Abū Bakr and the Prayer-Place in His Courtyard

Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him) did not make hijrah to Abyssinia, but he was suffering in Makkah, so he requested permission from the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) to allow him to migrate. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) gave him permission. Abū Bakr left, he left Makkah, and he reached Barak al-Ghimād, in Yemen, and then he met with Ibn al-Dughunnah, the chief of al-Aḥābīsh — a tribe that used to live close to Makkah. He met with him, and Ibn al-Dughunnah told him, "Abū Bakr, where are you heading towards?" Abū Bakr said, "My people have offended me, treated me badly, and forced me to leave." Ibn al-Dughunnah said, "Such a person like you is an asset to his people — you are not a person to leave, and you are not a person to be driven out of your land. Why? Because you aid those in distress, and you are kind towards the needy." And then he said, "Go back, you are under my protection." And he took him to Makkah, and he went in front of the people of Makkah and said, "Abū Bakr is under my protection — how can you drive out such a person from your land? He's an asset for you." You drive out a person like Abū Bakr, he said — he's under my protection.

The people of Quraysh, they came to Ibn al-Dughunnah and they said, "Well, we accept your protection, but we aren't going to allow Abū Bakr to worship publicly, so please make sure that he doesn't." Ibn al-Dughunnah came to Abū Bakr and said, "Your people don't want you to offend them, so don't worship publicly." Previously, what Abū Bakr would do — because he would pray outside in front of the people, and ʿĀʾishah said, "My father used to be a man with a very soft heart, and when he would recite the verses of the Qur'an, he would cry." So all of the children and women and men would be attracted around Abū Bakr, watching him, and this turned the people of Quraysh crazy, and they felt that this will be a fitnah for their people, seeing this khushūʿ in Abū Bakr. So Ibn al-Dughunnah told Abū Bakr to worship privately, and Abū Bakr agreed.

For a while, Abū Bakr was praying in the privacy of his home, and then he had an idea. He decided to make a muṣallā in the finā' of his house. Finā' is an open area of the house — usually, in some styles of Islamic architecture, the house would be built in a square, and in the middle it is empty; so that would be the finā'. It could mean like a backyard or something, a place that is open, but it's part of the house. Abū Bakr took his finā' to be a muṣallā. So even though it was inside his house, people could see it from outside. So now the same problem happened again — all of the people would gather, and it would be crowds outside the house of Abū Bakr, watching him pray. They were amazed by the khushūʿ that Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq had. And the people of Quraysh were furious. They went to Ibn al-Dughunnah, and they said, "We told you we don't want him to worship publicly." So Ibn al-Dughunnah went to Abū Bakr and spoke to him about it. Abū Bakr said, "I'll give you your protection back — I don't need it. I'll be in the protection of Allah." And he did give up the protection of Ibn al-Dughunnah.