Persecution of Muslims by the Meccans
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- This is a sub-article to Muhammad before Medina and Persecution of Muslims
In the early days of Islam at Mecca, the new Muslims were often subjected to abuse and persecution.
[edit] History
Some were killed, such as Sumayyah bint Khabbab, the seventh convert to Islam, who was tortured first by Abu Jahl.[1] Muhammad was protected somewhat by the influence of his family, but even he was subjected to such abuse; while he was praying near the Kaaba, Abu Lahab threw the entrails of a sacrificed camel over him, and Abu Lahab's wife Umm Jamil would regularly dump filth outside his door [2]. And if free Muslims were attacked, slaves who converted were subject to far worse. The master of the Ethiopian Bilal ibn Rabah (who would become the first muezzin) would take him out into the desert in the boiling heat of midday and place a heavy rock on his chest, demanding that he forswear his religion and pray to the polytheists' gods and goddesses, until Abu Bakr bought him and freed him. [3] This persecution ultimately provoked the Migration to Medina.
It was due to this that Abu Bakr bought the freedom of the following persons:
