Ta^’if was a thriving city in the south of Makkah. It took two days on camel and a single day on mule to reach it from Makkah. As Ta^’if is situated 1,800 meters above sea-level there is plenty of water and rainfall there. In those days majority of the rich had their parks and gardens in Ta^’if.

Even today, one feels entering a new world on reaching Ta^’if. The inhabitants of Ta^’if were very rich and their actual profession was "Ribbah" -- usury. They charged 100% interest on their loans and some of them had an army of slaves that they employed for cultivation.

They used to eat wheat-bread. Arab’s major food is milk. A Bedouin can instantly tell the age of a dromedary by just sipping her milk. He could also tell which shrubs or plants it had been fed upon. The type of grass that grows at one place may not be found at another. The Bedouins were very well informed about various species of plants and herbs.

The people of Ta^’if were quite well off. They could devote some of their time to gain knowledge and skills and such other pursuits. A famous physician of northern part of Arabia lived in Ta^’if. His name was Harith bin Qaldah. A famous historian Ibn-e-Khalqan states that this physician received knowledge from Persians. Those days Persian system of medicine was quite reputed and many renowned physicians lived in Iran during that period.

The un-matched astrologer Umro-Bin-Umayyah, also lived in Ta^’if. In Arabic, Ta^’if means a wall or a boundary and it was the only city in Arabia at that time that had a walled boundary around it. This wall was built by some Persian builders. It is said that a citizen of Ta^’if performed a great service for the Persian king and in return he requested the king to send some masons to build fortification around the city of "Wa^’aj". Wa^’aj was the old name of Ta^’if.

Inside this city was a rocky hillock on which was placed "La^’at" (one of the three famous idols of Arabia). That hillock and the area around it was considered sacred. Whosoever entered it, might he be a murderer or an adulterer, was taken under protection or refuge of the idol.

After entering Ta^’if, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reached the house of one of his relatives, Abdiyah Layl. Abdiyah who knew about the Prophet’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) expulsion from his tribe, refused to meet him. He even ordered his servants to pelt stones at him. When the servants hurled stones at the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) he escaped from there and sought refuge in an orchard. After hearing about the Prophet^’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) arrival, people of Ta^’if started looking for him in the streets of the city. He thus stayed in the orchard so they would not find him.

Two brothers who were natives of Makkah, owned that orchard. They did not want to extend shelter to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). On seeing him bleed, They became compassionate and ordered their slave to offer a bunch of grapes to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The slave (a Christian), plucked a bunch of grapes and offered it to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said, "In the name of Allah, Most Merciful, Most beneficial" and started eating. The slave was surprised. He asked the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) in astonishment, "O aggrieved person; Are you a Christian?" The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) answered negatively. The slave said that the same words were said by the Christians before eating. He then asked him, why had he uttered those words.

The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) replied that he was Allah^’s Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and that Allah is but One. The people had pelted him with stones for declaring his message. The Christian (whose name was Uds) said that he also worshipped one God. He and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) developed an amiable relationship. He told the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) that the orchard was owned by two brothers, "Atbah" and "Sheebah", who were the sons of Rabiyah. Both brothers belonged to the tribe of Quraysh. He added that though his masters had ordered him to present grapes to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), yet they could not provide him refuge. The only way he could help the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was to lead him out of Ta^’if through safe routes.

Uds kept his word and the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) started his journey back to Makkah. When the streets of Ta^’if were left far behind, the Prophet^’s (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) body was aching. He was thirsty and hungry. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) prayed, "O Allah, unto thee I complain of my weakness, of my helplessness and of my lowliness before men. O Most Merciful of the Merciful, Thou art Lord of the weak".

The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reached a place called "lap of oases". It was night and the world was sunk in silence. Here the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) began reciting Holy Quranic verses with great ardour. The verses were so effective that a group of "Jinns" residing near that place accepted faith. The Holy Qur’an indicates this in its 46^th Surah - Al-Ahqaf verse 29;

That night, the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was travelling alone and he was not within sight of a party of people, yet they were motivated enough by his words and message to embrace Islam.

In Arabic "Jinn" literally means something invisible, and that is why the fetus in a mother^’s womb is called "Jinn" or "Genin" which is the root of the term "Genetics". Jinn is also used in another context: of dread or fear of the unknown. The Arabs used this word as an antonym of amity or affection (Uns).

Thus "Uns" or amity means recognition of each other, while "Jinn" is for avoidance. Those living in cities are familiar to each other and are thus related by "Uns", whereas those living in deserts are known as "Jinns".

It is important to mention here that the above explanations are not against the Holy Quranic verses that tell us that "Jinn" is a creation, created from fire or "Naar". These Jinns are a separate creation of Allah that the Holy Qur’an refers to in terms that could be understood by the Bedouin. Today^’s advanced knowledge also confirms that several of the things on this earth have evolved from fire and this earth itself is a fire-ball that took its present shape in four hundred and fifty thousand million years.

After sometime the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) reached Makkah. Ten years ago, he had been living a peaceful life in that city. He had clean clothes, ample food and drinking water. In a period of ten years of Prophethood, he had become a person injured, hungry and aggrieved. Here a question arises why did the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) return to Makkah when he knew the Quraysh would not accept his message? The answer is that it was impossible to survive without a tribe, unless one was taken in or accorded protection by another tribe. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) migrated to Ta^’if by the Decree of Allah, to assess the possibility of migrating with Muslims there. When he went there he found that Ta^’if could not offer shelter to the Muslims hence he returned to Makkah to find another way out for the Muslims.

Since he vitally needed tribal support, he sent a person to Akhnas bin Shareeq - the chieftain of the tribe Zahra and asked to be taken under protection of the tribe. Akhnas replied that though he wished to be helpful, he was handicapped by his bond with the Quraysh according to which he could not extend help to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace).

The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) sent the next message to "Suhail bin Umro", who belonged to the Quraysh tribe he also refused. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was still staying in the wilderness outside Makkah. It was the month of Rajab, and various tribes had come for pilgrimage. Whenever the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) contacted various chieftains, he told them to listen to his Message carefully. He ensured them that they would subdue super powers of the world before them if they only acted upon Allah’s Message. None of them paid any heed to the Message. Some of them even took him to be insane.

The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) received negative responses from fifteen tribes, still he decided to contact the sixteenth, which had come there with its five members. The Chieftain of this tribe did not jeer at the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), but listened carefully to him and when the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) recited the Holy Quranic verses, his condition changed. He called other tribesmen who also listened carefully. Like their chieftain they were immediately impressed and promised to convert others to Islam.

Some days later the chieftain of the "Noafel" tribe (one of the ten Qurayshites tribes) offered the protection of his tribe to the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace), and thus the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) was able to enter Makkah again.

He (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) married a divorcee named "Sawdah" who had returned from Abyssinia. Sawdah was a Muslim. She had migrated to Abyssinia. Her husband and his friend Ubaidullah bin Habash had revoked Islam for Christianity. Sawdah soon sensed that if she stayed longer, she would be pressed by her husband to convert to Christianity too. She therefore sought divorce and returned to Makkah. Here she entered in matrimony with the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace). She was neither young nor pretty. The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) married her only to provide guardianship to the children of Khadijah^R.A. Sometime after this marriage, Abu Bakr^R.A requested the Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) to marry his daughter "A’ishah^R.A". The Prophet (may Allah bless him and grant him peace) said that she was too young, as she was just fifteen. Abu Bakr^R.A requested that the relation be accepted. The marriage might take place later.