Allah Almighty says: {Similarly did We make for every prophet enemies, devils from among men and jinn, whispering to one another alluring words of delusion. If Allah had willed, they would not have done so. So leave them to their fabrications.} [Surat al-An‘ām: 112] Allah, Exalted be He, also says: {Thus did we assign for every prophet an enemy from among the wicked, but your Lord is sufficient as a Guide and Helper.} [Surat al-Furqān: 31]
According to His wisdom, Allah Almighty guides whomever He wills by His grace and leads whomever He wills astray by His justice. It was also dictated by His wisdom that every prophet had an enemy and that those enemies would cooperate in their wrong path and speak similarly. Allah, the Exalted, says: {Nothing is said to you [O Prophet] except what was already said to the messengers before you. Indeed, your Lord is All-Forgiving, but Severe in punishment.} [Surat Fussilat: 43] The statements made by the chiefs of people in every nation are similar. They would sometimes say the prophet is a magician, a soothsayer, or a liar. An example is what Pharaoh said about Mūsa (peace be upon him), as revealed in the verse that reads: {We sent Moses with Our signs and compelling proof to Pharaoh, Hāmān and Korah, but they said: “A magician! An utter liar!"} [Surat Ghāfir: 23-24] They would at other times claim he did not bring them any evidence. Allah, Exalted be He, says: {They said: "O Hūd, you have not brought us any clear evidence, and we will not forsake our gods on account of what you say, nor will we believe in you."} [Surat Hūd: 53] At other times, they would claim he fabricated lies about Allah Almighty. About their evil statement, our Lord says: {When Our clear verses are recited to them, they say: "This is nothing but a man who wishes to turn you away from what your forefathers used to worship." And they say: "This is nothing but a fabricated lie." And the disbelievers say about the Truth when it comes to them: "This is nothing but clear magic."} [Surat Saba’: 43]
They would also accuse him of being insane. Allah Almighty says: {They say: "O you to whom the Reminder has been sent down, You are surely insane!"} [Surat al-Hijr: 6] About their statement, the Almighty Lord says: {Pharaoh said: "Your messenger who has been sent to you is truly insane!"} [Surat ash-Shu‘arā’: 27] Far be it from the messengers of Allah (peace be upon them), who possessed the most perfect minds and the most pure hearts among all people.
And sometimes they would find it too grave to accept his call to the worship of Allah Almighty alone. About their statement, our Lord says: {Have you come to tell us that we should worship Allah alone and abandon what our forefathers used to worship? Bring upon us what you are threatening us with, if you are truthful.} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 70] And they said: {Has he made all gods into one God? Indeed, this is something strange!} [Surat Sād: 5]
They would also reject the prophet's call on the grounds that he was a human being like themselves. Allah, Glorified be He, says: {But the chiefs of his people who disbelieved said: "We only see you a human being like ourselves."} [Surat Hūd: 27] Allah Almighty also says: {With their hearts heedless. The wrongdoers whisper to one another in secret: "Is this but a human being just like yourselves? Will you then follow his magic, although you openly see?"} [Surat al-Anbiyā’: 3]
They would at other times ask them to do things which no human being is capable of, out of their arrogance and stubbornness. For example, they asked Prophet Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) to cause a spring to gush forth from the earth, or that he should have a garden, or that he should make the sky fall upon them in pieces, or that he should bring Allah and the angels before them, or that he should have a house of gold, or that he should ascend to the heaven, or that he should bring down to them a book for them to read. Allah, the Exalted, says: {They say: "We will never believe in you until you cause a spring to gush forth for us from the earth, or until you have a garden of date palm and grapevines, and you cause rivers to flow abundantly in their midst, or you make the sky to fall upon us in pieces – as you claim – or bring Allah and the angels before us face to face, or until you have a house of gold, or you ascend to the heaven, and even then we will never believe in your ascension unless you bring down to us a book which we can read." Say: "Glory be to my Lord! Am I anything but a human, sent as a messenger?" Nothing prevented people from believing when guidance came to them except that they said: "Has Allah sent a human as a messenger?" Say: "If there had been angels walking on earth peacefully, We would have certainly sent down to them from the heaven an angel as a messenger."} [Surat al-Isrā’: 90-95]
They would also ask the prophet to bring them the punishment he had threatened them with. Allah, Exalted be He, says: {They said: "Have you come to tell us that we should worship Allah alone and abandon what our forefathers used to worship? Bring upon us what you are threatening us with, if you are truthful."} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 70] And He Almighty says: {Then they killed the she-camel and defied their Lord’s command, and said: "Bring us what you threaten us, if you are indeed one of the messengers."} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 77]
