Sender: Fatimah
31/08/2011
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah as is His due, and may peace and blessings be upon the truthful and trustworthy Muhammad and the pure and virtuous family of Muhammad.
Peace and blessings be upon you.My dear esteemed scholar,
Could you please clarify the migration of the noble Prophet (peace be upon him & his family) and his family to Medina?
Who was in the house of prophethood when our master, the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him), lay in the Prophet's (peace be upon him & his family) bed?
Who accompanied the noble Prophet (peace be upon him & his family) during his migration on the road, and who entered the cave with him?
Could you please explain the pronouns in the following noble verse and to whom they refer?
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
﴾If you do not aid him, Allah has already aided him when those who disbelieved drove him out, the second of two when they were in the cave, and he said to his companion, "Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us." And Allah sent down His tranquillity upon him and supported him with angels you did not see and made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the word of Allah that is the highest. And Allah is Exalted in Might and Wise﴿ . [At-Tawbah: 40]May Allah reward you with all goodness and grant you success.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Answer
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
Peace and blessings be upon Muhammad and his family.
Al-Husayn ibn Hamdan al-Khuzaybi said in Al-Hidayah al-Kubra:
Ja'far ibn Malik narrated to me from Yahya ibn Zayd al-Hasani, from his father Zayd, from Abdullah, from Husayn ibn Musa ibn Ja'far, from his father Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Sadiq, from his father Muhammad al-Baqir, from his father Ali ibn al-Husayn (peace be upon them), who said: When Jabir ibn Abdullah al-Ansari met me with the message of his grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family), to his son Muhammad al-Baqir, Ali ibn al-Husayn said to him: "O Jabir, did you witness my grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), on the night of the cave?"
Jabir replied: "No, O son of the daughter of the Messenger of Allah."
He said: "Then I will inform you, O Jabir."
Jabir said: "May my father and mother be sacrificed for you, for I heard it from your grandfather, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family): When he fled to the cave from the polytheists of Quraysh who had besieged his house to kill him, they said: 'Approach his bed so that we may kill him in it.' The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said to the Commander of the Faithful, Ali ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him): 'O my brother, the polytheists of Quraysh are besieging me in my house tonight in my bed. What will you do, O Ali?'
The Commander of the Faithful replied: 'I will lie down in your bed, O Messenger of Allah, and Khadijah will be in a part of the house. You go out and trust in Allah, for He will protect you.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said: 'May I be sacrificed for you, O Abu al-Hasan, bring me my she-camel, Al-‘Adba’, so that I may ride it and flee to Allah from the polytheists of Quraysh. Do with yourself as you wish, and Allah is my successor over you and Khadijah.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) then mounted his she-camel and set out. Gabriel (peace be upon him) met him and said: 'O Messenger of Allah, Allah has commanded me to accompany you on your journey and into the cave you enter, and to return with you to Medina until your she-camel kneels at the door of Abu Ayyub al-Ansari's house.'
Abu Bakr met him and said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I wish to accompany you.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said: 'Woe to you, O Abu Bakr, I wish that no one should know of me.'
He said: 'O Messenger of Allah, I fear that the polytheists will swear me to secrecy about meeting you, and I will have no choice but to tell them the truth.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said: 'Woe to you, O Abu Bakr, would you do that?'
He replied: 'I would do it to avoid lying and being killed.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said: 'Then your accompanying me will not benefit you.'
He said: 'But you conceal me and fear that I might inform the polytheists about you.'
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) said: 'Go ahead if you wish.'
He accompanied him to the cave. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) dismounted from his she-camel and knelt it at the door of the cave, and entered with Gabriel (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr.
Khadijah stood in a part of the house, weeping over the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family). Ali lay in the bed of the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family), protecting him with his own life. The polytheists came to the house at night, consulted among themselves, entered, and approached the bed. They found the Commander of the Faithful lying in it. They struck their hands towards him and said: 'O son of Abu Kabsha, your magic and the service of the jinn have not benefited you. Today, we will let our swords drink from your blood.'
The Commander of the Faithful rose to show them that they had not reached him. He sat in the house and said: 'O polytheists of Quraysh, I am Ali ibn Abi Talib.'
They said to him: 'Where is Muhammad, O Ali?'
He said: 'Where Allah wills.'
