al-Walid ibn al-Mughira

Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira was the grand elder of Banu Makhzum. He was the arbiter of Quraysh's councils, the father of Khalid ibn al-Walid (may God be pleased with him), and a poet-critic whose judgements gave Mecca its first vocabulary for naming the Prophet's recitation.

The most famous council in the sira is his. The elders asked him what they should call the Prophet: a soothsayer, a madman, a poet? Al-Walid weighed each word and rejected it, and settled on "a sorcerer who separates a man from his family" ¹. That judgement became the slogan of the campaign.

He was among the elite who pressed the boycott of Banu Hashim, and died around 620 CE, before Badr ². The generation of his sons took the story further: Khalid fought on both of its sides.

Al-Walid is the museum's exhibit of opposition through rhetoric. It is the moment Mecca tried to classify the revelation, and, in the sources' own account, he took it seriously enough to argue over the right word.

When Quraysh agreed to rebuild the Kaaba, they feared to pull it down. Al-Walid ibn al-Mughira al-Makhzumi began the demolition. When people saw that nothing had happened to him, they followed, and they kept demolishing until they reached the foundations of Abraham (Rebuilding of the Kaaba) ^{3 4 5}.

Quraysh gathered around him to deliberate on a phrase to say to the Arabs about the Prophet. The discussion ended with his statement that he is a sorcerer, who separates a man from his father, brother, wife and clan ^{6 7 8}. Sixteen verses of the sura al-Muddaththir were revealed about him (Al-Walid's council) ⁷.