Abu Jahl (Amr ibn Hisham)

Abu Jahl, "Father of Ignorance," is the Muslims' name for Amr ibn Hisham, whom his own people called "Abu al-Hakam" ("Father of Wisdom"). He was the driving force of Mecca's opposition to Muhammad, and the story of that opposition is, to a large degree, his story.

A chief of Banu Makhzum, Abu Jahl appears in the sources wherever pressure on the Muslims was organized: the boycott document against Banu Hashim hung in the Kaaba, the council at Dar al-Nadwa that planned the Prophet ﷺ's assassination, and the documented torment of the weak. The tradition attributes to him the killing of Sumayya bint Khayyat (may God be pleased with her) ^{1 2}.

He led Mecca's army to relieve the caravan at Badr, and his voice prevailed over those calling for a return. He was killed in the defeat, in March 624 CE ³.

His death at Badr is a hinge of the sira: the opposition lost its driving force in a single day. The museum presents him as the sources do, as the most consequential of the Prophet's opponents and the first great "what if" of the story.

When the Quraysh went to the house of Abu Bakr and asked Asma about her father, and she said she did not know, Abu Jahl struck her a slap that knocked off her earring. This was at the time of the Prophet's departure from his house and his hiding in the cave ^{4 5}.

He met Sa'd ibn Mu'adh circling the Kaaba in Mecca and said to him that he was circling in safety while they had sheltered those who had turned away from the old religion. Sa'd replied that his road passes by the people of Medina (Quraysh's threat) ⁶.

He was the commander of Mecca's army. He disobeyed al-Akhnas ibn Shariq when al-Akhnas advised turning back, and said that he would not return until he reached Badr, slaughtered camels, served wine, and let the Arabs hear of their gathering. He also did not let the Banu Hashim turn back (Preparations before Badr) ^{7 8 9}.

Two young men of the Ansar killed him, and then Ibn Mas'ud finished him off. The Prophet called him the Pharaoh of this community (The death of Abu Jahl) ¹⁰.

The Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.) entry gives his full name as Abu l-Hakam Hisham b. al-Mughira of the Banu Makhzum of Quraysh, also called Ibn al-Hanzaliyya after his mother, Asma' bint Mukharriba. He was born about 570, and his mother became a Muslim and lived beyond 13/635. Shortly before the Hijra he succeeded al-Walid b. al-Mughira as leader of the Makhzum, and he was less willing than al-Walid to compromise with Muhammad. The article says he was largely responsible for the boycott of Hashim and al-Muttalib, and that he persuaded Abu Lahab to withdraw protection from the Prophet. Many persecutions of Muslims are attributed to him, though the article doubts that all of them happened. He led the relief force for the Syrian caravan in 2/624 and was killed at Badr. ¹¹

Sheikh Omar Abdelkafy discusses Abu Jahl in his account of the branches of faith. He holds, as his own view, that the first branch of faith is the testimony of God's oneness, that Abu Jahl understood its demands and then rejected them, and that this is his judgement of Abu Jahl's conduct ^{12 13}. He recounts how the Quraysh urged Abu Jahl to act against the Prophet before he reached Yathrib (needs_source: the exchange as the sheikh gives it) ¹³.

He recounts that Abu Sufyan took the caravan by another route and escaped, while Abu Jahl insisted on going on to Badr to protect the caravan (needs_source) ¹⁴. He recounts that Abu Jahl insisted on confrontation, that the Prophet consulted his companions before the battle, and that Abu Jahl was the joint commander of the Quraysh army (needs_source: the exchange is garbled in the automatic transcript) ¹⁵.