Abd-Allah Ibn Ubayy - Conversion

Conversion

After the entry of Muhammad in Medina, large parts of the Arab population converted to Islam. Ibn Ubayy followed suit, according to Maxime Rodinson, as "he thought it wiser to join than to stand out against it." However, Rudi Paret thinks it probable that he converted very soon after Muhammad's Hijra, at the same time as Sa'd ibn Mua'dh. Islamic tradition, which views Ibn Ubayy's conversion as insincere, labelled him "leader of the hypocrites" (munafiqun). However, according to Rodinson, Ibn Ubayy may have converted out of a "genuine sympathy with monotheist ideas fostered by his friendly relations with the Jews."

Being second only to Muhammad, Ibn Ubayy became a "figurehead for those Arabs of Medina who, openly or secretly, sneered at the Prophet's teaching and complained of the confusion and the danger which the coming of the Muslims had brought to Medina" . Ibn Ishaq writes that some of the Ansar "were not altogether convinced of the political wisdom of supporting the apostle: these came to be regarded as paying lip-service to Islam, but hiding treachery in their hearts, and they were known and reviled as 'the Hypocrites'". William Muir opines that tradition "makes a scapegoat of Abdallah" standing for "a great number, who had incurred Mahomet's anger, and some of them much more than Abdallah".