Day: February 26, 2024

The Migration

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ ordered his Companions in Mecca to He said, ‘Verily, Allah Mighty and Majestic has arranged for you.com said brothers and an abode wherein you will be safe.’ So they began to consecutively leave in batches.

As for himself, he  ﷺ stayed behind in Mecca, waiting for permission from Allah to leave and migrate to Medina.

[It came to pass that] ‘Umar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb, Talhah, Hamzah, Zayd ibn Ḥārithah, ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn ‘Awf, al-Zubayr ibn al‘Awwām, Abū Ḥudhayfah, ‘Uthmān ibn ‘Affān and others, may Allah be well pleased with them all, migrated [initially], and so the Migration continued uninterruptedly until no one remained behind in Mecca with Allah’s Messenger ﷺ except for those imprisoned or persecuted [to abandon their religion], ‘Alī ibn Abi Talib and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Quḥafah.

When Quraysh realised that [the situation at this late stage], they assembled together in Dar al-Nadwah, together with Iblis [Satan], who appeared in the form of an old Najdī sheikh,and began to consult one another about how to deal with him , as they began to fear the Arabs siding with him if he ﷺ gained prominence. Eventually, they decided to kill him [, whereupon Jibril came to him and said, ‘Do not spend this night in your bed.’ Heﷺ therefore ordered ‘Ali AlaihisSalam [to sleep in his place], and so ‘Ali  AlaihisSalam slept covering himself with the Messenger’s green [striped] cloak and thus was the first to sell himself for the sake of Allah.

Then the Messengerﷺ emerged in front of those encamped outside his home waiting to jointly kill him, whereupon Allah removed their ability to see him, so none of them saw him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺscattered over their heads soil that he had in his hand.

The Messenger of Allahﷺ came to Abu Bakr and said, ‘Verily, Allah has given me permission to leave and migrate.’ Abū Bakr replied, ‘[Both of us] together, O Messenger of Allahﷺ ?’ He replied, ‘Yes, together,’ upon which Abū Bakr began to cry out of happiness. Abū Bakr presented two camels that he had prepared for the journey, and his travel guide, ‘Abd-Allāh ibn Urayqit, whom albia he hired.

The Messenger of Allah ﷺand Abu Bakr  covertly left Mecca; no one knew of his departure except ‘Alī and Abu Bakr’s family Abū Bakr had ordered his son ‘Abd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr to eavesdrop for them on what people were saying in Mecca and ordered his freed-slave ‘Āmir ibn Fuhayrah to herd his sheep during the day and return them to their farm to rest at night. Asma’ bint Abi Bakr would bring food to them. They had reached the Cave of Thawr, and soon as they entered it, Allah sent a spider that built a web between the cave and the tree which was at the entrance of the cave, thereby concealing Allah’s Messenger ﷺand Abū Bakr; and Allah ordered two wild doves [to come to them], so they came flapping their wings until they perched between the spider and the tree.

The polytheists followed the traces of the Prophetﷺ; however, Allah foiled their plan [to capture him] and caused them to be confused, as they saw a spider’s web at the cave’s entrance; Allah has referred to this with His words, ‘So Allah sent down Hisﷺ tranquillity upon him [the Prophetﷺ and supported him withtroops that were invisible to you’ [Qur’an 9: 40].

While in the cave, Abu Bakr suddenly saw the polytheists’ footsteps and said, ‘O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, if one of them was to raise his foot, he would see us.’ He ﷺreplied, ‘What do you think of two [people] with whom Allah is the third?’ Regarding this incident, Allah Most High says, ‘When the second of the two, as they were in the cave, said to his companion, “Do not worry, for verily Allah is with us” [Qur’an 9: 40].

When Quraysh lost hope in finding Allah’s Messenger’sﷺ, they put a bounty of a hundred she-camels on his head. They [the Prophet ﷺand Abū Bakr] remained in the cave for three nights, after which they departed together with ‘Āmir ibn Fuhayrah who was a polytheist – as their travel guide whom the Prophet ﷺhired. The guide took them along the seashore route.

