I never remembered my parents believing in any religion other than the true religion (i.e. Islâmic Monotheism), and (I don't remember) a single day passing without our being visited by Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) in the morning and in the evening. When the Muslims were put to test (i.e. troubled by the pagans), Abu Bakr set out to migrate to the land of Ethiopia, and when he reached Bark-al-Ghimâd [1], Ibn Ad-Daghina, the chief of the tribe of Qâra, met him and said, "O Bakr ! Where are you going?" Abu Bakr replied, "My people have turned me out (of my country), so I want to wander in the land and worship my Lord." Ibn Ad-Daghina said, "O Abu Bakr ! A man like you should not leave his homeland, nor should he be driven out, because you help the destitute, earn their living, and you keep good relations with your kith and kin, help the weak and poor, entertain guests generously, and help the calamity-stricken persons. Therefore I am your protector. Go back and worship your Lord in your town. So Abu Bakr returned and Ibn Ad-Daghina accompanied him. In the evening Ibn Ad-Daghina visited the nobles of Quraish and said to them, man like Bakr should not leave his homeland, nor should he be driven out. Do you (i.e. Quraish) drive out a man who helps the destitute earns their living, keeps good relations with his kith and kin, helps the weak and poor, entertains guests generously and helps the calamity-stricken persons?" So the people of Quraish could not refuse Ibn Ad-Daghina's protection, and they said to Ibn Ad-Daghina, Let Abu Bakr worship his Lord in his house. He can offer Salât (prayer) and recite there whatever he likes, but he should not hurt us with it, and should not do it publicly, because we are afraid that he may influence our women and children." Ibn Ad-Daghina told Bakr of all that. Abu Bakr stayed in that state, worshipping his Lord in his house. He did not offer (prayer) publicly, nor did he recite Qur'ân outside his house. Then a thought occurred to Abu Bakr to build a mosque in front of his house, and there he used to offer (prayer) and recite the Qur'ân. The women and children of the pagans began to gather around him in great number. They used to wonder at him and look at him. Bakr was a man given to weep much, and he could not help weeping on reciting the Qur'ân. That situation scared the nobles of the Quraish pagans, SO they sent for Ibn Ad-Daghina. When he came to them, they said, "We accepted your protection of Bakr on condition that he should worship his Lord in his house, but he violated the conditions and he has built a mosque in front of his house where he offers (prayer) and recites the Qur'ân publicly. We are now afraid that he may influence our women and children unfavourably. So, prevent him from that. If he likes to confine the worship of his Lord to his house, he may do so, but if he insists on doing that openly, ask him to release you from your obligation of his protection, for we dislike to break our pact with you, but we deny Abu Bakr the right to announce his act publicly." Ibn Ad-Daghina went to Abu Bakr and said, (" O Abu Bakr !) You know well what contract I have made on your behalf; now, you are either to abide by it, or else release me from my obligation of protecting you, because I do not want the Arabs hear that my people have dishonoured a contract I have made on behalf of another man." Abu Bakr replied, I release you from your pact to protect me, and am contented with the protection from Allâh ". At that time the Prophet (ﷺ) was in Makka, and he said to the Muslims, "In a dream I have been shown the place of your migration a land of date-palm trees, between two mountains, the two stony tracts." So, some people migrated to Al-Madina, and most of those people who had previously migrated to the land of Ethiopia, returned to Al-Madîna. Bakr also prepared to leave for Al-Madina, but Allah's Messenger (ﷺ) said to him, "Wait for a while, because I hope that I will be allowed to migrate also." Bakr said, Do you indeed expect this? Let my father and mother be sacrificed for you ! " The Prophet (ﷺ) said, "Yes." So Bakr did not migrate for the sake of Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) in order to accompany him. He fed for four months two she-camels he possessed with the leaves of As-Samur tree that fell on being struck by a stick. One day, while we were sitting in Bakr's house at noon, someone said to Bakr, "This is Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) with his head covered coming at a time at which he never used to visit us before." Abu Bakr said, "May my parents be sacrificed for him. By Allâh, he has not come at this hour except for a great necessity." So Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) came and asked permission to enter, and he was allowed to enter. When he entered, he said to Abu Bakr." Tell everyone who is present with you to go away. Bakr replied, "There are none but your family. May my father be sacrificed for O Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ)! " The you, Prophet (ﷺ) said, "I have been ' given permission to migrate." Bakr said, "Shall I accompany you? May my father be sacrificed for you, Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ)! " Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "Yes." Abu Bakr said, "O Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ)! May my father be sacrificed for you, take one of these two she-camels of mine." Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) replied, "(I will) but with payment. So we prepared the baggage quickly and put some journey food in a leather bag for them. Asmâ ', Bakr's daughter, cut a piece from her waistbelt and tied the mouth of the leather bag with it, and for that reason she was named Dhât-un-Niţâqain (i.e. the owner of two belts). Then Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr reached a cave on Mount Thaur and stayed there for three nights. 