Farewell to Mecca

Thanks to the last Aqaba allegiance, Medina had become a safe haven for the Muslims. As a result of the tyranny and oppression of the non-believers, the Muslims were no longer able to sustain living in Mecca. Upon this, Allah the Almighty granted the believers permission to emigrate to the city of Medina. Thus, in the fourteenth year of the Prophethood, the Muslims began leaving Mecca in small groups. As a result of the oppression and tyranny they had been exposed to on their path to Allah, they were once again abandoning their close ones and their belongings and emigrating for the very sake of Allah.

The decision for this emigration had been finalized in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah, during the last meeting at Aqaba for allegiance with the Muslims from Medina. And, the permission for the emigration had been granted in the beginning of the month of Muharram. The Qurayshi non-believers wanted to be rid of their enemies, on one hand, but were a bit concerned about their departure, on the other. Most of the believers emigrated in secret so as to be safe from the harm of the non-believers. Umar ibn al-Khattab, though, girded on his sword, took his arrows and spear with him, and after circumambulating the Ka’ba, openly challenged the enemies of Islam. Afterwards, he started the journey towards Medina in broad daylight, taking twenty other believers with him. On account of their fear of Umar, not one person was able to interfere with this group. As time went on, the believers that were left behind continued to emigrate to Medina in small groups. This changing of place that the Muslims went through for the sake of their religion was called the Emigration, or Hijra; they were called the Muhajir, and their hosts living in Medina who opened up their houses for them were called the Ansar.
The Messenger of Allah had sent nearly all of the believers to Medina safe and sound. The ones left behind were Abu Bakr, Ali ibn Abu Talib, and a few members of our Prophet’s family. The Qurayshi non-believers knew that our Prophet was going to emigrate to Medina as well. If he reached Medina, this could mean disaster for them in the future. Locking him up in prison was not a very reliable solution. As the non-believers thought over and over on how they could stop our Prophet, in the end, they came to the conclusion that they needed to kill him. Satan himself, disguised as a hideous old man, was also at the meeting where they came to this decision. They found a simple yet effective solution in order to prevent a possible blood feud among our Prophet’s tribe. The duty was assigned to a certain gang chosen from among the different tribes within the city. This way, they couldn’t blame just one person, and our Prophet’s tribe wouldn’t have the courage to stand up to all the tribes in the city at the same time. The idea came from Abu Jahl and even Satan liked the idea very much. While the non-believers continued on with their preparations to kill our Prophet, Allah the Almighty sent His Messenger the command to emigrate. The Archangel Gabriel also came to tell him of the non-believers’ plans, and told him not to sleep in his bed that night. And so, our Prophet told Abu Bakr that they were finally going to leave the city. For months Abu Bakr had been waiting for this news. He had even bought two camels for this. They agreed to meet each other that night. Abu Bakr gathered some food and drinks for the journey and also arranged for someone to guide them along the path.
Though the people of Mecca refused to believe in the religion that Allah’s Messenger had brought, due to his infallible trustworthiness they still trusted him with their valuables and precious belongings and put them in his custody. Our Prophet took utmost care of the things that were entrusted to him, and so, he wanted to return all the valuables to their rightful owners, even those who wanted to kill him, before emigrating. Ali was going to lie in our Prophet’s bed that night. He was to return the valuables to their owners in the morning and then he too would emigrate to Medina after them. On the night that Allah’s Messenger was to emigrate, Ali fell asleep in our Prophet’s bed. The assassins surrounded our Prophet’s home and started waiting for him to step outside. Our Prophet opened the door and stepped outside to where the non-believers were on the lookout for him. He picked up a handful of earth and threw it at the assassins while he recited the first nine verses of Surah Yasin. Allah the Almighty kept them occupied with the dirt in their eyes, and miraculously, they were unable to notice our Prophet standing there. He merely walked away from amongst them. At the same time, Abu Bakr was also under surveillance. He looked out the window of his home and secretly sneaked out to meet with the Messenger of Allah. They climbed towards the summit of the Mount Light in the pitch darkness of the night.
