standing before the Prophet ﷺ, shielding his face. Allah then sent a spider, which spun its web between the tree and him, covering the face of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. He also commanded two wild doves, which came fluttering (1) until they settled between the spider’s web and the tree.

Young men of Quraysh—one from every clan—then approached with their staffs, bows, and clubs. When they were about two hundred cubits from the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, the tracker—Suraqah ibn Mālik ibn Juʿshum al-Mudlijī—said: “Here is the stone, but I cannot tell where he placed his foot after this.”

The youths replied, “You have not erred all night—wait until morning.”

He said, “Look inside the cave.” The company hurried ahead, and when they were about fifty cubits from the Prophet ﷺ, they saw the two doves and turned back.

They asked him, “What kept you from checking the cave?”

He answered, “I saw two wild doves at the mouth of the cave and realized no one could be inside.”

The Prophet ﷺ heard this and understood that Allah had warded them off by means of those birds. He invoked blessings upon them (2), and Allah caused them (3) to descend to the Sanctuary, where they laid their eggs—as you can still see.

This ḥadīth is exceedingly rare through this chain. Al-Ḥāfiẓ Abū Nuʿaym (4) transmitted it through Muslim ibn Ibrāhīm and others, from ʿAwn ibn ʿAmr—nicknamed ʿUwayn—with a similar isnād.

The report states that all the doves of Mecca descend from those two birds.

It also identifies the tracker who followed their footprints as Suraqah ibn Mālik al-Mudlijī. Al-Wāqidī, however, related—on the authority of Mūsā ibn Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm, from his father—that the man who traced their trail was Kurz ibn ʿAlqamah.

I say: it is possible that both men followed the tracks; Allah knows best.

Allah the Exalted says:

“If you do not support him—Allah has already supported him—when those who disbelieved drove him out, he being the second of two, when they were in the cave and he said to his companion, ‘Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.’ Then Allah sent down His tranquillity upon him, supported him with forces you did not see, made the word of those who disbelieved the lowest, while the Word of Allah is the highest; and Allah is All-Mighty, All-Wise.” (at-Tawbah 9:40)

Here, the Almighty rebukes those who stayed behind from striving alongside the Messenger: “If you do not support him,” meaning that even if you fail to aid him, Allah will still help, strengthen, and grant him victory—just as He helped him “when those who disbelieved drove him out” of Mecca, fleeing with no companion save his friend Abū Bakr. Thus He says, “the second of two when they were in the cave,” that is, when they had taken refuge there and remained three days until the search abated. The idolaters, once they lost track of them, sought them in every direction and offered a reward of one hundred camels to whoever captured them—both or even one of them. They followed their footprints until the trail became confused, and the man tracing the tracks for Quraysh was Suraqah ibn Mālik ibn