82
Muhammad with a camel named Qaswa; me Prophet insisted o n pa}>ing
for it, since he wished this emigration to belong to him alone, and he
wanted to be debtless when he departed for Yathrib. Similarly, he would
refuse the gift of a patch of land that two o rphans wanted to make him
when he arrived in the city tha t was henceforth to be known variously as
al-Madinah (l\'ledina, meaning "the city',), i\fadinah ar- Rasul (the city of
th e Messenger), or al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (the enlightened city).
Having headed so uth, they went into hiding for a few days in th e
T hawr cave (ghar l oowr). Abu Bakr's son, Abdullah, was to gather intelli-
gence about the Quraysh's intentions and bring it to hi s father and
Muhammad. As fo r Abu Bakr's daughters, A sma and Aishah, they would
prepare food and secretly carry it to the cave at night. Thus Ab u Bakr
mobilized all his children, the girls as well as the boy, to pro tect his and
the Prophet'S escape, despite the serious danger the situation posed for his
d aughters in particular. He constantly showed such an equitable attitude
in his dealings with hi s sons and daughters, in the light of the Prophet's
teachings.
Notwithstanding all those ar rangements., a group of Quraysh men, s us-
pecting a trick, went south to look for the Prophet. They arrived in fro nt
of th e cave and ptepared to cnter. Fro m where he stood, Abu Bakr could
see them, and in alarm he told th e Pro phet that sho uld th e men happen
to look down they could not fail to see th e twO of them. Muhammad teas-
sured him and whispered, " Have no fear, for G od is with Us.,,2 T hen he
added, "What do you think of two [people] whose thitd is God?,,3 T hose
words soothed Abu Bakr. In the front o f the cave, the group noticed that
a spiderweb covered the entrance and also that a d ove had nested th ere:
it seemed obvious that the fugitives could not be hiding in the cave, and
they decided to look fo r them somewhere else.
Once again, in spite of their carefully planned strategy, the Prophet and
his Companion were going through the trial o f vulnerability. Their Jives
had been preserved by nothing but that fragile spiderweb; trust in G od
(al-Iau-'tlwl ala Allah), of which th e Prophet remind ed Abu Bakr at that
particular mo menr, th us took on its full meaning and strength. God alone
had the power to save H is f..lessenger. When Mll-hammad emigrated, he
took care to owe nothing to anyone (he rt:fused gifts, settl ed his debts, and
gave back the deposits he held) , bu t he also knew that he owed everything
to the One, that his ind ebted ness and obligatio n to Him were infinite.