A consultative meeting of the chiefs took place in Darun Nadwah. A man from among them spoke at the outset about the centralization of the forces of Muhammad at Yathrib and the agreement made by Bani Aws and Bani Khazraj.
Thereafter he added: “We, the people of the Haram, were respected by all tribes. However, Muhammad sowed the seeds of discord and thus posed a great danger for us. Now we have lost all patience. The only path of safety for us is that a brave man should be selected from among us, and he should put an end to his life secretly. And in case Bani Hashim stand up to quarrel and dispute with us, we may pay the blood-money to them.
An unidentified old man who introduced himself as ‘Najdi’ rejected this idea and said: “This plan is not at all practicable, because Bani Hashim will not spare the life of the murderer of Muhammad and the payment of blood-money will not satisfy them. Hence, whoever volunteers to execute this plan should first part with his own life, and no such person is found amongst you”.
One of the chiefs named Abul Bakhtari said: “The best thing would be to imprison Muhammad and to provide him food and water through a hole and thus prevent the spreading of his religion”. The old Najdi spoke again: “This scheme is also not very much different from the first one, because in that event Bani Hashim will wage war against you to get him released. And even if they themselves are not successful in achieving this object they will seek help from other tribes at the time of Haj and will get him released with their assistance”.
A third man put forward another suggestion and said: “It will be better if we make Muhammad mount a refractory camel and tie both of his feet and make the camel run so that it may strike him on hills and stones and thus shatter his body. And if, by chance, his life is saved and he alights in the land of some other tribe and wants to propagate his religion amongst them they themselves, who are zealous idolaters, will settle their accounts with him and will save us and themselves from his mischief”.
The old Najdi once again disapproved of this plan and said: “You are aware of Muhammad’s attractive and fascinating way of speaking. By his sweet speeches and oratory he will make the other tribes his allies and will then swoop down on you”.
Perfect calmness prevailed over the whole assembly. Suddenly Abu Jahl, and according to another version the old Najdi himself, expressed his view and said: “The only proper and easy way is that some persons should be selected from all the families and they should jointly attack his house at night and cut him into pieces, so that all the families might be held responsible for the murder. It is evident that in that case Bani Hashim will not be in a position to take revenge on all the families”. This proposal was endorsed unanimously and the would-be assassins were selected. It was then decided that when night fell those persons should carry out their mission