The Prophet ﷺ was praying when Abu Jahl came and said, "Did I not forbid you from this? Did I not forbid you from this? Did I not forbid you from this?"The Prophet ﷺ turned to him and rebuked him sharply.Abu Jahl said, "You know full well that there is no one here with a larger following than mine."So Allah revealed, "Then let him call his associates. We will call the guards of Hell" [Alaq 96:17–18].Ibn Abbas said, "By Allah, had he called his associates, the guards of Allah would have seized him."
كان النبي ﷺ يصلي، فجاء أبو جهل فقال: ألم أنهك عن هذا؟ ألم أنهك عن هذا؟ ألم أنهك عن هذا؟ فانصرف النبي ﷺ فزبره فقال أبو جهل: إنك لتعلم ما بها ناد أكثر مني، فأنزل الله: {فليدع ناديه سندع الزبانية} فقال ابن عباس: والله لو دعا ناديه لأخذته زبانية الله.
Tirmidhi (3349) narrated it from Abu Saeed Ashaj, who said, Abu Khalid Ahmar told us, from Dawud bin Abu Hind, from Ikrima, from Ibn Abbas, and he mentioned it. Tirmidhi said, this is a hasan sahih gharib hadith, and there is also a narration on this from Abu Hurairah.His saying, "a lying, sinful forelock" [Alaq 96:16] means the forelock of Abu Jahl, lying in its speech, sinful in its deeds. His saying, "let him call his assembly" [Alaq 96:17] means his people and his clan. His saying, "We will call the zabaniya" [Alaq 96:18] is the plural of zabniyah, taken from zabn, which means pushing, and they are the harsh, powerful angels who push him into the punishment.