Makkah · a Light

The cave in the Qur'an held two men for three nights

Jabal Thawr rises south of Makkah, higher and harder to climb than Jabal al-Nour. In 622 the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr hid in a cave near its summit for three nights while search parties from Quraysh combed the roads north, and only then set out for Yathrib by a coastal route. The Qur'an refers to the episode directly, describing the second of two when they were in the cave and one said to his companion not to grieve. The familiar detail of a spider's web and nesting doves across the entrance comes from later biographical literature, not from the Qur'an, and hadith scholars have long noted that its chains are weak.

Jabal Thawr, Makkah · 622 CE

Source · Qur'an 9:40