Table of Contents
The Painful Response at Ta’if
When the Prophet ﷺ traveled to Ta’if, he went with a heart full of hope. Makkah had rejected his message, his beloved wife Khadijah رضي الله عنها and his uncle Abu Talib had just died, and he was searching for a new opening for Islam. Ta’if, a city of Thaqif, had wealth, influence, and strategic importance. If they accepted Islam, it could provide protection and a new base for the da‘wah.
Instead, what awaited him there was one of the most hurtful and humiliating experiences of his life.
Mockery by the Leaders of Thaqif
In Ta’if, the Prophet ﷺ presented his message to the main leaders of Banu Thaqif. Instead of listening sincerely, they responded with sarcasm, ridicule, and arrogance. Each one of them tried to outdo the others in mockery.
Some narrations mention that one of them said, with scorn, that if Allah really had sent a messenger, He could have found someone “better” than Muhammad ﷺ. Another is reported to have said that he would not even speak to the Prophet ﷺ directly, fearing that if he were a prophet it would be dangerous to reject him, and if he were lying he was too insignificant to bother with. Others suggested that they would tear up the curtains of the Ka‘bah if what he said was true, a way of saying that they would rather destroy a symbol of sacredness than accept his claim.
This was not ordinary disagreement. It was deliberate humiliation. They mocked not only the message, but also the person who brought it. For a man already grieving the loss of his closest human supporters, this verbal rejection was a deep emotional blow, but it was only the beginning.
Inciting the Rabble and the Children
After ridiculing the Prophet ﷺ, the leaders of Ta’if did something even more cruel. They did not simply send him away. They stirred up the lowest and most aggressive elements of the city against him. They set the foolish and the slaves and the children upon him, instructing them to insult him and physically drive him out.
As he ﷺ walked out of Ta’if, the mob lined up on both sides of the road. They hurled obscenities and shouted insults. More painfully, they began to throw stones. They targeted his legs and feet so that he would stumble and be forced to move faster.
Zayd ibn Harithah رضي الله عنه, who was with him, later recalled how he tried to shield the Prophet ﷺ with his own body as they fled. Zayd himself was struck repeatedly, but the stones still reached the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. His blessed feet became covered in blood, and his sandals filled with it until, as some reports mention, his feet stuck to them.
This was not the pain of a single blow in battle. It was a long humiliation, step by step, as each stone landed and each insult was hurled. The people of Ta’if did not only reject the truth, they rejoiced in attacking the one who brought it.
Physical Exhaustion and Emotional Hurt
By the time the Prophet ﷺ and Zayd managed to escape to the outskirts of Ta’if, the Prophet ﷺ was physically exhausted. His body was wounded, his feet bleeding, and his clothes stained. Zayd had also been injured while trying to protect him.
They eventually reached a place known in the narrations as the orchard of ‘Utbah and Shaybah, the sons of Rabi‘ah, who were among the nobles of Quraysh and had vineyards near Ta’if. There, the Prophet ﷺ found a brief moment of shade and rest under a vine. The journey out of Ta’if had drained his strength. The repeated stoning and relentless insults had inflicted pain that went beyond the body.
It is here that the depth of his emotional hurt becomes clear. He had come to Ta’if as a desperate seeker of refuge for the message of Allah, only to be answered with violent mockery and public humiliation. The memory of the Prophet’s own words later in life shows how heavy this day was upon him. Aishah رضي الله عنها asked him if he had experienced a day worse than Uhud. He replied, as narrated in Sahih al Bukhari:
«…وَلَقَدْ لَقِيتُ مِنْ قَوْمِكِ مَا لَقِيتُ، وَكَانَ أَشَدُّ مَا لَقِيتُ مِنْهُمْ يَوْمَ الْعَقَبَةِ، إِذْ عَرَضْتُ نَفْسِي عَلَى ابْنِ عَبْدِ يَالِيلَ بْنِ عَبْدِ كُلَالٍ فَلَمْ يُجِبْنِي إِلَى مَا أَرَدْتُ، فَانْطَلَقْتُ وَأَنَا مَهْمُومٌ عَلَى وَجْهِي…»
“…I have suffered from your people what I suffered, and the worst I suffered from them was on the day of al ‘Aqabah, when I presented myself to Ibn ‘Abd Yalail ibn ‘Abd Kulal and he did not respond to what I sought. So I departed, overwhelmed with sorrow…”
(Sahih al Bukhari, meaning reported with this sense)
The “day of al ‘Aqabah” mentioned here refers to this day at Ta’if. The Prophet ﷺ himself described it as his hardest day, even harder than Uhud, where he was wounded in battle and his tooth was broken. That shows the depth of the emotional pain of rejection and abuse he faced at Ta’if.
The Supplication Born from Suffering
While the focus here is on rejection and abuse, it is impossible to separate it from what came from his tongue in that moment of deepest hurt. Sitting in the shade of the vineyard after being driven out with stones, the Prophet ﷺ turned to Allah with one of the most moving supplications in the Seerah. This du‘a shows how he viewed the rejection of Ta’if and where he turned when all human doors seemed closed.
He called upon his Lord, complaining not of the people in the first instance, but of his own weakness and helplessness, and seeking refuge in Allah’s pleasure. Although the chains of transmission for the exact wording are discussed by scholars, the meaning of his attitude is fully in line with authentic descriptions of his character.
The Qur’an reflects the general principle of his response in the face of such abuse:
﴿فَاصْبِرْ كَمَا صَبَرَ أُولُوا الْعَزْمِ مِنَ الرُّسُلِ﴾
“So be patient, as were those of determination among the messengers…”
(Qur’an 46:35)
And also:
﴿وَاصْبِرْ عَلَى مَا يَقُولُونَ وَاهْجُرْهُمْ هَجْرًا جَمِيلًا﴾
“And be patient over what they say, and leave them with gracious avoidance.”
(Qur’an 73:10)
These verses capture the prophetic way of handling mockery and verbal harm. The Prophet ﷺ demonstrated this perfectly at Ta’if. The people insulted him, yet he did not respond with curses. They stoned him until he bled, yet he did not cry out for personal revenge.
The rejection and abuse at Ta’if reached the Prophet ﷺ in three painful forms: deliberate ridicule from leaders, organized public humiliation through mobs and children, and sustained physical harm through stoning until his feet bled.
Abuse Without Abandoning the Mission
Even as he left Ta’if wounded, the Prophet ﷺ did not abandon his mission. The rejection he faced was personal and public, but in his heart it was always about the message of Allah being turned away, not simply about his own dignity. This distinction is crucial to understand.
For a caller to Allah, public humiliation and physical harm can be the most severe tests. Yet the Prophet ﷺ did not allow these events to cause bitterness toward the people as a whole, nor did he withdraw from calling them to guidance. He had come to Ta’if hoping to find support for Islam. Instead, he found a door seemingly slammed shut. Yet this very moment, the lowest point of rejection and abuse, would soon become the doorway to new forms of divine support and mercy, which belong to later discussions.
What remains specific to this moment is that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ tasted, in full, the pain of human rejection, the sting of mockery, and the agony of physical abuse, without abandoning trust in his Lord. His example at Ta’if would become a timeless lesson for believers who face ridicule or harm because of their faith, showing that such trials do not mean the mission has failed, but that they can be part of the path of the prophets themselves.