Hazrat Abu Sufiyan granted refuge at the Conquest of Mecca
Whilst mentioning the conquest of Mecca, Dr Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi has written that when the Holy Prophet (sa) reached Marr-uz-Zahran, Abu Sufyan began to worry about himself. Hazrat Abbas (ra), the paternal uncle of the Holy Prophet (sa), suggested to him to seek the protection of the Holy Prophet (sa).
Hazrat Abbas (ra) relates:
“I said to Abu Sufyan, ‘You are extremely unfortunate because look the Holy Prophet (sa) is now present amongst the people. Abu Sufyan replied, ‘May my parents be sacrificed for your sake! What can I do now to be protected from this?’ I said, ‘By Allah! If they take hold of you, they will most certainly execute you. Ride behind me on the mule. I will take you to the Holy Prophet (sa) and then I will seek his protection for you.’”
Hazrat Abbas (ra) says, “He rode behind me. Whenever I passed by a campfire of the Muslims, they would ask who this individual was.” It was night and fires were lit. “When they saw me riding upon the mule of the Holy Prophet (sa), they would say that the paternal uncle of the Holy Prophet (sa) was riding his mule.
“This continued until I passed by the campfire of Umar bin Khattab (ra). He asked, ‘Who is this?’ and stood by my side. When he saw Abu Sufyan, he said, ‘Aby Sufyan, the enemy of Allah. All praise belongs to Allah, Who granted us an unconditional victory over you.’ Hazrat Abbas (ra) then dragged him”, i.e. Abu Sufyan, “along with him and presented himself before the Holy Prophet (sa). Hazrat Umar (ra) also went to the Holy Prophet (sa) and said, ‘O Messenger (sa) of Allah! Permit me to sever his head.’”
Hazrat Abbas (ra) relates, “I said, ‘O Messenger (sa) of Allah! I have granted him protection.’ When Hazrat Umar (ra) insisted on his stance, I said, ‘O Umar, wait! By Allah, if he had belonged to [the tribe of] Banu Adi, you would not have said such things. However, you are aware of the fact that he belongs to the Banu Abd Manaf.’ Upon this, Hazrat Umar (ra) said, ‘O Abbas, hold on! By Allah I was so overjoyed when you accepted Islam that I wouldn’t have felt this much happiness even if my father Khattab accepted Islam, and I knew that your acceptance of Islam was dearer to the Holy Prophet (sa) than that of Khattab if he had done so.’ Thereafter, the Holy Prophet (sa) stated, ‘O Abbas, take Abu Sufyan away and bring him in the morning.’”
(Umar bin Al-Khattab, Ali Muhammad al-Sallabi, p. 51, Dar-ul-Ma‘rifah, Beirut 2007)
In any case, this conversation between Hazrat Umar (ra) and Hazrat Abbas (ra) continued and in the end, the Holy Prophet (sa) told Hazrat Abbas (ra) to take him away, for he had granted him refuge and that nothing should be said to him.