Quraysh Plot to Assassinate the Prophet

As Muslims began leaving Mecca for Yathrib after the Second Pledge of Aqabah, the Quraysh convened an emergency council at Dar al-Nadwa to determine a final solution before the Prophet ﷺ could escape their reach permanently. They considered imprisonment and banishment before settling on Abu Jahl's proposal: select one young man from each Qurayshi clan to strike simultaneously — distributing the blood obligation across all clans so that Banu Hashim would face the united Quraysh and be forced to accept blood money rather than retaliation. The Prophet ﷺ was informed through revelation and went to Abu Bakr's house at midday — an unusual hour that told Abu Bakr everything. He had been preparing camels for months on the Prophet's ﷺ instructions. The Prophet ﷺ asked Ali to sleep in his bed wrapped in his green cloak, to deceive the watchers surrounding the house. Ali agreed. That night the assassins gathered outside, waiting for dawn. The Prophet ﷺ walked out past them, reciting the opening of Surah Ya-Sin — 'And We have covered them so that they do not see' (36:9) — and sprinkled a handful of dust. Not one of the gathered men saw him. At dawn they rushed in and found Ali. The Prophet ﷺ was already gone. The Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr hid for three nights in the cave of Thawr — south of Mecca, in the opposite direction from Yathrib, to confuse pursuit. The Quraysh launched a hundred-camel reward and search parties in every direction. One party reached the cave entrance; Abu Bakr whispered in fear. The Prophet ﷺ said: 'Do not grieve — Allah is with us' (9:40). The searchers saw an unbroken spider web across the entrance and a nesting dove at its base and concluded no one had entered. After three nights they departed with the guide Abd Allah ibn Urayqit on a coastal route away from the direct road. The plot had failed at every stage: the assassination foiled by revelation, the search foiled by a spider web, the pursuit by a tracker named Suraqa foiled when his horse fell three times and he read it as a sign. The Prophet ﷺ reached Yathrib as a free man.