At other times, they would accuse the messenger of being misguided and foolish. An example is found in a verse that says: {The disbelieving chiefs of his people said: "Indeed, we see you as foolish, and we think that you are one of the liars."} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 66]
And at other times, they would bar people from the way of Allah and tell their followers not to listen to this Qur’an and to make noise when it was recited. Allah Almighty says: {Those who disbelieve say: "Do not listen to this Qur’an, but make noise [when it is recited], so that you may prevail."} [Surat Fussilat: 26]
They would at other times accuse the messenger of lying, as revealed about them saying: {And we think that you are one of the liars.} Or they would accuse the messenger of being taught by a human being and that what came to him was not divine revelation. Allah, the Exalted, says: {We surely know that they say: "It is only a human being who teaches him." But the language they refer to is foreign, whereas this is eloquent Arabic language.} [Surat an-Nahl: 103]
Or they would turn away from the messenger because he was followed by the poor and weak. Speaking about the people of Nūh, Allah Almighty says: {But the chiefs of his people who disbelieved said: "We only see you a human being like ourselves, and we do not see those who follow you except the lowest among us apparently. We do not see you superior to us, rather, we think that you are liars."} [Surat Hūd: 27] Heraclius said to Abu Sufyān: "And I asked you whether the nobles followed him or the weak, and you claimed that the weak followed him; and those are the followers of the messengers." [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri (7) and Muslim (1773)]
And they would sometimes mock the messengers and ridicule them. Allah Almighty says: {Say: "Was it Allah, His verses and His Messenger that you were mocking?"} [Surat at-Tawbah: 65] He Almighty also says: {So he started constructing the Ark, and every time some chiefs of his people passed by him, they ridiculed him. He said: "If you ridicule us now, we will soon ridicule you as you are ridiculing us."} [Surat Hūd: 38] They would some other times try to deceive the messenger and seek to make him compromise or incline to them. Allah, Exalted be He, says: {They wish that you would compromise so they would too compromise.} [Surat al-Qalam: 9] Allah Almighty also says: {Had We not made you stand firm, you would nearly have inclined to them a little.} [Surat al-Isrā’: 74]
They would also treat the prophet disrespectfully and calling him names, as Pharaoh did with Moses (peace be upon him): {Or am I not better than this contemptible one who can hardly express himself?} [Surat az-Zukhruf: 52]
Another example is Abu Sufyān's statement about Prophet Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him), when he was in the Levant. He related: When we went out, I said to my companions: "The cause of 'Ibn Abi Kabshah' (i.e. the Prophet) has become so important, for the king of Banu al-Asfar (the Romans) is afraid of him." [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri (4553), Muslim (1773), and At-Tirmidhi (2717)]
The chiefs of the people might also threaten to drive the prophet out of the land. An example is the people of Shu‘ayb, about whom Allah Almighty says: {The arrogant chiefs of his people said: "O Shu‘ayb, we will surely drive you and those who believe with you out of our town unless you return to our faith." He said: "Even if we detest it?"} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 88]
He Almighty also says: {The disbelievers said to their messengers: "We will surely drive you out of our land unless you return to our religion."} [Surat Ibrāhīm: 13] The people of Lūt said to him and those who believed along with him: {Drive them out of your town, for they are people who keep themselves pure!} [Surat al-A‘rāf: 82] The Quraysh disbelievers imposed a siege on our Prophet Muhammad (may Allah's peace and blessings be upon him) and his followers and Banu Hāshim in the mountain pass for three years and then drove him out of his land.
Ibn Mas‘ūd (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: When the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) distributed the spoils from the battle of Hunayn, a man from the Ansār said: "He did not intend by it the approval of Allah." So, I went to the Prophet (may Allah’s peace and blessings be upon him) and told him about that. Thereupon, his face changed and he said: "May Allah be merciful to Mūsa, for he was hurt more than that and he showed patience." [Narrated by Al-Bukhāri (4335), Muslim (1062), and At-Tirmidhi (3896)]
The people of Ibrāhīm (peace be upon him), tried to burn him, but Allah Almighty saved him. He, Exalted be He, says: {His people’s only response was to say: "Kill him or burn him!"} [Surat al-‘Ankabūt: 24] About what the children of Israel did with their prophets, Allah, the Exalted, says: {Is it that every time a messenger comes to you [O Israelites] with something against your desires, you become arrogant; some of them you rejected, and others you killed?} [Surat al-Baqarah: 87]
This is the typical attitude of the arrogant people towards the messengers and a typical behavior of the chiefs of every nation towards reformers.
And it is an unchanging law of Allah Almighty that He supports His messengers and prophets. He, Exalted be He, says: {We will surely help Our messengers and those who believe in the life of this world and on the Day when the witnesses will come forward.} [Surat Ghāfir: 51] He Almighty also says: {Then We fulfilled Our promise to them: We saved them and those whom We willed, and destroyed those who transgressed all bounds.} [Surat al-Anbiyā’: 9]