It was the tenth year after the Prophet ﷺ had declared his mission. Abū Ṭālib, the uncle who had sheltered him since the age of eight after the death of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, now lay on his deathbed. To the Prophet ﷺ, he had been a cool shade amidst the furnace of persecution, a loyal guardian and comforter. Now that beloved uncle’s life was ebbing away, and the Messenger ﷺ visited him often, grieved and heavy at heart.

Saʿīd ibn al-Musayyib narrates: when Abū Ṭālib’s death drew near, the Prophet ﷺ came to him. Present also were Quraysh’s leaders—Abū Jahl and ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Umayyah ibn al-Mughīra. The Prophet ﷺ said to his uncle:

“O uncle, say: Lā ilāha illā Allāh. A word by which I can testify for you before Allah.”

But Abū Jahl and ʿAbdullāh pressed upon him: “O Abū Ṭālib, will you turn away from the way of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib?” Each time the Prophet ﷺ urged him to say the word of tawḥīd, they repeated their objection, until finally Abū Ṭālib said: “I remain upon the way of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib.” He did not utter the shahāda. The Prophet ﷺ then said:

“I shall continue to seek forgiveness for you, unless I am forbidden.”

Soon after, revelation came. In Sūrat al-Tawbah (9:113): “It is not for the Prophet and those who believe to seek forgiveness for the polytheists, even if they be near of kin, after it has become clear that they are people of the Fire.” And in Sūrat al-Qaṣaṣ (28:56): “Indeed, you cannot guide whom you love, but Allah guides whom He wills; and He knows best those who are rightly guided.”

On the basis of these verses, many scholars held that Abū Ṭālib died a disbeliever. Others, however, examining his life and the circumstances of his death, argued that inwardly he embraced faith, though he concealed it. They pointed out that the verses just cited were not revealed specifically about him.

There is agreement on certain facts:

1. Abū Ṭālib never ceased to defend the Prophet ﷺ, at every stage of the mission.
2. In poetry and in speech he affirmed the truth of his nephew’s message.
3. Through the harshest trials—the boycott, the persecution—he never rebuked the Prophet ﷺ or disavowed Islam.
4. When his sons ʿAlī and Jaʿfar followed the Messenger ﷺ, he never restrained them, but rather encouraged them.
5. In his final hour, he did not voice the shahāda, instead speaking so as to satisfy the Quraysh chiefs by claiming adherence to ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib’s path.
6. Yet even then he did not invoke idols, nor name false gods, nor explicitly deny tawḥīd.

Thus the dispute between scholars rests on one central question: if a man does not openly pronounce the shahāda, may he still be counted as a believer? Those who say no cite hadiths from ʿAbbās and ʿAlī. Those who say yes point to the Qur’anic verse in Sūrat al-Aʿrāf (7:157): “Those who believe in him, honor him, support him, and follow the light that has been sent down with him—it is they who will prosper.” They argue that Abū Ṭālib fulfilled these traits.

Indeed, whole treatises were written to establish his faith and good end. Among them: Imām Barzanjī’s Bughyat al-Ṭālib li-Īmān Abī Ṭālib, Muḥammad Muʾayyad al-Hindī’s Ithbāt Islām Abī Ṭālib, Muḥammad Afandī’s al-Ṣaḥ al-Muṣayyib ilā Kabid man ʿādā Abā Ṭālib, al-Sayyid ʿAlī Kabīr’s Ghāyat al-Maṭālib fī Baḥth Īmān Abī Ṭālib, Aḥmad Fayyālī’s Fayḍ al-Wāhib fī Najāt Abī Ṭālib, and the Makkan hadith scholar and muftī, Imām Sayyid Aḥmad Dahlan’s Asnā al-Maṭālib.

Thus the debate endures: was Abū Ṭālib outwardly an unbeliever, or inwardly a believer whose faith remained veiled? What remains beyond dispute is his lifelong devotion to protecting the Prophet ﷺ, a devotion that shielded the nascent ummah in its most vulnerable years.