After a while, a man approached the ones who were waiting in front of our Prophet’s door, and asked them, “What are you waiting for here?” “We are waiting for Muhammad,” they answered.
The man said, “Muhammad is long gone. See, he even threw some dirt on your heads before leaving.” Outraged over what they heard, they yelled, “We swear we did not see him coming out.”
They barged into the Messenger’s home. Excited to see that someone was sleeping in his bed, “Now there’s Muhammad! He’s asleep in his bed,” they cried.
When they lifted the covering and realized that it was Ali that was lying in bed, they froze in disbelief. They were infuriated.
“Where is Muhammad?” they asked him angrily. “I do not know,” replied Ali.
They left him just like that and hurried out of the house in search of our Prophet’s trail. Meanwhile, the Messenger of Allah had long reached his faithful Companion Abu Bakr’s house and they had started walking towards the Mount Light. As they were climbing up the mountain, Abu Bakr walked in front of our Prophet for some time and then changed position to walk behind him. When the Messenger of Allah noticed that he was constantly doing this, he asked Abu Bakr why he was doing so. Abu Bakr answered, “O Messenger of Allah! When I remember that the non-believers are searching for you I start walking behind you, when I remember that they are on the lookout for you I start walking in front of you.”
When our Prophet asked, “Would you prefer a disaster meant for me to strike you instead,” Abu Bakr replied, “Definitely! I swear to Allah, who sent you with the true religion, that I would prefer a disaster to strike me rather than strike you.”
After an hour of walking, they finally arrived at the cave on the Mount Light. As they reached the entrance of the cave, Abu Bakr called out to our Prophet, “O Messenger of Allah! Let me enter first.”
He cleaned the inside of the cave and checked over everything very carefully. He covered all the holes with pieces of cloth that he tore from his shirt so as to prevent a snake or a scorpion coming out and harming Allah’s Messenger. Then, he turned to our Prophet and said, “You may enter now o Messenger of Allah.”
Our Prophet went inside the cave. He was so exhausted that he fell asleep as soon as he put his blessed head down on Abu Bakr’s lap. Meanwhile, Abu Bakr realized that one of the holes in the ground was left open. He had run out of the cloth that he used to close up the holes. So, he used his foot heel to close up the hole so that no snake could come out and harm our Prophet. A short while later, a snake rose out of that hole and bit Abu Bakr’s foot. Despite the pain he felt on his heel, Abu Bakr did not even move a muscle so as not to disturb our Prophet. The pain, however, caused tears to fall from his eyes. When the tears dropped onto our Prophet’s face, he woke up immediately. When he realized what had happened, he wet his had with his blessed saliva and spread it over the snake bite. The pain on Abu Bakr’s heel was gone in an instant. His foot was healed in no time; it was like the snake had never bit him.
Meanwhile, the Meccan non-believers were looking everywhere for the Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr. What’s more, they had even announced a big reward of money to whoever found them. Every person old enough to carry a sword in Mecca had started out in search of them. After searching high and low, all over Mecca for our Prophet and his faithful Companion with no success, they searched all of the mountains surrounding Mecca. Then they gathered those who were renowned for their courage and sent them off on their horses, outside of Mecca, to follow their trail.
As the Meccan non-believers continued on their search, with a single command from Allah the Almighty, a tree grew right in front of their cave, a tree big enough to cover our Prophet’s face and hide their position. Along came a spider and weaved its web in between the tree and the cave. Two mountain pigeons came and nested right between the spider and the tree.
Meanwhile, the non-believers who were following their trail had reached the cave in the Mount Light. The tracer who was guiding them turned to the ones standing beside him and said, “There is a trace on that rock right there. Where they went after that, I do not know. I swear to Allah that the people you are looking for have not gone beyond this cave.” Turning to their guide, the non-believers said, “To this day, we have never seen you falter.” A few men girded with swords approached the cave and one of them went up to the entrance to look inside. However, they all stood in amaze ment and confusion when they saw the pigeon nest and the spider web because that was exactly where the footsteps came to an end. They turned to each other saying, “If they had entered the cave, there wouldn’t be a spider web in the doorway. If there were people inside the cave, the pigeons would not have nested right here.”
