and Allah sent two doves, which thereupon built a nest, drawing a veil over the pursuers’ eyes (1)—a miracle more decisive than turning them back with battalions of men.

When the search party halted right above them and their words reached the ears of the Messenger ﷺ and al-Ṣiddīq, anxiety gripped al-Ṣiddīq and he murmured, “Messenger of Allah, if one of them were simply to look down at his own feet, he would see us beneath them.” The Messenger ﷺ replied, “Abū Bakr, what do you think of two men when Allah is the third with them?” (2)

When the Prophet saw how greatly his grief had grown—though not for himself—he fortified his heart with the glad tiding, “Do not grieve; indeed, Allah is with us” (At-Tawbah 40). The secret of this pairing in the phrase “with us” appeared in word as it did in reality and meaning: people said, “the Messenger of Allah and the Companion of the Messenger of Allah.” When the Prophet passed away they said, “the Caliph of the Messenger of Allah,” and when that caliphal link ended with his death, he was called “Commander of the Believers.” (3)

They stayed in the cave for three days, then emerged, while the tongue of destiny proclaimed, “You shall enter it in a way no one before you has entered, nor will anyone after you be allowed to enter.”

After they had crossed the open plain, Suraqah ibn Mālik caught up with them. As he was about to seize his prize, the Messenger ﷺ unleashed against him an arrow from the quiver of supplication, and the legs of his horse sank into the earth up to its belly (4). Realizing there was no path to them, he took