The road to Madinah

Part oneA path nobody used

The road from Makkah to Yathrib that caravans used ran inland, through villages and wells. The guide Abdullah ibn Urayqit led the two men on a different route, down towards the Red Sea and then north along the coast, over tracks that few knew. Amir ibn Fuhayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) went with them. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) stayed close to the Prophet ﷺ, riding sometimes in front of him and sometimes behind, watching for danger on every side.

They travelled through the night and on into the day, until the road was empty at midday. Then they found a long rock with a patch of shade beneath it. Abu Bakr spread a cloth for the Prophet ﷺ to lie on and kept watch. A shepherd came by with his sheep, looking for the same shade, and Abu Bakr milked one of them, cooled the milk with water, and brought it to the Prophet ﷺ. He drank until Abu Bakr was glad.

The reward of a hundred camels had been spread through all the tribes. A hundred camels was enough to make a man rich, and many people along the coast set out to look.

One of them was Suraqa ibn Malik, of the tribe of Mudlij, a horseman and a good tracker. He heard that three riders had been seen on the coast road and set out at once, taking his best horse and his bow. Abu Bakr kept glancing back and saw him coming. The Prophet ﷺ did not turn around. He asked Allah to protect them from the rider in whatever way He willed. When Suraqa got within range, his horse stumbled and threw him. He mounted again and rode closer. His horse stumbled again. He tried a third time, and its legs sank deep in the ground.

Suraqa understood that something was protecting these men, and that their cause would win. He called out to them, asked for peace, and told them what the people of Makkah intended. When he offered food and supplies, they asked only that he keep their path secret. Then he asked for a written guarantee of safety, and one was written for him. On the way home he turned back every searcher he met and sent them in another direction.

From the hadith

The nephew of Suraqa bin Ju'sham said that his father informed him that he heard Suraqa bin Ju'sham saying,

"The messengers of the heathens of Quraish came to us declaring that they had assigned for the persons why would kill or arrest Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr, a reward equal to their bloodmoney. While I was sitting in one of the gatherings of my tribe. Bani Mudlij, a man from them came to us and stood up while we were sitting, and said, "O Suraqa! No doubt, I have just seen some people far away on the seashore, and I think they are Muhammad and his companions." Suraqa added, "I too realized that it must have been they. But I said 'No, it is not they, but you have seen so-and-so, and so-and-so whom we saw set out.' I stayed in the gathering for a while and then got up and left for my home. and ordered my slave-girl to get my horse which was behind a hillock, and keep it ready for me.

Then I took my spear and left by the back door of my house dragging the lower end of the spear on the ground and keeping it low. Then I reached my horse, mounted it and made it gallop. When I approached them (i.e. Muhammad and Abu Bakr), my horse stumbled and I fell down from it, Then I stood up, got hold of my quiver and took out the divining arrows and drew lots as to whether I should harm them (i.e. the Prophet (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr) or not, and the lot which I disliked came out. But I remounted my horse and let it gallop, giving no importance to the divining arrows. When I heard the recitation of the Quran by Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) who did not look hither and thither while Abu Bakr was doing it often, suddenly the forelegs of my horse sank into the ground up to the knees, and I fell down from it. Then I rebuked it and it got up but could hardly take out its forelegs from the ground, and when it stood up straight again, its fore-legs caused dust to rise up in the sky like smoke. Then again I drew lots with the divining arrows, and the lot which I disliked, came out. So I called upon them to feel secure. They stopped, and I remounted my horse and went to them. When I saw how I had been hampered from harming them, it came to my mind that the cause of Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) (i.e. Islam) will become victorious. So I said to him, "Your people have assigned a reward equal to the bloodmoney for your head." Then I told them all the plans the people of Mecca had made concerning them. Then I offered them some journey food and goods but they refused to take anything and did not ask for anything, but the Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Do not tell others about us." Then I requested him to write for me a statement of security and peace. He ordered 'Amr bin Fuhaira who wrote it for me on a parchment, and then Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) proceeded on his way. […]

Suraqa did not become a Muslim then. Years later, after the siege of Ta'if, he met the Prophet ﷺ again and brought his written guarantee with him. The Prophet ﷺ honoured it and welcomed him, and Suraqa (may Allah be pleased with him) accepted Islam. It is also remembered that the Prophet ﷺ told him on that road that one day he would wear the bracelets of the Persian emperor. In the time of Umar ibn al-Khattab, after the fall of Persia, Umar gave Suraqa those bracelets to wear.

Part twoA woman's tent

Further along, the travellers ran short of food and water, and came to the tent of a woman called Umm Ma'bad, of the Khuza'ah tribe, who sat outside it to give food and drink to passers-by. She had nothing to offer them, she said, or she would gladly have done so. The Prophet ﷺ noticed a goat in her tent that was too thin and weak to give milk.

He asked if he could milk it. She said it was past giving milk, but he was welcome to try. He passed his hand over its udder and said the name of Allah, and the goat gave milk, enough to fill a large vessel. He gave it first to Umm Ma'bad, then to his companions, and drank last. They all drank until they were full. He milked the goat once more and left the milk with her, and they went on their way.

Her husband Abu Ma'bad came home to find the vessel brimming and asked where it had come from. She told him about the blessed man who had stopped at their tent. The story is one of the best known of the Hijrah.

Part threeA friend on the road

Near the end of the road, the travellers met Zubayr ibn al-Awwam (may Allah be pleased with him), who was returning from a trading trip to Syria with a group of Muslim merchants. Zubayr was a nephew of Khadijah and a cousin of the Prophet ﷺ. He gave the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr white clothes to wear.

The sight of that small gift shows what the Hijrah was. These were not soldiers moving towards a victory. They were two tired men, covered in the dust of days of riding, on the edge of a new life, trusting in Allah. Ahead of them lay the date palms and black volcanic ground of Yathrib, and the people waiting there.

These were not soldiers moving towards a victory.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 5: The Hijrah (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceThe Hijrah, Part 2: Suraqa And The Bracelet Of Kisra (Seerah of Muhammad, part 43) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Mount Thawr
• the Red Sea coast
• Qudayd (the tent of Umm Ma'bad)
• Quba

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter