(Tuwa)(1) I would climb one rise reciting the verses and descend another, yet I could not grasp their meaning. At last I prayed, “O Allah, make me understand them.” Allah then cast into my heart the certainty that they had been revealed about us—about the thoughts we kept to ourselves and the talk circulating about us.

He said: I went back to my camel, mounted it, and caught up with the Messenger of Allah ﷺ in Madinah.

Ibn Hishām(2) relates that the man who brought Hishām ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAyyāsh ibn Abī Rabīʿah to Madinah was al-Walīd ibn al-Walīd ibn al-Mughīrah. He smuggled them out of Mecca and travelled with them, letting them ride on his camel while he walked beside them. On the way he stumbled, cutting his finger, and recited:

[rajaz]
You are nothing but a finger that has bled—
Whatever I endure is in the path of Allah.

Al-Bukhārī(3) records: “Abū al-Walīd narrated to us, Shuʿbah narrated to us, Abū Isḥāq informed us that he heard al-Barāʾ say: ‘The first to arrive among us were Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Ibn Umm Maktūm; then ʿAmmār and Bilāl came.’”

Muḥammad ibn Bashʿar also related to me, saying: “Ghundar narrated to us, Shuʿbah narrated to us, from Abū Isḥāq, who said: I heard al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib say, ‘The first to reach us were Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr and Ibn Umm Maktūm; they taught the people the Qur’an. Then came Bilāl, Saʿd, and ʿAmmār ibn Yāsir. After that ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived with twenty men from among the Prophet’s Companions ﷺ, and finally the Prophet ﷺ himself arrived. Never did I see the people of Madinah rejoice over anything as they rejoiced at the coming of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ; even the servant-girls were calling out, ‘The Messenger of Allah has arrived!’ He had not yet reached us before I had learned, “Glorify the Name of your Lord Most High” (al-Aʿlā), along with several of the short sūrahs.’ ”

Muslim likewise transmits the report in his Ṣaḥīḥ(4) through Isrāʾīl, from Abū Isḥāq, from al-Barāʾ ibn ʿĀzib, and it explicitly states that Saʿd ibn Abī Waqqāṣ emigrated before the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reached Madinah. Mūsā ibn ʿUqbah, citing al-Zuhri, claimed that he emigrated afterwards, but the correct view is that already given.

Ibn Isḥāq(5) continues: When ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived in Madinah, he was accompanied by those of his household and clan who had followed him: his brother Zayd ibn al-Khaṭṭāb; ʿAmr and ʿAbd Allah, the two sons of Suraqah ibn al-Muʿtamir; Khunays ibn Ḥudhāfah al-Sahmī, the husband of his daughter Ḥafṣah; his cousin Saʿīd ibn Zayd ibn ʿAmr ibn Nufayl; Wāqid ibn ʿAbd Allah al-Tamīmī, their ally; Khawli ibn Abī Khawli and Mālik ibn Abī Khawli, two allies from Banū ʿIjl; and the sons of al-Bukayr—Iyās, Khālid, ʿĀqil, and ʿĀmir—together with their allies from Banū