CONSULTATION OF THE WICKED TO KILL THE PRINCE OF THE RIGHTEOUS, AND THE FLIGHT OF THAT CHIEF FROM HIS COUNTRY—IN THE KEEPING AND PROTECTION OF THE BENEFICENT SOVEREIGN—AND THE GOING OF HIS LORDSHIP TO THE CAVE THOR.
It is related that the prophet—u. w. b.—said to the professors of Islâm: ‘In my sleep I was told that the place of my exile would be a date-grove between two stony deserts.’ In another tradition we read that he had spoken as follows: ‘In a dream I perceived that I had removed from Mekkah to a region full of date-trees. I thought it was Tahamah, but it was Madinah itself.’ It is recorded that no one had remained of the intimate friends of his lordship the termination of prophecy— u. w. b.—except Abu Bakr and A’li Murtadza—u. w. b. —because all the companions had departed to Yathreb, i.e., Madinah. Even Abu Bakr intended to go there, and asked permission from his lordship the apostle —u. w. b.—to do so; the latter advised him, however, to remain, saying: ‘I hope I shall also be ordered to flee.’ Accordingly, Abu Bakr commenced to make preparations for the journey by purchasing a camel for his lordship at the price of four hundred dirhems, and another for himself, feeding the animals till they were in good condition. Thus he waited for the commands of his lordship the asylum of termination.
At that time the Qoraish chiefs had unanimously determined to kill the prince of the righteous, which happened as follows: When the idolaters had seen that the noble companions departed to Madinah, they thought that his lordship the apostle would also join them. They became suspicious and afraid; whereon they congregated in the house of assembly, where it was customary to transact all affairs. Satan made his appearance in the shape of an aged man amidst the Qoraish, and when they questioned him, he said: ‘I am an inhabitant of Najd, and as I heard that you are holding a consultation with reference to Muhammad, I have come here, and possibly I shall have [to give] an opinion in this matter.’ The Qoraish said: ‘This individual is not a Mekkan, but his presence can do no harm.’ They then began to consult, and said to each other: ‘You know how affairs stand with Muhammad, and that if he gains many adherents they will wage war and fight against us. This matter is therefore to be considered attentively.’ Then Hâshem B. O’mru said: ‘He is to be kept prisoner in a house. Food and drink are to be given him through a hole till he perishes.’ The little man from Najd said: ‘This is bad advice, because his followers are numerous and scattered about. When they hear the news they will come, and his people, namely, the Bani Hâshem, will unite in liberating Muhammad, and this will give rise to war between you and them.’ Abu-l-bakhry said: ‘He ought to be expelled from Mekkah, and allowed to go where he pleases.’ The little Sheikh from Najd said: ‘This opinion likewise expresses an inadequate and insufficient plan, because Muhammad is noted for the pleasantness of his speech and agreeable conversation. Possibly the people may be deceived by his words, will follow him, will unite to attack you, and revenge themselves.’ The Qoraish approved of his words, and complimented him on his sagacity. After that Abu Jahl B. Heshâm said: ‘The proper thing to do is to select an alert and brave youth from every tribe, each taking a sabre, and all of them falling upon Muhammad to slay him at once. In this manner his blood will be divided among all the tribes, and the Banu A’bd Munâf will not be able to fight them, and will therefore be obliged to be satisfied with the expiatory penalty,* and we shall be relieved of this trouble.’ The little man said: ‘The advice given by Abu-l-hukm* is the best.’ Accordingly they agreed to act up to it, and dispersed from the meeting.