'Abdullâh bin Bakr who was intelligent and a sagacious youth, used to stay (with them) over night. He used to leave them before day break so that in the morning he would be with Quraish as if he had spent the night in Makka. He would keep in mind any plot made against them, and when it became dark he would (go and) inform them of it. ' Aamir bin Fuhaira, the freed slave of Bakr, used to bring the milch sheep (of his master, Abu Bakr) to them a little while after nightfall in order to rest the sheep there. So they always had fresh milk at night, the milk of their sheep, and the milk which they warmed by throwing heated stones in it. Aamir bin Fuhaira would then call the herd away when it was still dark (before daybreak). He did the same in each of those three nights. Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and Bakr had hired a man from the tribe of Banî Ad-from the family of Banî ' Abd bin 'Adi as an expert guide, and he was in alliance with the family of Al-'Aas bin Wâ'il As-Sahmi and he was on the religion of the infidels of Quraish. The Prophet (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr trusted him and gave him their two she-camels and took his promise to bring their two she-camels to the cave of Mount Thaur in the morning after three nights later. And (when they set out), 'Aamir bin Fuhaira and the guide went along with them and the guide led them along the sea-shore. (The nephew of Surâqa bin Ju'shum said that his father informed him that he heard) Surâqa bin Ju‘shum saying: " The Messenger's of the heathens of Quraish came to us declaring that they had assigned for the persons who would kill or arrest Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and Bakr, a reward equal to their blood-money (i.e. 100 camels). While I was sitting in one of the gatherings of my tribe Banî Mudlij, a from them came to us and stood up while we were sitting, and said, O Surâqa ! No doubt, I have just seen some people far away on the seashore, and I think they are Muḥammad and his companions." Surâqa added, I too realised that it must have been they. But I said, No, it is not they, but you have seen so-and-so, 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. [2] Then I reached my horse, mounted it and made it gallop. When I approached them (i.e. Muḥammad and 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 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 Qur'ân by Allâh'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 its 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 forelegs 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 Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) (i.e. Islâm) will become victorious. So I said to him, "Your people have assigned a reward equal to the blood-money for your head." Then I told them all the plans the people of Makka 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 ' Aamir bin Fuhaira who wrote it for me on a parchment, and then Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) proceeded on his way. (Narrated Urwa bin Az-Zubair:) Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) met Az-Zubair in a caravan of Muslim merchants who were returning from Shâm. Az-Zubair provided Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and Bakr with white clothes to wear. When the Muslims of Al-Madîna heard the news of the departure of Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) from Makka (towards Al-Madina), they started going to the Harra every morning. They would wait for him till the heat of the noon forced them to return. One day, after waiting for a long while, they returned home, and when they went into their houses, a Jew climbed up the roof of one of the forts of his people to look for something, and he saw Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and his companions dressed in white clothes emerging out of the desert mirage. The Jew could not help shouting at the top of his voice, "O you Arabs ! Here is your great man whom you have been waiting for ! " So all the Muslims rushed to their arms and received Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) on the summit of Harra. The Prophet (ﷺ) turned with them to the right and alighted at the quartes of Banî 'Amr bin ' Auf, and this was on Monday in the month of Rabî-ul-Awwal. Abu Bakr stood up, receiving the people while Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) sat down and kept silent. Some of the (supporters) who came and had not seen Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) before, began greeting Bakr, but when the sunshine fell on Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) and Abu Bakr came forward and shaded him with his sheet only then the people came to know Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) stayed ' with Banî 'Amr bin ' Auf for ten nights and established the mosque (mosque of Quba) which was founded on piety. Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) offered (prayer) in it and then mounted his she-camel and proceeded on, accompanied by the people till his she-camel knelt down at (the place of) the mosque of Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) at Al-Madîna. Some Muslims used to offer (prayer) there in those days, and that place was a yard for drying dates belonging to Suhail and Sahl, two orphan boys who were under the guardianship of As'ad bin Zurâra. When his she-camel knelt down, Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) said, "This place, if Allâh will, will be our abiding place." Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) then called the two boys and told them to suggest the price for that yard so that he might take it as a mosque. The two boys said, "No, but we will give it as a gift, O Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ)." Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) refused to accept it as a gift and ultimately purchased it from them. Allâh's Messenger (ﷺ) then built a mosque there. The Prophet (ﷺ) himself started carrying unburnt bricks for its building and while doing so, he was saying: " This load is better than the load of Khaibar, for it is more pious with Allâh, and purer and better rewardable." He was also saying: " O Allah ! The actual reward is the reward in the Hereafter, so bestow Your Mercy on the (supporters) and the Muhajirîn (emigrants)." [5:245-O.B]