The hunger strike

Most of the pressure on the early Muslims of Makkah came from outside the household — from the clans, the traders, the men with standing to protect. Sa'd's came from inside it.

His mother refused to eat or drink until he gave up Islam. She did not threaten him and she did not have him beaten. She simply stopped, in front of him, and let him watch.

It is a harder thing to withstand than violence, and it was meant to be. He was young, and the reports describe him as devoted to her.

He did not give way. The account has him telling her plainly that she could do as she wished, and that he would not leave his faith for her — that if she had a hundred lives to give up one after another, it would not change his answer.

She ate.

The Qur'an addresses this situation directly: parents are owed kindness and good company in this world, and are not to be obeyed in setting up partners with Allah. Both of those hold at once, and this episode is where the tension between them is most visible.