How authentic is the story attributed to Abu Jahl on the night of the Hijra, when one of the youths asked him to scale the Prophet’s house—may God’s prayers and peace be upon him—and Abu Jahl slapped him, saying: "Do you want it to circulate among the Arabs that we scaled Muhammad’s house?"

The biographers (ahl al-siyar) mentioned that those who besieged the Prophet’s house—peace and blessings be upon him—on the night of the Hijra intended to storm the house. A woman screamed, and some of them said: "By Allah, it would be a disgrace among the Arabs for it to be said about us that we scaled walls to reach our cousins' daughters and violated the sanctity of our privacy." This prevented them from storming it. They did not mention who said this. We have not found anyone who judged this story as authentic or weak. Scholars do not usually concern themselves with mentioning the chains of narration (asanid) for such reports, and there is leniency in narrating reports concerning military campaigns (maghazi) and similar matters that do not relate to halal (definition) and haram (definition).