Surāqah ibn Mālik ibn Ja’sham was compelled by greed to pursue the Messenger of Allah ﷺand return him to Quraysh, so as to obtain the reward of a hundred she-camels. So he rode after him in pursuit, and as he was galloping, his horse tripped over alband he fell off it. But But he refused to give up the chase, and so he rode again in pursuit, but his horse tripped over a second time and he fell off again. Yet he still refused to give up the chase, and so he attempted to ride again. Then, when the group [the Prophet ﷺ‚ Abū Bakr and the guide] appeared in front of him and he saw them, his horse tripped over a third time and its legs sunk into the earth, so he asked the Prophetﷺ to rescue him and said that he would return from whence he came, and so the horse’s legs were released. The earth gripped his horse’s legs two or three times as he fell off.
When Suraqah saw that, he realised that Allah’s Messengerﷺ is under Allah Most High’s protection and that he will prevail without a shadow of doubt, so he called the group and said, ‘I am Suraqah ibn Ja’sham. Look at me, for by God, I will inflict you no harm.’ So the Messenger of Allahﷺ said to Abu Bakr, ‘Ask him, what does he want from us?’ Surāqah replied, ‘Write me a letter that will be a sign between me and you,’ upon which ‘Āmir ibn Fuhayrah wrote a letter on a piece of bone or cloth. Heﷺ to Surāqah, ‘What will you do when you wear the bracelets of said Chosroes?’ And that transpired when the lands of Chosroes were conquered during the reign of ‘Umar. After the triumph, Surāqah came to ‘Umar with the bracelets, belt and crown of Chosroes. ‘Umar called Surãqah ibn Mālik and put them on him, and the words of the Prophet ﷺ were realised.

During their journey, they passed by Umm Mabad alKhuza’iyyah, who had a goat that had lagged behind the rest of the herd due to fatigue, so Allah’s Messengerﷺ wiped its udder with his hand, invoked Allah’s name (basmalah) and prayed [for it], whereupon its milk began to flow, so he fed the milk to the goat itself and his Companions until their thirst was quenched. Then he drank and milked it again until he filled the vessel. When Abū Ma’bad returned, he asked about what happened, so she said, ‘No [nothing happened], by Allah, except that a blessed man passed by us, whose story was…’ and she described him beautifully. He replied, ‘By Allah, I think it is the man whom the Quraysh are after.’

Their guide continued to lead them until they reached Quba’, was on the the outskirts of Medina, and that was on Monday m the twelfth of Rabi’ al-Awwal. He ﷺalighted at Kulthüm ibn al-Hadam’s house and performed the Friday prayer (jumu’ah) amongst Banī Sālim ibn ‘Awf, in the depths of the valley. It was the first Friday prayer (jumu’ah) to be performed in Medina. Heﷺ then arrived in Medina, and his camel knelt down thrice at [what was to become] his mosque door; at the time, it was a place in which dates were left to dry, and owned by ‘Amr’s two sons Sahl and Suhayl, who were orphans under As’ad ibn Zurarah’s custody; and it has been said that [they were under the custody of] Mu’adh ibn ‘Afra’. He bought the place for ten dinars [gold coins]. And he ﷺstopped over with his luggage at Abū Ayyūb’s house, as he was one of ‘Abd al-Muṭṭalib’s maternal uncles, and stayed with him for seven months.

The first words to be heard from himﷺ [in Medina] were, ‘Spread peace, feed people, maintain ties of kinship and pray at night when people are asleep, for [if you do so] you shall enter Paradise in peace.’

In Medina, there were idols that were worshipped by men,
which the people [now] went up to and destroyed.

The Prophet ﷺ sent Zayd ibn Ḥārithah and Abū Rāfi’ with two camels and five hundred dirhams to Mecca, and so they brought back Fâțimah, Umm Kulthūm, Sawdah bint Zam’ah, Usāmah ibn Zayd and his mother Barakah who was nicknamed Umm Ayman, may Allah be well pleased with them all. ‘Abd-Allāh ibn Abī Bakr left with his father’s family.