'Â'isha (may Allah be pleased with her) says: as far back as I remember, my parents followed this religion.
Not a day passed without the Messenger of Allah ﷺ visiting us, morning and evening.
Then the Muslims were put to the test, and Abû Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) set out for Abyssinia.
At Bark al-Ghimâd he met Ibn ad-Daghina, chief of the Qâra. “Where are you going, Abû Bakr?”
“My people have driven me out. I want to travel the earth and worship my Lord.”
“A man like you does not leave, and is not driven out,” the chief answered.
“You give to the one who has nothing, you keep family ties, you carry the burden of the weak,”
“you honour the guest, and you help when misfortune strikes. I am your protector: go back.”
That evening Ibn ad-Daghina went round the nobles of Quraysh and repeated the same words about him.
Quraysh accepted, on one condition: let him worship his Lord in his house, and not in the open.
“We fear he will turn our women and children,” they said. For a while, Abû Bakr kept to his house.
Then he built a place of prayer in the courtyard of his house. There he prayed and recited the Qur'an.
The women and children of the idolaters crowded around him. They marvelled at him and watched.
Abû Bakr was a man who wept much. When he recited the Qur'an, he could not hold back his tears.
That alarmed the nobles of Quraysh. Through Ibn ad-Daghina, they put a choice to Abû Bakr.
“Keep to your house, or give me back my protection. I won't have the Arabs hear my pact was broken.”
Abû Bakr said: “I give you back your protection, and I am content with the protection of Allah.”
It is told that soon after, a fool of Quraysh threw dust on his head as he walked to the Ka'ba.
Abû Bakr only said, three times: “My Lord, how forbearing You are!”
And whoever relies upon Allah, He is sufficient for him.
Meanwhile, the Prophet ﷺ was still in Mecca. The next chapter tells what he was shown in a dream.
Before the cave, Abû Bakr had already left Mecca once, to worship his Lord somewhere else.
Who turned him back, and why did he give up the shelter he was offered?
He was told: pray at home and you will be safe. He chose to pray in the open, under Allah's protection.
Tonight, recite one passage slowly, alone, the way Abû Bakr recited in his courtyard.