When a few of them suggested, “Let’s go inside and take a look,” Umayya ibn Khalaf objected.
“Have you no minds? What are you going to do in the cave? Are you really going to enter this cave that has layers of spider webs in its entrance? I swear to Allah, if you ask me, this spider web was weaved before Muhammad was even born,” he said.
The non-believers were so close that if they were to kneel down and look inside they could very well see both our Prophet and Abu Bakr. Abu Bakr became deeply worried that his dear friend would be harmed. With a trembling voice he whispered, “If they kill me, I am only one person. I will die and be off. But if they kill you, then the entire community will perish!”
Our Prophet was standing in Prayer while Abu Bakr was keeping a lookout. As our Prophet finished his Prayer, Abu Bakr turned to him saying, “Your tribe is still searching for you! I swear to Allah that I am not worried for myself. But I fear that something undesirable will happen to you.”
Seeing Abu Bakr’s concern, our Prophet turned to him and spoke in a very calm manner. “O Abu Bakr! Have no fear! Surely, Allah is with us and is protecting us,” he said reassuringly.
Looking at the feet of the non-believers just above their heads right outside the cave entrance, Abu Bakr said, “O Prophet of Allah! If any one of them were to look down, they would certainly be able to see us.” Our Prophet replied, “O Abu Bakr! We are only two men, yet Allah is the third one among us.” Abu Bakr said, “O Messenger of Allah! If one of them were to raise their foot and look down, they would see us right underneath their feet.”
And our Prophet replied, “Don’t be upset, Allah is with us! O Abu Bakr! Don’t underestimate two men when Allah is the third one among them.”
When they realized that our Prophet and Abu Bakr weren’t there either, not wanting to waste any more time, the non-believers went back to Mecca in disappointment. Back in Mecca, they announced high and low that they would give a total of one hundred camels to whoever found and brought our Prophet and Abu Bakr to them, dead or alive.
Our Prophet and Abu Bakr stayed in the cave for three days. During the daytime, Abu Bakr’s son Abdullah walked around in the streets among the Qurayshi, listening to what they spoke about Abu Bakr and the Messenger of Allah and learning their plans of conspiracy. At night, he would go to the cave to inform them of what was happening. Amir ibn Fuhaira, a freedman that used to be Abu Bakr’s slave, would graze Abu Bakr’s sheep together with the other Meccan shepherds during the daytime. When it was nighttime, he would bring the sheep over to the cave. There they would milk the sheep and slaughter one for food. When morning came, Abdullah would leave the cave, and Amir would follow after him with his herd, thus covering up Abdullah’s tracks.
Abdullah ibn Urayqit was going to guide them on their journey to Medina. On the night of their third day, he came to the cave, just as they had agreed. Our Prophet, Abu Bakr, Abu Bakr’s former slave Amir ibn Fuhaira and Abdullah ibn Urayqit, who would be their guide, all set out on the road towards Medina. After covering some distance, the Messenger of Allah stopped in his tracks and turned around to look back at Mecca once more. He was deeply saddened by the fact that he was leaving his home country where he was born and raised, that he was being separated from this holy land in which the Ka’ba stood. Abu Bakr shared these same feelings. After pausing for a moment, the Messenger of Allah called out,
“I swear to Allah, O Mecca! I know, without a doubt, that you are the best of all the places that Allah has created and you are the most beloved place in the eyes of Allah! If your people had not forced me out, I would never have left you.”
These words from the Messenger of Allah made Abu Bakr very emotional. He uttered the words, “Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi raji’un” (Surely, we belong to Allah and to Him we are bound to return). They drew the Messenger of Allah from his home! Surely, they too will perish one day,” and they continued on their way.
They were completely out of Mecca now. The blessed group travelled night and day towards the city of Medina. Meanwhile, the Qurayshi non-believers had no intention of giving up on their pursuit. They were still searching for them everywhere, trying to pick up on their trail. They had announced and spread the news that they were going to award whoever found our Prophet and Abu Bakr with one hundred camels for each.
