In the valley of Qudayd, men of the tribe of Kinānah had gathered. Among them was Surāqah ibn Mālik, a skilled horseman, well-versed in the hidden paths of the desert. A man from Quraysh approached him and said, “Did you not see shadows moving this way? It seemed as though three or four travelers had passed. Could it have been Muhammad ﷺ and his companions?”

Surāqah instantly knew it was they, yet he gestured with his eyes for silence. Then he said aloud, “No, not them. Just some people out searching for a lost camel.” In his heart, however, he had already formed a plan: to capture the Prophet ﷺ in secret, claim the bounty of a hundred camels, and keep the glory for himself.

Later Surāqah himself recounted what happened. “Quietly, I told my servant to lead my horse down to the valley, away from the eyes of the gathering. Then, armed with my spear, I slipped away from the assembly, mounted, and drove the horse at full speed. Soon, I caught sight of their distant figures—Muhammad ﷺ and his companion Abū Bakr.

Before advancing, I consulted the arrows of divination, as was the custom among the Arabs. Three arrows were placed in a quiver—one inscribed ‘yes,’ another ‘no,’ and a third left blank. I drew, and the arrow read: ‘Do not harm them.’ But I brushed it aside, for the promise of a hundred camels spurred me on.

I pressed forward. Their forms grew clearer in the distance. Suddenly my horse’s legs sank deep into the sand, throwing me down. I struggled back to my mount and rode again, ignoring the omen. As I drew near, I could hear the recitation of the Qur’an flowing from the lips of the Prophet ﷺ. Abū Bakr turned and saw me. My horse stumbled once more, this time sinking up to its knees. Fear gripped me. I called out, ‘Take my weapons, take my provisions—I will do you no harm!’

The Prophet ﷺ turned to Abū Bakr and said, ‘Ask him what he wants.’ I confessed: I had come lured by the reward Quraysh had proclaimed, and I revealed to them the plots and councils that had been spoken in Makkah. They neither accepted my weapons nor my provisions. Instead, they asked only one thing—that I conceal their path and mislead those who pursued them.

In that moment, conviction seized me. I felt certain that this man’s faith would prevail, that sovereignty would one day be his. I said, ‘Write for me a pact of protection, so that when your cause triumphs I may have recourse to it.’ The Prophet ﷺ instructed Abū Bakr to write it, and he penned it upon a piece of bone.

As I prepared to depart, the Prophet ﷺ looked at me and said, ‘Surāqah, how will it be when you wear the bracelets of Kisrā, son of Hormuz?’ Astonished, I asked, ‘The bracelets of Kisrā, the king of Persia?’ He replied, ‘Yes.’

I rode back, marveling at his words. From that moment, I turned aside every party of Quraysh that sought his trail, sending them off in other directions. The man who had set out in the morning as a hunter returned by evening as a watchman—bound by awe and a quiet pledge of loyalty.