When the companions of the Prophet (peace be upon him) immigrated to Madinah, they generally took their wives and families with them. However the Prophet and Abu Bakr could not do so because they had to escape from Makkah. When the Quraysh realized that they had managed to leave, foiling an assassination attempt on the Prophet, they pursued them everywhere in the desert, putting a very tempting prize on the Prophet’s head. So what happened to those families, and how did they manage to immigrate?
Aishah, the Prophet’s wife, reports: “When the Prophet immigrated to Madinah, we and his daughters were left behind. When he settled there, he sent Zayd ibn Harithah and Abu Rafi’, Abu Bakr’s servant, giving them two camels and 500 dirhams, which he took from Abu Bakr so that they could buy the mounts they needed. Abu Bakr sent with them Abdullah ibn Urayqit, the guide who helped him and the Prophet on their trip to Madinah, giving him two or three camels. Abu Bakr wrote to his son Abdullah instructing him to send my mother, my sister Asma’ and myself with them.
“When they arrived at Qudayd, a valley on the way, Zayd bought with the money he had 3 more camels. They came into Makkah, and there they met Talhah ibn Ubaydellah who also wanted to immigrate. We went out all together. Zayd and Abu Rafi’ accompanied Fatimah, Umm Kulthoom and Sawdah, while Zayd also took with him Umm Ayman, his wife and their son Usamah. When we were into the desert, my camel broke loose. I was placed with my mother on an uncovered howdah. My mother cried out: Oh my girl! Oh the bride! But then our camel stopped as it reached a parting of the ways. Thus we were safe. When we arrived in Madinah, I stayed with my family, while the Prophet’s family was with him. The Prophet was in the process of building the mosque and some rooms around the mosque.”
Thus was the immigration of the wives and daughters of the Prophet and of Abu Bakr. However, one of the Prophet’s daughters, Zaynab, remained in Makkah. She was married to Abu Al-Aas ibn Al-Rabie’ who was not a Muslim at the time. Some 18 months later, the Battle of Badr took place between the Muslims and the unbelievers. Abu Al-Aas was in the unbelievers’ army and he was taken prisoner. He was released without ransom. As he was about to depart Madinah, the Prophet said to him something in private, which later events indicated to be a request to let Zaynab travel to Madinah, as she could not stay with her husband, because he chose not to become a Muslim. Abu Al-Aas agreed and he told his wife that she was to join her father, the Prophet.
As Zaynab was going about preparing for her journey Hind bint Utbah, Abu Sufyan’s wife, met her once by chance and asked her whether she was getting ready to go to Madinah. Zaynab denied that for fear that Hind would do something to stop her from going. After all, Hind’s father, brother and uncle were all killed in the Battle of Badr. Hind, however, persisted and offered to help Zaynab get ready for her journey, which would take many days. She said to her: “If you need anything that I have which would make your journey easier, do not hesitate to ask it of me, because we women have our own relationship, which is different from that of men.” Zaynab later said that she believed Hind was sincere in her offer; nevertheless she feared to make her true intention known to her and continued to get ready without anyone’s help.
When Zaynab was ready for her journey, her brother-in-law Kinanah brought her a camel to ride and, having armed himself with his bow and a bag full of arrows, he went out with her, leading her camel, in broad daylight. There was some whispering among the Quraysh about Zaynab’s traveling to Madinah and a group of men from the Quraysh chased her until they caught up with her in a place called Dhu Tuwa. The first to catch up with her was called Habbar ibn Al-Aswad; he threw his spear at her in her howdah. It is said that at the time Zaynab was in the early stages of pregnancy and that the shock caused a miscarriage. It is also said that Habbar frightened the camel and Zaynab fell on a rock and that her miscarriage was caused by that fall. She continued to bleed intermittently until she died some years later in Madinah.
When her escort Kinanah realized that the men were intent on forcing Zaynab to go back, he put his arrows in front of him and held his bow ready to strike. They retreated a little when he said: “By God, anyone who draws near shall have one of these arrows in his body.”
Abu Sufyan, now the most important personality in the Quraysh, also came over with a few of the Quraysh notables. He said to Kinanah: “Hold back your arrows, man, until we have spoken to you.’ Kinanah did so and Abu Sufyan came over to him and said quietly: “You have certainly been unwise in taking the lady out in broad daylight, while you are fully aware of the catastrophe that has befallen us at the hands of Muhammad and his followers. Should you take his daughter to him from among us in such an open way, people would say that we are so humiliated that we were unable to stop her. Many tribes would think that we are very weak and cowardly. We certainly have no desire to prevent her joining her father. We do not see that we could get any revenge on him by stopping her. I would counsel you to go back with her now and stay back in Makkah until the incident is forgotten. Once it is known that we have caused her to return, you may, if you wish, take her out quietly and resume your journey.”
Kinanah felt that that was sound advice, so he went back with Zaynab and she came to no harm. A few days later, when the storm over the incident had subsided, Kinanah took Zaynab out quietly, under cover of darkness. Nobody intercepted them before they reached Yajaj, where they met Zayd ibn Harithah and his companion, who escorted Zaynab the rest of the way to Madinah.
