So we equipped them with all haste (1), and prepared (2) provisions for them in a leather bag (3). Asmā’ bint Abī Bakr cut a piece from her waistband and used it (4) to tie the mouth of the bag. For this reason, she was called “the Woman of the Two Waistbands.”
She said:
Then Allah’s Messenger—may Allah bless him and grant him peace—[and Abū Bakr] (5) went to a cave on Mount Thawr and stayed (6) there for three nights. ‘Abdullāh ibn Abī Bakr would spend the night with them. He was a resourceful young man, quick to understand, and would set out (7) from their company before dawn, finding himself among (8) Quraysh in Mecca by morning, as though he had spent the night there. He never heard of any scheme to harm them (9) without committing it to memory, so that he could bring them news of it when darkness fell. ‘Āmir ibn Fuhayrah, Abū Bakr’s freedman, would tend a milk-producing flock) (10) of sheep for them and bring it (11) to them
(1) س, ب: ahabba (‘more beloved’), also a reading in al-Bukhārī. Ibn Hajar said: “Ahaththa is an elative derived from hathth, meaning haste. In Abū Dharr’s recension, the reading is ahabba, with the single-dotted bā’; the first reading is more correct. Al-jihāz (‘equipment’) … means what is needed for travel.”
(2) س, ب: wa-wada‘nā (‘and we placed’).
(3) Ibn Hajar said: “His words wa-sana‘nā lahumā sufratan fī jirāb (‘and we prepared provisions for them both in a leather bag’) mean provisions in a leather bag. The original linguistic meaning of sufra is provisions prepared for a traveller; it subsequently came to denote the container for those provisions.”
(4) ن, م, س: fa-rabatathu (‘so she tied it’).
(5) Wa-Abū Bakr (‘and Abū Bakr’) is omitted in (ن), (م), and (س), but appears in al-Bukhārī.
(6) Al-Bukhārī: fa-kamannā (‘so we hid’).
(7) Ibn Hajar said (Fath al-Bārī, 7/237): “His word thaqif—with a on the three-dotted thā’ and i on the qāf, which may also take a sukūn or a, followed by fā’—means skilful. … His word laqin—with a on the lām and i on the qāf, followed by nūn—means quick to understand. His word fa-yaddaliju—with a doubled dāl, followed by jīm—means that he sets out for Mecca before dawn.”
(8) م: fī (‘in’).
(9) Ibn Hajar said: “That is, harm is intended for the two of them through it; the expression derives from kayd (‘plotting’).”
(10) ن, س: bi-minhatin (‘with milk-producing livestock’); م: li-minhatin (‘for milk-producing livestock’).
(11) 11) ن, م, س: wa-yurbihuhā.