With reference to this event the Lord of lords says: ‘And [call to mind] when the unbelievers plotted against thee, that they might either detain thee [in bonds] or put thee to death, or expel thee [the city]; and they plotted [against thee], but Allah laid a plot [against them]; and Allah is the best layer of plots.’* After the opponents had thus agreed, Jebrâil the faithful descended and explained the intentions of the idolaters to his lordship. He also brought the command from Allah the Most High to Muhammad not to sleep during that night in his usual place, and to depart the next morning to Madinah. When the night set in, they [i.e., the idolaters] made their appearance at the door of the habitation of the elected one—u. w. b.—as they had preconcerted, and waited for him to fall asleep, so that they might kill him. It is related that Abu Lahab said: ‘Let us watch him this night, and kill him at daybreak, so as to let the Bani Hâshem know that we have accomplished this business altogether.’ The apostle, however, being aware of what would take place, said to A’li B. Abu Tâleb: ‘The idolaters want to kill me. Go, put on my cloak, lay down in my sleeping-place, and be of good cheer, for nothing untoward will befall thee.’ A’li Murtadza did as he was bid, drew the cloak* in which the prophet used to sleep over his back, and comfortably reposed thereon. What other man has jeopardized his own life for his sacred existence? And with reference to that event, the blessed verse ‘Whoever risks his own life to please Allah, Allah is merciful to His servants’ was revealed. It is said that during the night, when A’li B. Abu Tâleb—u. w. b.— was so high-minded as to expose his own life, Allah the Most High sent a revelation to Jebrâil and to Mikâil in the following words: ‘I have tied between you two the knot of fraternity, but have made the life of one of you longer than that of the other. Who of you two loves the life of his friend more than his own?’ Those two cherubim-angels replied: ‘Each of us loves his own life best, and prefers it to that of anyone else.’ Then again the revelation came: ‘Why are you not like A’li B. Abu Tâleb? For I have tied the knot of friendship between him and Muhammad, but he exposed his own life for that of Muhammad. Depart ye from this heaven* down to the earth, and preserve him from the wickedness of his foes.’ They obeyed; Mikâil took his station at the foot and Jebrâil at the head of his lordship Murtadza—u. w. b.—and Jebrâil said: ‘Who is like thee, O A’li, son of Abu Tâleb? For God has exalted thee above angels.’ He has well said who recited:
Distich: The head I had, I threw it at thy feet, alas!
For my head cannot be compared with thy feet.
With reference to this occasion his lordship the Murtadza had uttered several distichs, which begin with the following:
By exposing my life I acquired more merit than by walking through fire,
Or by circumambulating the ancient house and the stone.
It is related in biographies that when Murtadza A’li reclined on the couch of his lordship the elected one— u. w. b.—that prince departed from the house, recited the Surah Y. S. [ya-sin] from the beginning till the words ‘and we have covered them with darkness, wherefore they shall not see,’* took a handful of dust, throwing it at the heads of the futile conspirators, and everyone whose head it touched fell in the fight of Bedr, hastening to the infernal regions. His lordship passed them by in safety, so that he was not even seen by anyone. After a little while a man accosted the idolaters, and asked why they had assembled in this place. They said that they were waiting for Muhammad to come out. That man swore, however, that Muhammad had left the house and passed them by, had thrown dust at their heads, and had gone away on his own business. Hereon they touched with their unhallowed hands their heads, and found them full of dust. Looking through a crevice into the house, they perceived a man sleeping on the couch of the lord of apostleship, and exclaimed: ‘Behold Muhammad, who has thrown his cloak over his body and is sleeping in his place!’ When they entered the house to execute their intention, Murtadza A’li —u. w. b.—jumped up from sleep, and as they knew not whether that man had spoken the truth, they asked where Muhammad was. He replied: ‘I have not been appointed to watch him, so I cannot tell where he has gone to.’ The idolaters were displeased, disconcerted, and humbled. They kept A’li for awhile in confinement, but afterwards released him by the advice of Abu Lahab.
There is a tradition of A’aishah Ssiddiqah that she said: ‘One day I was sitting in my father’s house in the bath, when a man arrived with the news that the apostle of Allah —u. w. b.—was coming with his head covered, and at that time the prophet was not accustomed to visit our house. My father said to him: “May my parents be a sacrifice to thee for bringing honour to our house in this place!” His lordship replied: “I come on business,” and continued: “I have obtained permission to depart.” My father exclaimed: “O apostle of Allah, we must be together.” His lordship said: “Yes,” complied with the invitation to enter, and said: “Let everyone go out who is in this house.” Abu Bakr replied: “Nobody is in the house except my wife A’aishah with her sister.” Then his lordship said: “I have permission to depart.” Abu Bakr continued: “Accept one of the two camels which I possess.” And his lordship rejoined: “I shall pay for it.”’ Some say that Abu Bakr had purchased a camel for nine hundred dirhems, and others allege that he bought one for four hundred dirhems for his lordship. A’aishah said: ‘We very hastily made our preparations for the journey, and produced a table* full of victuals.’ After that his holy and prophetic lordship went with Abu Bakr to the cave Thor, and it is related that during the said journey his lordship the apostle took off his sandals and walked barefoot, so as to leave no traces on the ground; and when his feet were wounded Abu Bakr took his lordship on his back and carried him to the entrance of the cave. By the advice of the prophet, Abu Bakr penetrated further into the cave, and stopped up the holes with clothes. One of these not having been filled, he happened to place his foot on it, which was then bitten by a snake, but cured by the prayers and by the saliva of his lordship’s blessed mouth.
Distich: God created counter-poison in the mouth of the prophet.
What had Ssiddiq to fear of life-endangering venom?
