without delay. God therefore granted him permission to emigrate to the Prophet-city of Madinah, where the Helpers lived and beloved friends awaited him. The town became his abode and place of rest, and its people became his supporters.
Ahmad ibn Ḥanbal (1) and ʿUthmān ibn Abī Shaybah (2) relate—through Jarīr, Qābūs ibn Abī Ẓabiyān (3), his father, and Ibn ʿAbbās—that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in Mecca when he was commanded to migrate, whereupon the verse was revealed to him:
“Say: ‘My Lord, cause me to enter with a true entrance and to leave with a true exit, and grant me from Yourself a supporting authority’” (al-Isrāʾ 17:80).
Qatādah explained: “‘Cause me to enter with a true entrance’—Madinah; ‘and cause me to exit with a true exit’—the emigration from Mecca; ‘and grant me from Yourself a supporting authority’—the Book of Allah, with its obligations and legal limits.”
Ibn Isḥāq (4) says: “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ remained in Mecca after his Emigrant Companions had departed, awaiting permission to leave. None stayed behind with him except those who were detained or subjected to persecution—apart from ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib and Abū Bakr ibn Abī Quḥāfah (may Allah be pleased with them). Abū Bakr repeatedly sought the Prophet’s leave to emigrate, but he would tell him:
‘Do not be hasty; perhaps Allah will grant you a companion.’
Abū Bakr then hoped that he would be that companion.
When Quraysh saw that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ now had followers and allies in a land not their own, and witnessed his Companions leaving Mecca for them, realizing that they had secured a home and found strength there, they feared that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ would join them and knew that he was resolved to fight them. They therefore gathered in Dār al-Nadwah—the house of Quṣayy ibn Kilāb, where Quraysh would decide no matter except within it—to consult about what to do concerning the Messenger of Allah ﷺ now that they feared him.
Ibn Isḥāq (4) continues: “A trustworthy man among our companions told me, quoting ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Najīḥ, from Mujāhid ibn Jabr (5) and others whom I trust, from ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās:
When they assembled for this purpose and agreed to meet in Dār al-Nadwah to deliberate over the affair of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, they arrived early on the appointed day—a day that was called Yawm al-Zaḥmah (‘the Day of Crowding’). Iblīs—may Allah curse him—intercepted them in the guise of a venerable old man wrapped in a striped cloak and stood at the door of the house. When they saw him…"