Watchers and Provisions

They stayed in the cave for three days. During those three days, ʿAbdullāh, the son of Abū Bakr, would spend the day in Makkah listening to conversations, eavesdropping to see what they were saying about Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr. And then he would go at night and spend it with the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr in the cave, and he would have ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah, the servant of Abū Bakr, follow him with his sheep. This served a double purpose: the sheep would provide milk to the Prophet and Abū Bakr, and the sheep would also cover the tracks of ʿAbdullāh and ʿĀmir, so that no one would know where they went. And this carried on for three days, and then the guide showed up, who was ʿAbdullāh ibn Urayqiṭ. He was a mushrik, a disbeliever, but because he had an alliance with the people of Quraysh, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) hired him to be their guide, so he was the one who would take them through a different route than the usual one that people usually take when they travel from Makkah to Madīnah.