Surâqa ibn Mâlik (may Allah be pleased with him) told it himself, years later: a chase told by the hunter.
He was of Banû Mudlij, near the road along the sea. He lived at Qudayd.
“Quraysh's envoys came to us,” he says: a reward on two heads, his ﷺ and Abû Bakr's (may Allah be pleased with him).
The price: the blood-money of each, for whoever killed or captured him. A hundred camels, the biographers count.
Surâqa was sitting in a gathering of his people, Banû Mudlij. A man of theirs came and stood over them.
“Surâqa, I have just seen figures on the shore. I think they are Muhammad ﷺ and his companions.”
“I knew it was them,” he says. “But I said: No, you saw so-and-so and so-and-so, who left before our eyes.”
He waited a while in the gathering, then went home. He told his slave-girl to bring his horse out behind a hillock.
He took his spear and left by the back of the house, its butt scraping the ground, the shaft held low.
He mounted and galloped off, hoping to bring him back to Quraysh and take the hundred camels.
He drew near. The horse stumbled and threw him. He got up, reached into his quiver and took out the divining arrows.
The azlâm: arrows one drew to decide. Harm them or not? “The one I disliked came out.”
…and that you seek decision through divining arrows. That is grave disobedience.
The verse that forbids these arrows came later, at 'Arafa. That day, Surâqa drew them, then disobeyed them.
“I remounted and disobeyed the arrows.” The horse brought him close, until he heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ reciting.
He ﷺ was reciting the Qur'an and did not look back. Abû Bakr kept looking back.
Then its forelegs sank into the ground to the knees. He fell, scolded it; it rose, barely pulling its legs free.
When it stood, dust rose from the tracks of its legs, straight into the sky, like smoke.
He drew the arrows once more. Again the one he disliked. Then he called to them, promising safety. They stopped.
He rode up to them. Held back from them again and again, he thought: the cause of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ will prevail.
The Cave of Thawr ended with a rider turning back. This book is his: Surâqa, in his own words.
Who was he, what did he want, and what stopped him?
A gathering, a lie, a horse behind a hillock, two falls, and a thought: this cause will prevail.
Tonight, think of one thing you ran after, and thank Allah for the times He held you back.