Documents of the Right Word

with the exception of hadrat Abû Bekr and hadrat Alî ‘radiy-
Allâhu anhumâ’. Abû Bekr ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ asked several
times for permission to migrate. Yet he was not given the
permission (by the Messenger of Allah, who said), “You will
migrate with me.” So he began to wait for Allâhu ta’âlâ’s
permission to migrate. Meanwhile, upon the suggestion advanced
by Abû Jahl, the chief of Qoureish and the notorious enemy of
Islam, they decided to kill the Messenger of Allah. [The real
name of Abû Jahl is Amr bin Hishâm bin Mughîra. He belongs to
the Benî Mahzûm tribe of Qoureish. He is a descendant of
Mahzûm bin Yaqnata bin Murra. Qoureish is the name of Fihr,
Rasûlullah’s eleventh father. Murra is Rasûlullah’s seventh
father. Abû Jahl was killed in the Holy War of Badr in the second
year of Hijrat]. Lest the murderer should be identified, they
selected twelve vagrants, one from each tribe, and besieged
Rasûlullah’s home on the night between Wednesday and
Thursday. They were about to attack, for the murder of the
Messenger of Allah, when Allâhu ta’âlâ ordered him to migrate.
He ordered hadrat Alî ‘radiy-Allâhu anh’ to lie in his blessed bed
and left home before sunrise, reciting the eighth âyat-i-kerîma of
Yâsin sûra and walking by the unbelievers, who did not see
Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’ leave his house and walk
by. Staying at some so far undiscovered place till noon, he went
to Abû Bekr as-Siddîq’s place at noontime. He ordered Abû
Bekr’s son Abdullah [joined many Holy Wars; passed away in the
eleventh year] to walk amongst the unbelievers every day and
take the information he would find and also some food and drink
to a certain cave every night. That night he and Abû Bekr Siddîq
left the latter’s house and went to a cave in the mountain called
Sawr. In the mountain Rasûlullah ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’
put his blessed head on Abû Bekr’s knee and fell asleep. Lest a
poisonous animal come out of one of the holes in the cave and
hurt the Messenger of Allah, Abû Bekr as-Siddîq doffed the shirt
he was wearing, tore it to pieces, and packed each piece into a
whole. There being one piece too few, one of the holes was left
unplugged. A snake appeared in this hole, holding its head out.
To prevent the snake from going out and hurting Rasûlullah, Abû
Bekr Siddîq put his blessed foot on the hole. The snake bit his
blessed foot, yet he would not draw his foot back. However, the
pain caused by the biting brought tears into his blessed eyes and
when they fell on Rasûlullah’s ‘sall-Allâhu alaihi wa sallam’
blessed luminous face, the best of mankind woke up. Seeing what
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