a flock of sheep.

I said, “Lad, whose servant are you?” He answered, “I belong to a man of Quraysh,” and he named him, so I recognized him.

I asked, “Do any of your sheep give milk?”
He replied, “Yes.”
I said, “Will you milk one for us?”
“Certainly,” he said.

I told him to seize a ewe, and he did so. Then I instructed him to wipe the dust from its udder, and he did; after that I told him to dust off his own hands. I was carrying a water-skin whose mouth was tied with a cloth. He milked for me a generous draught, and I poured water over the bowl until its base was cool. I then brought it to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and found that he was awake.

I said, “Drink, O Messenger of Allah,” and he drank until I was satisfied. I then asked, “Is it time to depart?” So we set out while the people were still pursuing us. No one caught up with us except Suraqah ibn Mālik ibn Juʿshum on his horse.

I said, “O Messenger of Allah, the pursuer has overtaken us!” He said, “Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us.” When Suraqah drew nearer—only the length of a spear or two (or, he said, two or three spears) separated us—I repeated, “O Messenger of Allah, the pursuer has caught up with us,” and I wept.

He asked, “Why are you weeping?” I said, “By Allah, I do not weep for myself; I weep for you.” The Messenger of Allah ﷺ then supplicated against him: “O Allah, repel him from us by whatever means You will.” The legs of Suraqah’s horse sank into the hard ground up to its belly. He dismounted and cried, “O Muḥammad, I know this is your doing! Pray to Allah to rescue me, and, by Allah, I will mislead anyone behind me who is searching for you. Here is my quiver—take from it one of my arrows. You will pass by my camels and sheep at such-and-such a place; take from them whatever you need.”

The Messenger of Allah ﷺ replied, “I have no need of them,” but he prayed for Suraqah, whereupon the horse was released and Suraqah returned to his companions. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ continued on, and I was with him, until we reached Madinah. The people came out to welcome him, lining the roads and the rooftops, while the servants and children hurried along the path shouting, “Allāhu akbar! The Messenger of Allah has arrived! Muḥammad has arrived!”

They began to dispute over who would host him. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said, “Tonight I shall stay with the Banū al-Najjār, the maternal relatives of ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib, in order to honor them.” The next morning he went to the place he had been commanded.

Al-Barāʾ said: The first of the Emigrants to reach us was Musʿab ibn ʿUmayr of the Banū ʿAbd al-Dār. Next came Ibn Umm Maktūm, the blind man of Banū Fihr. Then ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb arrived with twenty riders. We asked, “What of the Messenger of Allah?” He replied, “He is right behind me.” Shortly thereafter the Messenger of Allah ﷺ arrived, and Abū Bakr was with him.

Al-Barāʾ added, “The Messenger of Allah ﷺ did not arrive until I had memorized several sūrahs from the Mufaṣṣal.”

Both al-Bukhārī and Muslim include this report in their Ṣaḥīḥ collections from the narration of Isrāʾīl, though only Muslim records al-Barāʾ’s words beginning with, “The first of the Emigrants…,” which he transmits through a separate chain from Isrāʾīl.