يَا قَوْمَنَا أَجِيبُوا دَاعِيَ اللَّهِ وَآمِنُوا بِهِ يَغْفِرْ لَكُم مِّن ذُنُوبِكُمْ وَيُجِرْكُم مِّنْ عَذَابٍ أَلِيمٍ (31)
(46:31) Our people, respond to the call of him who calls you to Allah and believe in him. Allah will forgive your sins and will protect you from a grievous chastisement.' *35
*35) Authentic traditions show that after this several deputations of the jinns visited the Holy Prophet, one after the other, and met him face to face. When all the traditions related in the collections of Hadith on this subject are read together, it appears that at least six deputations had visited him in Makkah before the Hijrah.
About one of these deputations Hadrat 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud relates: 'One day the Holy Prophet remained missing from Makkah for the whole night. We could not know his whereabouts and feared he might have been attacked by somebody. Early in the morning we saw him coming from the direction of Hira'. On enquiring he said that a jinn had come to invite him and he had accompanied him and recited the Qur'an to a gathering of them there." (Muslim, Musnad Ahmad, Tirmidhi, Abu Da'ud).
Hadrat 'Abdullah bin Mas'ud has related another tradition, saying: "Once the Holy Prophet asked his Companions in Makkah as to which of them would accompany him that night to meet the jinns. I became ready to go with him. At a place in the upper quarters of Makkah the Holy Prophet drew a line and told me not to cross it. Then he went forward and stood and began to recite the Qur'an. I saw that a number of the people had gathered around him and they stood between me and him."' (Ibn Jarir, Baihaqi: Dala`il an-Nubuwwat, Abu Nu`aim Isfahani: Dale Il an-Nubuwuat).
On another occasion also during the night Hadrat `Abdullah bin Mas'ud was with the Holy Prophet and he decided a case of the jinns at Hajun in Makkah. Many years later Ibn Mas'ud saw a group of the villagers at Kufa and said that the group of the jinns he had seen at Hajun closely resembled those people. (Ibn Jarir).