The journey to Ta’if

With Zaid bin Harithah he sets out for Ta’if, about 60 km away, to seek support. The chiefs of Thaqif mock him, and after ten days a mob stones him out of town until blood runs down his legs. Resting in an orchard he makes his famous prayer of complaint to Allah; a Christian servant, ‘Addas, brings him grapes and kisses his hands. On the way back, offered by the angel of the mountains to bury Makkah between its two mountains, he answers that he hopes for descendants of theirs who will worship Allah alone.

As the book dates it: Shawwal, 10th year of Prophethood (late May or early June 619 A.D.)

O Allah! To You alone I make complaint of my helplessness, the paucity of my resources and my insignificance before mankind.

Who was there

• ZHZaid bin HarithahThe Prophet’s freed slave and adopted son, among the first believers; he went with him to Ta’if and fell as the first commander at Mu’tah.
• A‘AddasA Christian servant in Ta’if who brought the wounded Prophet grapes and kissed his hands.