A Wife, a Boy, a Freedman, a Friend
The first to believe was Khadījah — without pause or condition. After her, tradition names the first male believers by their stations in his household: ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib, a boy of ten in his care; Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, his freedman; and, from beyond the household, his closest friend — Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfah, a respected merchant of whom the Prophet ﷺ later said: “I never invited anyone to Islam who did not hesitate and reconsider, except Abū Bakr.”12
Abū Bakr became at once a caller himself, and through him came a company of young men who would carry the religion across the earth: ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān, al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf, Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ, and Ṭalḥah ibn ʿUbaydillāh. And alongside the sons of the clans came those whom Makkah counted as nothing: Bilāl the Abyssinian slave, ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir and his parents, Khabbāb the blacksmith, Ṣuhayb the Greek. From the first, the message cut across the lines of tribe and rank — and this, as much as the theology, was its scandal.13
The House of al-Arqam
For roughly three years the call was individual and discreet. The Qur'an of this period was short, rhythmic, overwhelming — the Lord of the daybreak, the night when it veils, the soul and Him who fashioned it; judgement, mercy, the orphan not to be repulsed. The believers, when they came to number some thirty, met in the house of al-Arqam ibn Abī'l-Arqam by the hill of Ṣafā — reciting the revelation, learning the prayer that Jibrīl had taught the Prophet ﷺ, two cycles at morning and evening.134
Makkah knew, and at first did not greatly care: another ḥanīf, another seeker. The Quraysh's indifference lasted precisely as long as the message remained private. Then came the command: “And warn your nearest kindred.”5