The three nights in the cave of Thawr
ليالي غار ثور الثلاث
c. 13 September 622 CE · c. 1 Rabi' I 1 AH† – 16 September 622 CE · 1 Rabi' I 1 AH †
† Hijri date derived by computation from the Gregorian/Julian date; it may differ from the transmitted date by a day or two.
The Prophet and Abu Bakr hid in the cave of Thawr for the nights of Friday, Saturday and Sunday while Quraysh combed the country offering a hundred camels for each man; their pursuers reached the cave's mouth and turned back.
At a glance
- Era
- The Prophetic Era
- Region
- Arabia
- Review
- Draft Completeness 2/5 · Help complete it
In time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Refugees, migrants and diaspora
Summary
The Prophet and Abu Bakr hid in the cave of Thawr for three nights — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — while Quraysh searched the countryside and set a prize of a hundred camels on each of them 1.
In the cave
Abu Bakr insisted on entering the cave before the Prophet in case anything in it might harm him; he swept it and blocked its holes with his waist-wrap, then was stung in the foot and did not move, fearing to wake the Prophet 2.
Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr spent the nights with them and left before dawn to spend the day with Quraysh as though he had slept among them; nothing he heard of plots against the two but he memorised it and brought it to them by night. Amir ibn Fuhayra pastured a gifted flock of sheep near them — the two would spend the night on their milk — and drove his sheep over Abdullah's tracks to erase them 3.
The hunt
Quraysh beat Ali, dragged him to the Ka'ba and held him for a time, and struck Asma on the cheek until her earring flew off when she denied knowing her father's whereabouts; they posted a hundred camels for whoever returned either of the two men, dead or alive 3. The pursuers reached the very mouth of the cave, and Abu Bakr said: Prophet of God, if one of them but looked down he would see us; he answered: "what do you think, Abu Bakr, of two the third of whom is God?" 4 5. Then the heat of the hunt died down after three days and they prepared to leave 4.
Connections
- Had participant
- Abdullah ibn Abi BakrAmir ibn FuhayraMuhammadAbu Bakr al-Siddiq
- Occurred at
- Ghar Thawr (Cave of Thawr)
- Part of
- The Hijra
People and things also explored
The HijraThe Hijra routeMeccaThe sojourn at QubaThe early Muslim communityThe Battle of BadrThe first Friday prayerAbdullah ibn Abi Bakr
Sources
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, pp. 165-166
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p. 164
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p. 165
- al-Raheeq al-Makhtum — Safi al-Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, p. 166
- Sahih al-Bukhari
- al-Sira al-Nabawiyya — Ibn Hisham
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “The three nights in the cave of Thawr”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/event/ghar-thawr/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Accessed 2026-10-12.