Utba ibn Rabi'a

Utba ibn Rabia was an elder of the Banu Abd Shams who preferred a settlement with the Prophet ﷺ to war. He was the negotiator of the opposition, and he was killed with its nobles at Badr.

The biography gives Utba some of its most striking scenes of negotiation. The elders sent him to offer Muhammad wealth, kingship and a physician if he would stop. He sat and listened. Then, the sources say, he returned to his council and warned that this man was not mad, and that they would regret fighting him. ¹.

At Badr, tradition has him advising a return as the army advanced, and he was killed there together with the nobles of Quraysh. ¹. His daughter Hind later became the wife of Abu Sufyan, and the history of that house carries the whole bow of the war.

Utba represents the opposition that spoke: the road not taken at Badr. The sources preserve him as a real alternative that was argued over and failed.

When Quraysh saw the Prophet's Companions growing in number after Hamza became Muslim, Utba stood up in the council of Quraysh and said that he would speak with the Prophet and offer him some things. When he sat down with him, he offered him wealth, leadership, kingship, and medicine, if what came to him was a spirit he could not repel. When he finished, the Prophet said, “Have you finished, Abu al-Walid? Then listen to me.” He recited to him the opening of Surat Fussilat until he reached the prostration, and he prostrated. Then he said, “You have heard what you have heard, Abu al-Walid, so the matter is yours.” ^{2 3}. Utba returned to Quraysh and advised them to leave the man to what he was doing. ⁴.

He advised Quraysh to turn back from Badr, and he said there was no good in killing a cousin or a maternal relative. Then Hamza challenged him to combat and killed him. (the Day of Badr) ^{5 6}.