The Prophet's escape from his house on the night of the Hijra and the hiding in the cave of Thawr

After Gabriel informed the Prophet of the plot of Quraysh and gave him leave to go out, the Prophet left his house on the night of the twenty-seventh of Safar, the fourteenth year of the mission. He threw dust on the heads of those surrounding it, then went to the house of Abu Bakr, and they went out through a small door in his house until they reached the Cave of Thawr. ^{1 2 3}

The Prophet asked Abu Bakr to leave him so that he could be alone with the matter. Abu Bakr said: "They are only your family." The Prophet said: "I have been given leave to go out." Abu Bakr asked for companionship, and he said yes. ¹ The polytheists placed watchmen at his door from the darkness of the night, so the Prophet ordered Ali to sleep in his bed and wrap himself in his green Hadrami cloak. ² In the morning a man told them they had thrown dust on their heads for nothing, and they looked and found Ali on the bed. ²

They reached the cave after taking a road that runs against the known road to Medina, south toward Yemen, and then climbed the rough mountain of Thawr, with Abu Bakr carrying him at the end of the way. ³ When they reached the cave, Abu Bakr went in first to clear it; he stopped a hole with his waistcloth, and then the Prophet ordered him to enter. The Prophet slept in his lap, Abu Bakr was bitten in his foot and did not move so as not to wake the Prophet, and the Prophet spat on it and the pain went away. ³

The two remained in the cave for three nights. Abd Allah ibn Abi Bakr spent the nights with them, heard what Quraysh were plotting, and told them when darkness fell. Amir ibn Fuhayra, Abu Bakr's client, pastured a flock of sheep for them, so they slept with its milk until he came back with his flock before dawn. ^{4 5}

Quraysh went wild when they learned the Prophet had gone out. They struck Ali and imprisoned him, then went to the house of Abu Bakr and asked Asma, Abu Bakr's daughter, about her father; Abu Jahl slapped her so hard that her earring fell from her. ^{4 6} Quraysh set a reward of a hundred camels for whoever brought back the two men, alive or dead, and placed armed watch on the roads. ⁴

The pursuers reached the mouth of the cave. Abu Bakr said to the Prophet that if one of them lowered his gaze he would see them. The Prophet said: "Be quiet. What do you think of two whom God makes the third?" The pursuers turned back, and there were only a few steps left between them and the Prophet. ^{7 8}

• The book holds that Abu Bakr's fear was not for himself but because if the Prophet were killed the community would be lost, which it relates from al-Najdi. ⁷
• The book prefers that the night of departure was the twenty-seventh of Safar, an order based on counting the years from Muharram. ³