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MIGRATION OF THE PROPHET (Peace be upon him) :
When the iniquitous decision had been made, Gabriel was sent down to Muhammad (Peace be upon
him) to reveal to him Quraish’s plot and give him his Lord’s Permission to leave Makkah. He fixed to
him the time of migration and asked him not to sleep that night in his usual bed. At noon, the
Prophet (Peace be upon him) went to see his Companion Abu Bakr and arranged with him
everything for the intended migration. Abu Bakr was surprised to see the Prophet (Peace be upon
him) masked coming to visit him at that unusual time, but he soon learned that Allâh’s Command
had arrived, and he proposed that they should migrate together, to which the Prophet (Peace be
upon him) gave his consent.
To make the necessary preparations for the implementation of their devilish plan, the chiefs of
Makkah had chosen eleven men: Abu Jahl, Hakam bin Abil Al-‘As, ‘Uqbah bin Abi Mu‘ait, An-Nadr bin
Harith, Omaiyah bin Khalaf, Zama‘a bin Al-Aswad, Tu‘aima bin ‘Adi, Abu Lahab, Ubai bin Khalaf,
Nabih bin Al-Hajjaj and his brother Munbih bin Al-Hajjaj. All were on the alert. As night advanced,
they posted assassins around the Prophet’s house. Thus they kept vigil all night long, waiting to kill
him the moment he left his house early in the morning, peeping now and then through a hole in the
door to make sure that he was still lying in his bed. Abu Jahl, the great enemy of Islam, used to
walk about haughtily and arrogantly jeering at Muhammad’s words, saying to the people around
him: “Muhammad claims that if you follow him, he will appoint you rulers over the Arabs and non-
Arabs and in the Hereafter your reward will be Gardens similar to those in Jordan, otherwise, he will
slaughter you and after death you will be burnt in fire.” He was too confident of the success of his
devilish plan. Allâh, the All-Mighty, however, in Whose Hands lie the sovereignty of the heavens and
earth, does what He desires; He renders succour and can never be overpowered. He did exactly
what He later said to His Prophet:
·
“And (remember) when the disbelievers plotted against you [O Muhammad (Peace be
upon him)] to imprison you, or to kill you, or to get you out (from your home, i.e. Makkah);
they were plotting and Allâh too was planning, andAllâh is the Best of the planners.” [8:30]
At that critical time the plans of Quraish utterly failed despite the tight siege they laid to the
Prophet’s house, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) and ‘Ali were inside the house. The Prophet
(Peace be upon him) told ‘Ali to sleep in his bed and cover himself with his green mantle and
assured him full security under Allâh’s protection and told him that no harm would come to him. The
Prophet (Peace be upon him) then came out of the room and cast a handful of dust a t the assassins
and managed to work his way through them reciting verses of the Noble Qur’ân:
·
“And We have put a barrier before them, and a barrier behind them, and We have
covered them up, so that they cannot see.” [36:9]
He proceeded direct to the h ouse of Abu Bakr who, immediately accompanied him and both set out
southwards, clambered up the lofty peak of Mountain Thawr, and decided to take refuge in a cave.
The assassins who laid siege to the house were waiting for the zero hour when someone cameand
informed them that the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had already left. They rushed in and to their
utter surprise, found that the person lying in the Prophet’s bed was ‘Ali not Muhammad (Peace be
upon him). This created a stir in the whole town. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) had thus left his
house on Safar 27th, the fourteenth year of Prophethood, i.e. 12/13 September 622 A.D.
Knowing already that Quraish would mobilize all its potentials to find him, he played a clever trick on
them and instead of taking the road to Madinah in north side of Makkah as the polythiest would
expect, he walked along a road least expected lying south of Makkah and leading to Yemen. He
walked for 5 miles until he reached a rough rocky mountain called Thawr. There his shoes were
worn out, some said he used to walk tiptoe in order not to leave a trail behind him. Abu Bakr (May
Allah be pleased with him) carried him up the mountain to a cave called after the name of the
mountain, Cave Thawr. Abu Bakr first entered to explore the cave and be sure that it was safe,
closed all holes with pieces torn off from his clothes, cleaned it and then asked the Prophet (Peace
be upon him) to step in. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) went in and immediately laid his head in
Abu Bakr’s lap and fell asleep. Suddenly Abu Bakr’s foot was stung by a poisonous insect. It hurt so
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