Cotton in his ears

Quraysh met At-Tufayl as soon as he arrived and told him plainly to be careful. The man in their city, they said, had a way of speaking that could come between a man and his father, his brother and his wife — and he should not go near him or listen to anything he said.

At-Tufayl took it seriously enough to act on it. Before he went to the Kaabah he stopped both his ears with cotton, so that even if the Prophet ﷺ was there and speaking, nothing would reach him.

Standing there, he thought better of it. He was a poet, and a sensible man besides — he could judge for himself whether speech was good or bad, and did not need Quraysh to make that decision for him from outside his own hearing.

He took the cotton out and listened. What he heard moved him. He sought the Prophet ﷺ out afterwards, away from the crowd, was taught, and accepted Islam there in Makkah.