Who Was al-Nadr ibn al-Harith? Who told stories against the Quran in Islamic History

Before the worldBefore Adam

The first nationsAdam to Shuayb

Egypt and Bani Israilc. 1300–1000 BCE

Bani Israil and Romec. 1000 BCE – 250 CE

Arabia before IslamUp to 570 CE

Enemies of the Prophet ﷺ610–632 CE

After the Prophet ﷺ632–1000 CE

Crusades and conquests1090–1502 CE

The end of timeStill to come

Ten signs before the Hour

Isa ibn Maryam descends
A landslide in the east
A landslide in the west
A landslide in Arabia
The smoke
The sun rises from the west
The Beast of the earth
A fire from Yemen drives people to their gathering

Sahih Muslim lists ten major signs before the Hour without fixing their order. This follows a common order given by the scholars. Sahih Muslim 2901a ↗

Villains of history40 / 76

النضر بن الحارث

al-Nadr ibn al-Harith

Who told stories against the Quran613–624 CE

Relied onTales of the Persian kings

Undone byCapture at Badr

He learned the tales of Rustam and the kings of Persia. When the Prophet ﷺ recited the Quran, he would sit after him and tell them, asking who told the better stories, and called the Quran 'legends of the former peoples'.

How it ended

Captured at Badr and executed on the road back to Madinah.

And of the people is he who buys the amusement of speech to mislead [others] from the way of Allah without knowledge and who takes it in ridicule. Those will have a humiliating punishment.
Quran 31:6

The lessonEntertainment used to drown out the truth is the 'amusement of speech' the Quran warns of (31:6).

In the Quran

8:31 31:6-7 83:13

Stood against
Source: In the Quran, named by the commentatorsIbn Ishaq and the commentators connect 8:31 and 31:6 to him. Some add 8:32, though al-Bukhari reports those words from Abu Jahl.

Every villain in Islamic history, from Iblis to the Dajjal

Each entry is drawn from the Quran, authentic hadith (with links to sunnah.com), the classical commentators and the historians. Companions who fought Islam and later became Muslim are not included, nor are figures Muslims disagree about.