terrible ordeal to end, the distress to be revealed, and the Muslims to pass the trial successfully, so Gabriel informed the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace, that the Muqata’ah, what the Quraish had written had been eaten by the termite, all of the words of estrangement and injustice in it, and only the names of God remained in it, So the Prophet informed his uncle Abu Talib of this, and he went to Quraish, and he told them what the Prophet had said, and he said: If he was truthful, you knew that you were unjust to us, and cut off our ties of kinship, and if he was a liar, you would have pushed him to kill him.
The coinciding with the rise of five men of Quraysh
Hisham bin Amr
Zuhair Ibn Umayyah
And the restaurant bin Adi
and Abu al-Bakhtari bin Hisham
And Zam`ah Ibn al-Aswad
They blamed their people for what they had done to Banu Hashim, and they agreed to revoke the paper, so Zuhair circumambulated the House seven times and called out to the people of Makkah to eat food and wear clothes, and Banu Hashim, It is perished, neither can it be sold nor bought from them, and by God, I will not sit until this unjust, sever newspaper is torn
The Opposition to not lifting the siege
Abu Jahl, so the four companions of Zuhair got up and agreed with him on his opinion and said: They do not agree with what was written in the newspaper and do not approve of it.
Abu Jahl said
This is a matter that was decreed during the night, and for advice from other than this place was sought
So the Al - Mutam got up to split the newspaper and found it on the picture that the Messenger had told them about. The termite had eaten it all, except for the names of God. Thus, Banu Hashim and Banu al-Muttalib left, from the reefs, they returned to Mecca to live their normal lives, but the Quraish continued to persecute and torture them, and their exit from the siege was in the tenth year of the mission.
Termite: a yellowish-white insect similar to an ant, which appears in the spring and lives in large colonies, and eats wood and grains, and the like. The termite ate some leaves.
Some benefits of the blockade
1- Despite the harshness of the siege and the severity of its impact on Muslims, it brought good to them and Islam, as the Arab tribes reprimanded Quraysh, With Bani Hashim, it did not happen that an Arab tribe with one of its bellies took this strange behavior.
2 - The attitude of the wonderful challenge that the Muslims took had a great impact on attracting some members of these tribes to Islam.
3 - As for the Quraysh, they were humiliated in the eyes of Muslims after all their attempts to undermine Islam and Muslims failed
4 - It seems that the Arabs knew early on the meaning of social isolation and the deep psychological damage it causes to the psyche of those who are exposed to it, but they neglected the fact that abundance is a strength, no matter how severe it is, as it is said: ( the ordeal that pervades: includes)
5 - Always and forever there are gallant people who carry the meaning of masculinity and flogging to break the siege or force some people in every time and place, and this is what the five heroic men who were not Muslims at the time did, but it is the authentic Arab chivalry which may be covered with dust and rust sometimes in this case (for a full three years), but they dusted it off and got up and stood as men.
6- Why did God put such an ordeal for the first Muslims on whose arms he will build the building of Islam and its main foundations? It is necessary to test what you have learned in theory. This is how we learned in life, and the practical test is more traumatic than just putting a few words on paper, isn't it? But (just an opinion) the matter is more than that, perhaps because Islam is a strange beginning and will return to being strange, as Al-Sadiq Al-Masduq told us. Do you not see with me the famines that specifically afflict the Muslims?
Related Studies
Advantages and disadvantages of small group communication
Advantages and Disadvantages of Small Group Communication Every group communication aims to achieve a common goal. Thus, group members communicate to achieve their individual and common goals. However, each group discussion or communication has its advantages and disadvantages, For example, the benefits of small group communication are superior performance, greater member satisfaction, greater civic engagement, more learning, more creativity, and enhanced cultural understanding, and so on. In contrast, the disadvantages of small group communication are more time, energy and resources, conflict, social hangouts, blaming shared mistakes, sleeping members, and trouble scheduling.
From the previous study, we conclude
That the Muslims (believers) who have endured the economic siege with ease and without boredom, only indicates their original metal before their conversion to Islam and which Islam has refined, and there is no doubt that God - the Most High - with this tremendous test, what many people cannot bear now, as if we are watching a movie tape and say after it, it is impossible, this happens, this is an exaggeration, and we understand about God - the Most High - that He is Gentle- that is, He enters mercy in the midst of torment, so Muslims' proximity to each other during this period will form strong bonds that will not be broken by interests after that, Create between them a strength that supports endurance more and more. Why: Because why does my neighbor in the siege endurance while I am less staunch than him? On the third hand: when I see nobles, merchants and rich people like Mrs. Khadija, I feel embarrassed, and when I see a polytheist who is not a Muslim sitting with me in the siege (Abu Talib), I feel embarrassed and a strength that increases my endurance more and more, This is how life taught us that if misfortunes spread, they would be included, and increased intimacy between them.
God relieved the distress of the beloved people of Yemen from the siege of deadly hunger, and provided them with men from the east or the west, it does not matter, the most important thing is to relieve their anguish