Quraish Threatening Abu Talib

the pagans of makkah decided to approach abu talib for the second time and insisted that he put a stop to his nephew’s activities, which if allowed unchecked, they said, would involve him into severe hostility. abu talib was deeply distressed at this open threat and the breach with his people and their enmity, but he could not afford to desert the messenger too. he sent for his nephew and told him what the people had said, "spare me and yourself and put not burden on me that i can’t bear." upon this the prophet [pbuh] thought that his uncle would let him down and would no longer support him, so he replied:

"o my uncle! by allâh if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that i abandon this course, until allâh has made me victorious, or i perish therein, i would not abandon it." the prophet [pbuh] got up, and as he turned away, his uncle called him and said, "come back, my nephew," and when he came back, he said, "go and preach what you please, for by allâh i will never forsake you."

he then recited two lines of verse pregnant with meanings of full support to the prophet [pbuh] and absolute gratification by the course that his nephew had chalked out in arabia. [ibn hisham 1/265]