A SPECIAL GROUP of traditions elaborates on a specific aspect of persecution, namely, isolation caused by rejection. This theme was linked to some Quranic models as well, which turned the story from one about isolation into one about satanic temptation. The latter theme is also universal by origin, but it seems to have found its way into Muslim tradition via the Quran.

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The story of isolation emerges in a group of traditions telling about a massive movement of Islamisation which preceded the hostile reaction of the Meccan leaders. The latter only react when their idols are attacked; they then exercise their authority to intimidate the Meccan masses into abandoning Muhammad. Thus the target of persecution includes the entire Meccan public, and brings about the isolation of Muḥammad. In this manner the evil effect of the leaders’ reaction is heightened. One of the traditions is that of al-Zuhri (Medinan d. AH 124), transmitted from him by Ma'mar ibn Rashid (d. AH 154). The tradition was recorded by ‘Abd al-Razzaq in the “book” of Maghāzī, but the present edition of ‘Abd al-Razzāq's Muşannaf only has it in a distorted form. It can be reconstructed according to a more coherent version preserved in al-Balādhuri, where it is quoted from al-Waqidi. The tradition of al-Zuhri says that at first Muḥammad preached Islam secretly (sirran), and young people of the lower classes followed him. Eventually the number of Muslims grew large, yet the infidels of Quraysh did not defy the Prophet, and even admitted that he was ad- dressed from Heaven. But when he began to revile their idols in public, and stated that their fathers had died as infidels and were condemned to Hell, the Meccans resented this and persecuted him. The statement that a large number of people embraced Islam prior to the reaction of the Meccans renders the isolation caused by their reaction all the more grievous.

The story of isolation is also related in a series of three parallel versions attributed to the Medinan ‘Urwa ibn al-Zubayr (d. AH 94), which, taken together, demonstrate the coexistence of non-Quranic and Quranic levels in the story of isolation. Versions 1 and 2 represent the non-Quranic level, whereas Version 3 is Quranic. In Version 1 ‘Urwa is quoted by his son Hishām ibn ‘Urwa (Meccan d. AH 146) from a treatise ‘Urwa wrote for the caliph ‘Abd al-Malik, some extracts from which al-Tabari has recorded in his Tārīkh.