THE PURSUIT of PROPHET MUHAMMAD PBUH AND HIS COMPANIONS

Quraishian unbelievers had sent news to the tribes around to capture Prophet Muhammad(SAW) and Abu Bakr As Siddiq as they knew that they were

trying to reach Madinah(a city in arabia)

They announced to the people that whomever captured the Messenger of God and  Abu

Bakr and brought to them, they would give 100 camels for each person captured.

Sons of Mudlic, was a tribe living around the coast lines of Mecca. Just as any

tribe, they had a messenger stating these news to them , but they had ignored

these news.

Suraka, son of Jushum, was a member of those tribes. Having finished his daily

tasks, He was lying on the floor relaxing on that day. However, there was no

relaxation for him on that day! A horseman coming from Quraish, approached him

in a terrible state and stopped infront of Suraka:

-Hi Suraka!..I have seen some shadows of travellers walking towards the coast

in front me..I think these are Muhammad and his companion!..

Suraka, realised the situation immediately that they were the Prophet and his

companion…But He did not want to say this to the Quraishian person. Because,

it was not a good idea to share the reward(two hundred camels) with somebody

else.

-The shadows you saw are not Muhammad and his companion!…You must have seen

Abu Fadl and his friends. They have passed by here and gone…He said.

Quraishian person did not like this answer! He wrinkled his face..He touched his horse and went back without giving any answer to Suraka.

Suraka, went back to home after glancing at the sky. He did not want his

friends to know what he was doing.

He turned towards his jariyah(female servant) who was sitting on the corner:

-Take my horse and go behind the hill..Wait for me there!.Be careful, do not

let anybody see you!..

Jariyah went out quickly.. Suraka killed a bit of time..He took his shimmering

spear and went out of the house from the back door and walked behind the hill.

He was holding the spear parallel to the floor so that shine from the spear

would not distract any body’s attention. He came near his horse and got on it

quickly and said to his jariyah:

-You go home now and don’t mention this to anyone !…

When Jariyah was making his way to home, He started to journey towards the

coast..his horse was very fast. He was riding so fast. Red coloured Arabian

horse was nearly flying..

In the end, He saw them…Camels were not as fast as a horse.

Suraka gave a little bit more effort..

A cracking sound coming with the wind drew attention of Abu Bakr, He saw the

man approaching to them fastly:

-May my father be sacrificed for you Oh Messenger of Allah! (this phrase is used

to indicate an intense love or compassion to someone in muslim communities).A

horse is approaching to us fastly!

Messenger of Allah turned his head :

-Oh my Lord(Rabb), make this person, pursuiting us, fall!..

Foot of the Suraka’s horse tumbled and they both fell on the floor…Suraka was

lying on the sand!.

However, he got up very quickly! He stopped for a moment…

He decided to look at his fortune!..

It was a wide spread tradition to look at fortune!…

When they will do something, they would take the leather case out , which they

would carry with them, then select the one arrow bit randomly(without looking)

amongst the two arrow bits inside the leather case.

On one of them, it was “Neam: Yes” written and on another of them, it was “La: No” written. Whichever comes to their hand they would act accordingly. This was one of the weird traditions in that period.

Suraka put his hand under his belt, and took the leather fortune bag, and took

out an arrow randomly…

In the mean time he was thinking:

-I wonder If I will be able to damage Muhammad and his companion?

it was written on the arrow:

-La: No!…

Suraka did not like this at all,

He jumped on his horse …

He could not decide.

He stopped for a moment and hit his horse.

-Yeeahh!

Red horse had started to pursuit them again…

Although they had been away, Suraka was approaching again.

He came so near that,

He started to hear the

Messenger of Allah reciting something…

Abu Bakr was looking at him by turning his head back very often although the

Messenger of Allah was not even looking back at him.

Something must have happened…

Yes it had happened. A miracle had happened!..

Front legs of Suraka’s horse had started to sink in to sand!…

It kept sinking increasingly!…

Front legs of the red Arabian horse had sunk in to the sand to the level of  it’s knee caps…

Suraka could not hold himself anymore and fell on the ground..

He got up immediately and tried to save the horse …

On one hand he was trying to save the animal, on the other hand the animal was trying to save it’s self,

but the effort was not giving any result.

What sort of wisdom was hidden in that!..

After he took his hands away from the horse, animal tried once more and it was released.

A smoke of flame appeared from where the legs of the animal had sunk and it rose to the sky and

disappeared.  

Suraka was in stress again.

He put his hand in to his fortune bag second time and asked the same question:

- I wonder If I will be able to damage Muhammad and his companion?

same answer was written on the arrow:

-La: No!…

He was already stressed and now the answer was repeating again.

He lost his motivation…

He said by shouting

“-Oh Muhammad!..Oh Muhammad!…I surrender!.. Stop!…”

Messenger of Allah heard his words and stopped his camel.

Suraka got on his horse and came near them.

-I am Suraka, son of Jushum and Maliq.

You can be sure that nothing evil will come to you from me now and after!…

No matter how something you disliked about me had happened before…”

He mentioned the reward that Quraishians had put on them and what they wanted

to do to them:

-you will see a flock on your way.

They are my flocks…

Take this arrow as well, this is my sign…

Take as much as you can from my animals…

-No Suraka, We don’t need anything Suraka!..

-so, please give me a written statement stating I am under your protection!

Suraka said.

Messenger of Allah turned to Ameer and ordered that a document would be written

for Suraka.. He wrote it on a piece of leather and passed it to Suraka.

After that, Messenger of Allah:

-Ya Suraka! Do not mention to anybody that you have seen us. Hide it!..said to

Suraka.

They then started to travel on their way.

Suraka went back and run in to his friends coming towards him.

He asked:

Where are you going with full of arms ?

-We are going to find Muhammad and his companions.. Where are you coming

from?..

“-Do not tire your selves…

I have scanned all areas where my eyes could reach but there was nothing!

-They don’t even have a trace. Lets have a look at somewhere else…”

Suraka became a muslim during the war of Taif and lived in Madinah until the

period of 3rd khalif , Hadrat Uthman.

Translated by Barbaros Sert from the book “Hz. Abu Bakr” written by Ahmed Hulusi