They said: 'Who is in the house?'
He said: 'There is only Khadijah.'
They said: 'The noble and chaste one, if it were not for her marriage to Muhammad, O Ali, by Allah, if it were not for your father's honor and his status in Quraysh, we would have struck our swords at you.'
Then the Commander of the Faithful (peace be upon him) said:
“O polytheists of Quraysh! Are you impressed by your numbers? By the Splitter of the seed and the Creator of the soul, nothing happens except by the will of Allah, the Exalted. If I wished to destroy your gathering, you would be lighter to me than the moths of the lamp, for there is nothing weaker than them.”
The polytheists laughed and said to one another: “Leave Ali out of respect for his father and pursue Muhammad.”
And Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) was in the cave, along with Gabriel (peace be upon him) and Abu Bakr with him. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) grieved over Khadijah. So Gabriel (peace be upon him) said: “Do not grieve, indeed Allah is with us.” Then he (peace be upon him) revealed to him, and he saw Ali and Khadijah (peace be upon them), and he saw the ship of Ja’far ibn Abi Talib (peace be upon him) and those with him floating on the sea. So Allah sent down His tranquillity upon His Messenger — this being the security from what he feared for Ali and Khadijah.
Then Allah revealed:
“The second of the two” — meaning Gabriel (peace be upon him) and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him & his family) —
“when they were in the cave, and he said to his companion: Do not grieve, indeed Allah is with us. So Allah sent down His tranquillity upon him.”
And had the one who grieved been Abu Bakr, he would have been more deserving of the security than the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family), but he did not grieve.
Then the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said to Abu Bakr: “O Abu Bakr, I see Ali and Khadijah, and the polytheists of Quraysh, and their speech to him, and the ship of Ja’far ibn Abi Talib and those with him floating on the sea, and I see the group of the Ansar arriving in Medina.”
Abu Bakr said: “And you see them, O Messenger of Allah, on this very night and at this very hour, while you are in the cave, in this darkness, and the great distance between us and Medina?”
The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) said: “I will show you, O Abu Bakr, what I saw so that you may believe me.” And he wiped his hand over his eyes and said to him: “Look at the ship of Ja’far, how it floats on the sea.” So Abu Bakr looked at all: the polytheists of Quraysh, Ali on the bed and his conversation with them, Khadijah in the side of the house, and he became frightened and terrified and said: “O Messenger of Allah, I cannot bear to look at what I have seen, so return my veil to me.” He then wiped his hand over his eyes and what he saw was concealed from him, and he was overcome with great panic until he soiled twelve pits.
And it is narrated that there was a crack and an opening in the cave through which daylight entered. So Abu Bakr placed his heel in it to block it, and a snake bit him in the heel but did not poison him, and he panicked and soiled the pit. But this is not correct — rather, the former version about the soiling is more accurate.
The polytheists pursued the Prophet and followed his trail until they reached the entrance of the cave. They looked at the kneeling place of the she-camel but did not see it. They said: “This is the trace of Muhammad’s she-camel and its kneeling place is at the door of the cave.” They entered but found a spider’s web covering the entrance of the cave.
They said: “Woe to you! Do you not see the web of this spider at the entrance of the cave? How could Muhammad have entered it?”
So Allah turned them away from it, and they went back. And the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him and his family) came out of the cave and migrated to Medina.
This is the Prophetic Migration — may the best of prayers and fullest of peace be upon its path. From that night, the Islamic calendar began, and Muslims started to measure the events of time from that year, determining their dates and times.
The one who remained in the House of Prophethood was Khadijah bint Khuwaylid, the wife of the Prophet, who was in a side of the house.
The one who accompanied the Prophet was Gabriel (peace be upon him) by Allah’s command. As for the companionship of the first Caliph, it was merely by coincidence.
As for the pronouns in the noble verse, they became clear when referring to the report of the Shaykh — “The second of the two” — are Gabriel and the Prophet.
And the one who said to his companion “Do not grieve” — it was Gabriel saying to the Prophet: “Do not grieve, indeed Allah is with us.”
So Allah sent down tranquillity upon the heart of the Prophet and supported him with soldiers you did not see — these were among Allah’s close angels.
Praise be to Allah, Lord of the worlds.
Husayn Muhammad Al-Mazhloum
12/09/2011
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