Surah al-Qalam counsels the Prophet to stay the course. To stand up for himself and his principles. He had to do it on his own.

“There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change.”

“…people with a sense of fulfillment think it a good world and would like to conserve it as it is…” — Eric Hoffer, The True Believer

Let us contemplate this in relation to the verses:

وَدّوا لَو تُدهِنُ فَيُدهِنونَ

وَلا تُطِع كُلَّ حَلّافٍ مَهينٍ

“They wish that you would conciliate them, then they too would be conciliating. But do not obey any vile swearer of oaths.” — Qur’an, 68: 9-10

Ibn Juzayy says that Abu Jahl said to the Prophet,

لو عبدت آلهتنا لعبدنا إلهك

“If you worship our gods, we’ll worship you’re god in return.” — Ibn Juzayy, al-Tashil li ‘Ulum al-Tanzil

“The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character.”

“The self-confidence of even the consistently successful is never absolute. They are never sure that they know all the ingredients which go into the making of their success. The outside world seems to them a precariously balanced mechanism, and so long as it ticks in their favor they are afraid to tinker with it.” — Eric Hoffer, The True Believer