Muhammad a Prophet For all Humanity
12. Emigration—From Makkah to Madinah
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This is clear from a perusal of the actual historical
version of what happened.
As the historian Ibn Kathir has pointed out, the
most reliable account of events is that given by
Imam Ahmad on the authority of ‘Abdullah ibn
‘Abbas. This is how the account goes:
They (the Quraysh) followed close on the
heels of the Prophet, but when they reached
the mountain, they lost trace of him. They
then climbed the mountain, and passed by a
cave. Noting a spider’s web on the mouth of
the cave, they said to one another, “If he had
entered this cave, the spider’s web would not
have remained intact.”
1
It is not explicitly stated that the cave they saw was
the cave of Thawr. Even if we accept that it was,
then all that is clear from this account is that they
saw a spider’s web in the mouth of a cave. There is
no mention of God commanding a spider to weave
a web after the entry of the Prophet, or of His
making a dove lay its egg on top of the web. Such
additions are fanciful, and are the result of wishful
thinking.