The news had spread all the way to the land of the sons of Mudlij. This land also happened to be located on the route that the blessed group was travelling through. A few people from the sons of Mudlij were sitting together in a group when they heard of this award. Known throughout the land for his valor and courage, Suraqa ibn Ju’shum was also among the group. A man from the sons of Mudlij came to them as they were sitting together, turned to Suraqa and said to him,
“O Suraqa! I saw shadows of a couple of travelers walking towards the direction of the coast as they passed in front of me a little further in the distance. I think they may have been Muhammad and Abu Bakr.”
Suraqa understood right away that their tracks had been found. He was overjoyed yet he didn’t want the others around him to notice. He wanted to keep the award from the Quraysh to himself. He signaled for the man to be quiet, so as not to alert the others, and he said, “Those travelers that you saw were not Muhammad and his friend. You must have seen this and this man! They must have gone by here just now as well.”
“You may be right,” the man replied.
Later on, Suraqa girded himself with his sword and suit of armor and set off on our Prophet and Abu Bakr’s trail. He rode his horse to a full gallop so that he could reach them as soon as possible. Before long, he spotted their tracks. He had come so close that he could even hear their voices now. Abu Bakr noticed that he was coming behind them. He turned to our Prophet, full of fear and panic and said, “O Messenger of Allah! This man is searching for us! We have been caught.” Our Prophet, though, calmly turned toward him, and said, “Do not fear! Allah is with us.” Again, Abu Bakr said, “O Messenger of Allah! This man was searching for us and now he has found us,” and tears welled up in his eyes. When our Prophet asked Abu Bakr why he was crying, his reply was, “I swear to Allah I am not crying for myself! I am crying for you.”
Our Prophet turned around, looked at Suraqa and started praying. “O our Lord! Help us overcome this man in whichever way You please! Drive away any harm that will come from him! Make him fall off of his horse,” he prayed.
Our Prophet’s prayers were answered at that very moment. The horse stumbled over something and fell over onto the ground. Suraqa fell off his horse and rolled over onto the ground as well, but he picked himself up right away, got back on his horse and continued riding after them. Suraqa had gotten so close that he could even hear the prayer that the Messenger of Allah was speaking. Then, all of a sudden, the front two legs of Suraqa’s horse sunk up to the knees into the sand. The horse was struggling to get back up yet it couldn’t manage in any way to get its feet out of the sand. Suraqa had finally understood that our Prophet and his beloved Companion were being protected by Allah Himself. Helpless, he turned to them and cried out, “Help!”
“I am Suraqa ibn Ju’shum! Look at me! I want to talk to you. I swear to Allah that I will not cause any harm to you anymore. Nothing unpleasant will come to you from my hands! O Muhammad! I understand now that all that has happened to me is tied to your prayers! Pray to Allah for me so that He may save me from this situation I have fallen into! Let it be a debt upon my head; I swear to Allah that I will not tell the ones who are coming after me of your situation! Here is my pouch of arrows! Take one of these arrows! Come by my camels and goat and take whatever you need.”
Our Prophet cried out in response, “I do not need any of your camels or goat.” He prayed to Allah once again. The horse that had just been buried into the sand, shook off the sand, and got up on its feet just like that.
“Your tribe has promised an award of one hundred camels to whoever either kills you or brings you in captivity,” said Suraqa as he told them of everything that the Quraysh were planning to do to our Prophet and Abu Bakr. He wanted to help them by giving them whatever they needed, but they refused to accept anything.
Suraqa then asked out Prophet to write him a note of sanctuary that would serve as a kind of omen between each other. Turning to Abu Bakr, our Prophet said, “Write a note for him.”
Abu Bakr wrote the note that he was asked to write, on a small piece of leather, and gave the note to Suraqa. Suraqa took the note and put it inside his arrow pouch.
“O Messenger of Allah! Whatever you wish from me is my command,” he nobly stated. In response, our Prophet said, “Stay right here! Do not let the others that are following us proceed from here.” Suraqa stayed and made whoever he encountered along the way turn back, saying to them, “I am more than enough to tackle them here on your behalf.”