The majority of the Quraishi polytheists were in favor of the embargo; the small minority that was against it had no voice or weight in the sight of the chiefs and thus were forced to acquiesce. 

Eventually one day, Amr went up to Zuhair and questioned him, “O Zuhair! What kind of a man are you? How can you turn a blind eye to the torture your uncles are being put through? How can you tolerate them being left to starve? How, while they are in this wretched state, can you go on with your life in comfort? How can you accept Abu Jahil’s invitation to boycott against your uncles? Had you invited him to sign an embargo against his uncles, would he have accepted? No doubt he would not have! In fact, he would have mocked you! So how can you still remain silent?”

Zuhair had nothing to say… After some thought he agreed with Hisham and asked, “O Hisham, I’m just one man. What can I do on my own? If there were others supporting me surely, I would have made an attempt to end this boycott.”

Hisham jumped in, “There is someone!”

“Who?”

“Me!”

This wasn’t sufficient, “Find a third person!”

Hisham went straight to Mu’tim bin Adiyy’s house, his close friend, and said, “O Mu’tim, it surprises me that you can remain silent against all the injustice and torture being done to the families of the sons of Abdi Manaf simply because a group Quraishis wish so! I swear if I had the chance, I would end this nonsense right away!”

“I’m just one man, if there were others…?”

“I just told you there are! Me!”

“Yes, but two people is not enough, we need a third person…”

“The third person is Zuhair bin ami Umayya! He also thinks like us…”

 Mut’im wasn’t convinced, “Perhaps we can find a fourth?”

So Hisham went straight to Abul Bakhtari’s house and told him the same things. “Do you agree with what is being done?” he asked…

“This can’t be stopped with two people. Are there others that think alike?”

Hisham gave the names of the other two people and together they made a plan about what they can do. The next day they went to the Haram, separately, where all the chiefs were.  Zuhair was particularly presentable that day. He did tawaf around the Kaaba seven times then went next to the chiefs and addressed them:

“O chiefs of Mecca… While we wear fine clothes, eat delicious food and enjoy our lives our relatives are being tortured, starved and prevented from accessing their natural needs and rights. How can this be accepted? All of us have relatives among them, let it be known that until we tear up and destroy the treaty that shatters the core of our family ties, I will not sit among you!” 

Abu Jahil burst out, “You are a liar! You can never destroy the treaty!”

Zem interrupted, “It is you who lies and deceives! We had never agreed on putting the boycott on paper in the first place!”

Then Abul Bakhtari joined, “Indeed Zem speaks the truth! We neither agreed with the boycott nor did we sign that paper!”

Mu’tim confirmed their words, “You certainly speak the truth! Whoever disagrees is a liar! We seek refuge in the Creator from what has been written on that paper!”

Then Hisham continued his speech until eventually Abu Jahil had nothing to say, other than, “Clearly you made an agreement among each other and arranged this meeting on purpose!” then got up and left.

Mu’tim got up and walked up to the Kaaba, took the new paper with the embargo terms, and tore it up in front of everyone. Then these five men went to their homes, armed themselves with their swords, went to the region of the boycott and released everyone, making sure to keep them safe and unharmed until they moved back to their homes.

Thus, the ruthless boycott and suffering which lasted approximately three years had come to an end. 

During these three years almost everything the Rasul of Allah (saw) and his wife Khadija owned was spent in the cause of mitigating this suffering…

One day, while our Master was walking in one of the neighboring valleys of Mecca, he came upon someone named Ruqana. Ruqana was the most famous and invincible wrestlers of the time. He was the source of pride and strength for the polytheists. 

Our Master said, “O Ruqana, do you not fear Allah in whom I invite you to place your faith?”

“Had I believed you, surely, I would have feared Him and followed you… But I don’t believe you…”

Our Master insisted, “How about if I win you? Would you believe me then?”

Ruqana grinned. Nobody had won him to date, he knew it wasn’t possible so he daringly said, “If you can win me, I will believe you!”

“Let us wrestle then!” our Master said.

As Ruqana tried to grab our Master, he suddenly found himself on the floor. He was dumbfounded.

“This doesn’t count” he said, “Win me again if you can!”

But alas, before he could grab our Master again, he was stricken to the floor. How can this be he thought to himself…

“I don’t understand how you wrestle; clearly you are a magician!”

“Shall I show you something greater than this?”

“Like what?”

“Like making a gumtree walk over here?”

“No!? You cannot do that?”

Our Master called out to the gumtree ahead, “With the permission of Allah, come here.”

Astonishingly, the gumtree started to move; it pierced through the soil with all its roots and came in front of our Master.

Ruqana was shocked, amused and frightened at the same time. He faltered, “This is the greatest display of magic I have seen in my life… Can you make it go back?”

“With the permission of Allah go back to your spot…”

The tree went back to its original position. 

Perplexed and bewildered, Ruqana went to his clan and told them about what he saw. According to narration, Ruqana became a Muslim after he returned to Mecca.