What he asked for when Quraysh would not stop
He asked for the exact famine an earlier prophet had lived through.
اللَّهُمَّ اكْفِنِيهِمْ بِسَبْعٍ كَسَبْعِ يُوسُفَ
Allāhumma-kfinīhim bi-sabʿin ka-sabʿi Yūsuf
“O Allah, deal with them for me with seven, like the seven of Yusuf.”
Where this comes from
Ibn Masʿud says it came after they had held out too long. A year followed that stripped everything until people were eating bone, and a man would look at the sky and see something like smoke between him and it. The Qurʾān names the smoke in the same passage.
The full narration
Narrated `Abdullah (bin Mas`ud):When the Prophet (ﷺ) realized that the Quraish had delayed in embracing Islam, he said, "O Allah! Protect me against their evil by afflicting them with seven (years of famine) like the seven years of (Prophet) Joseph." So they were struck with a year of famine that destroyed everything till they had to eat bones, and till a man would look towards the sky and see something like smoke between him and it. Allah said:-- "Then watch you (O Muhammad) for the day when the sky will produce a kind of smoke plainly visible." (44.10) And Allah further said:-- "Verily! We shall withdraw the punishment a little, Verily you will return (to disbelief)." (44.15) (Will Allah relieve them from torture on the Day of Resurrection?) (The punishment of) the smoke had passed and Al-Batsha (the destruction of the pagans in the Badr battle) had passed too
Source
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī · 4693
- Agreed upon as authentic (al-Bukhārī / Muslim)