Meanwhile, Jibreel came to the Prophet with the tidings that Allah had ordered the Prophet to migrate. Jibreel told him the exact time he should depart and informed the Prophet of the plot to assassinate him. “Don’t sleep in the bed you usually sleep in,” he advised the Prophet .

At noon, when everyone was napping, the Prophet went to the house of Abu Bakr Siddeeq and told him the happy news. Quickly, they began to prepare both camels for the long journey. They also hired Abdullah bin Urayqat Laythi to lead them to Yathrib. Abdullah knew the area between Makkah and Yathrib well, and although he was not Muslim, he agreed to escort the Prophet and Abu Bakr secretly. The Prophet told Abdullah to meet them near Mount Thawr in three nights, Meanwhile, the Prophet began to engage himself in day to day activities so that no one would suspect that he was about to leave Makkah.

The Prophet used to go to sleep after the evening prayer, and upon waking up around midnight he would go to the Ka’bah to perform supplementary (Tahajjud) prayers. The night the Prophet was to leave, he asked Ali to sleep in his bed after assuring him that no harm would come to him. When everyone had gone to bed, the assassins surrounded the Prophet’s house.

They saw Ali wrapped in the Prophet’s green mantle, lying in the Prophet’s bed, and thought that he was Muhammad . The plan was for them to lie in wait for the Prophet and fall upon him when he came out of his house. The Quraysh were unaware that just as they were plotting, Allah too was plotting:

“Remember how the unbelievers plotted against you to imprison you, to kill you, or to exile you from Makkah. They plot and plan, but Allah plans too, and the best of planners is Allah.” (8: 30)