It is related that when the mind of Abu Bakr was relieved from the danger of the holes of reptiles, he requested the apostle to enter the cave, where they slept during that night. In the morning the prophet asked Abu Bakr about the state of his wound, and prayed for him. There is a tradition that his lordship called a tree, which came and stood at the entrance, so as to make a separation between them and [the access of] the idolaters. According to another tradition, the merciful and clement Lord caused in his perfect benevolence a Moghilân tree to grow at the entrance of the cave, wild pigeons to come during that very night to the entrance of the cave to build nests and to deposit eggs, and a spider to produce cobwebs across the entrance which were as strong as the rampart* of Zulqarneen. It is narrated that his lordship the asylum of termination —u. w. b.—and Abu Bakr spent three nights in the said cave, and had made such arrangements that A’bdullah B. Aby, who was an intelligent and brave youth, paid them a visit every night, bringing them news about the Qoraish, and returning to Mekkah before daybreak, whilst they imagined him to be always at home. A’amer B. Fahyrah, who was a Musulmân and a freed slave of Abu Bakr, pastured his sheep during the day, carried milk to the cave Thor in the evening, and returned during the obscurity of the night. Arrangements had been made with A’bdullah B. Arbattah the Dylami, and he had been hired to take care of the camels, and to bring them on the morning of the third day to the cave Thor to show them the way.
A’aishah says: ‘When his lordship the apostle—u. w. b. —and my father Abu Bakr left Mekkah, the Qoraish being aware of his attachment to his lordship, a number of them came to our house, and on my going out to them, the idolaters asked me: “Where is thy father?” I replied that I did not know. Hereon the accursed Abu Jahl struck me such a blow on my ear that my earring dropped off. Abu Bakr had five thousand dirhems of ready money in the house, all of which he had taken away. Abu Kuhâfah, who was my paternal grandfather, and had become blind, said: “Abu Bakr has abandoned you to distress, and has left you nothing.” I replied: “He has deposited something handsome with me,” and having put some gravel into the place where Abu Bakr used to keep his money, I covered it with a cloth, took him by the hand, led him to the spot, and said: “This is the property which he has left for me.” Abu Kuhâfah said: “Do not you be dismayed, for this quantity will suffice you.”’
It is related that the next day after the departure of his lordship the apostle to the cave Thor, Abu Jahl caused a proclamation to be made in and around Mekkah that he would give one hundred camels to anyone who would bring Muhammad and Abu Bakr, and an equal number to any person who would be a guide to the place where those two individuals were. Accordingly a number of young men of the Qoraish, decoyed by their greed for wealth, started in search of them to the mountains, armed with swords and sticks. They took Qâyf, who was known by the name of Abu Karz, to show them the way, and when he brought them to the entrance of the cave Thor, he said: ‘Those whom you seek have not gone beyond this place, unless they went up to heaven or have died under the ground.’ According to another tradition, Qâyf said: ‘Those whom you seek have not passed this place, and are in this cave.’ But when the idolaters beheld the nest of pigeons and the cobweb, they said to Qâyf: ‘Thou hast become demented.’ It is said that when the Qoraish perceived those signs, they said to each other: ‘The cobwebs were spun at the entrance of the cave before Muhammad was born. It is recorded in the Aa’llâmu-l-wara that when the Qoraish arrived they saw an angel in human shape at the entrance of the cave, who said to them: ‘Nobody is here. Seek Muhammad in the passes of the wâdys hereabouts.’ Accordingly the people dispersed in all directions. It is said that the idolaters came so near to the prophet in their search that only a distance of forty cubits remained between them, and that Qâyf said: ‘By Allah! those whom you seek have not passed beyond this spot.’ When Abu Bakr heard these words he was grieved, but his lordship said: ‘Do not be sorry, for God is our protector.’ Abu Bakr continued: ‘If the idolaters look a little farther they will discover us.’ His lordship, however, asked: ‘What thinkest thou of two men, the third [confidant] of whom is Allah the Most High?’ When God warded off those amazed persons by means of the nest of pigeons’ eggs and the cobweb, his lordship the refuge of termination pronounced a blessing upon all pigeons, made the sanctuary their refuge, and prohibited his people from hunting them.
Distich: Beware of hunting in the sacred territory,
And repent of what thou hast done before.
He also said: ‘Spiders are an army of Allah the Most High,’ and prohibited the killing of them. When the pigeons flew away at the approach of the idolaters, they beheld the eggs and the cobweb, whereon they said to each other: ‘Had anyone come near this cave the eggs would have been broken, nor would the cobweb have remained.’ In short, after the image-worshippers had completed their fruitless search in the mountains and deserts, they returned ashamed and disappointed to their homes.