El Madina:
Thawr Mountain and Thawr Cave
In 622CE, after some thirteen years of calling the people to Islam, the Messenger of Allah left Mecca for Medina. The Prophet Muhammad asked Ali son of Abu Talib to stay behind to deal with a number of issues, and Ali volunteered to sleep in the Prophet’s bed acting as a decoy. The Messenger of Allah manages to slip through those who were surrounding his house just before they stormed it. When they stormed the house to kill him they found Ali instead in the Prophet’s bed with no sign of their target.
On his way out of Mecca, The companion Abu Bakr came across the Prophet as he was leaving the city, and asked the Prophet where he was going at that time. The Prophet Muhammad could not tell him other than the truth, and thereafter the Messenger of Allah asked him to join him on his migration to Medina, in order to keep the news of this mission secret until he is out of danger. With first daylight, the forty brave warriors set off in pursuit of the Prophet by following his track. They used an expert guide to help them track him, and the guide led the warriors to the cave of Thawr, some five miles outside Mecca, where the Prophet Muhammad and his companion were actually inside, but the pursuers did not enter the cave. It is reported that the pursuers did not enter the cave since by the time they had arrived, through divine intervention, a spider had spun its web across the opening of the cave, and a pigeon had placed its nest near there, after the two had entered the cave. The chasers did not attempt to enter the cave on the presumption that had anyone entered the cave, the spider web and the pigeon nest would have been disturbed Having failed to capture the Prophet, the Quraysh announced a reward of 100 camels for anyone capturing him or giving information leading to his capture.
The Prophet Muhammad left Mecca on the eve of the first day of the lunar month of Rabi‘-I, and arrived at the outskirts of Medina, some 400 km north of the city of Mecca, on Monday the 12th day of the same month. Another task that Ali ibn Abu Talib had to do when the Prophet had left Mecca was to return any goods and valuables that people had given to the Prophet for safekeeping. Many of those who were the Prophet opponents also used to give their valuables to the Prophet for safekeeping every time they went on a long journey and such like. This is because the Prophet was recognised for his trustworthiness even towards
his foes; they could not trust their best friends for safekeeping of their valuables, but they trusted Muhammad al-Amin (the trustworthy one). Ali returned all the goods and valuables that were given to the Prophet for safekeeping, including those of the Prophet’s foes. When Ali had returned all the goods he was given by the
Prophet Muhammad to their rightful owners, he went to the roof of the Ka‘bah and yelled at the top of his voice, “if anyone has any claim against Muhammad, or had entrusted him with anything that he has not got back yet, then they should come forward.” It is reported that nobody did. Having discharged all his tasks in Mecca, Ali set off for Yathreb together with his mother Fatimah bint Assad, Fatimah the daughter of the Prophet, and Fatimah daughter of Zubair.
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