(in the Cause of Allâh)
After the endorsement of the Second ‘Aqabah
Pledge and the establishment of a petite Muslim state in a vast desert surging with
disbelief and ignorance — the most serious gain in terms of Islam —, the Prophet
[pbuh] gave his leave for the Muslims to migrate to Madinah, the nascent Muslim state.
Migration to Madinah, in terms of personal
interests, was no more than material waste and sacrifice of wealth, all in return for
personal safety only. Even here, the migrant could not expect full security; he was liable
to be robbed or even killed either at the beginning or end of his departure. The future
was foggy, pregnant with various unpredictable sorts of sorrows and crises.
Bearing all this in mind, the Muslims began to
migrate, while the polytheists spared no effort in hindering and debarring them, knowing
beforehand that such a move implied unimaginable threats and unthinkable destructive
dangers to their whole society:
- The first one to migrate was Abu Salamah, a year before the Great
‘Aqabah Pledge. When he had made up his mind to leave Makkah, his in-laws, in a
desperate attempt to raise obstacles, detained his wife and snatched his son and
dislocated his hand. Umm Salamah, after the departure of her husband and the loss of her
son spent a year by herself weeping and lamenting. A relative of hers eventually had pity
on her and exhorted the others to release her son and let her join her husband. She then
set out on a journey of 500 kilometres with no help whatsoever. At a spot called
At-Tan‘im, ‘Uthman bin Talhah came across her and offered to give her a ride to
Madinah. She, along with her son, joined Abu Salamah in the village of Quba’, a
suburb of Madinah. [Ibn Hisham 1/468]
- Another instance of the atrocities of the polytheist
Makkans, as
regards migration, is Suhaib. This man expressed his wish to migrate and of course this
was a source of indignation to the disbelievers. They began to insult him claiming that he
had come into Makkah as a worthless tramp, but their town was gracious enough and thanks
to them he managed to make a lot of money and become wealthy. They gave orders that he
would not leave. Seeing this, he offered to give away all his wealth to them. They
eventually agreed to release him on that condition. The Prophet heard this story and
commented on it saying:
"Suhaib is the winner, after all." [Ibn Hisham 1/477]
- Then, there was the story of ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab, ‘Ayyash
bin Abi Rabi‘a and Hisham bin Al-‘Asi, who agreed to meet at a certain place one
morning in order to leave for Madinah; ‘Umar and ‘Ayyash came but Hisham was
detained by the Makkans.
Shortly afterwards Abu Jahl, and his brother
Al-Harith came to Madinah to see their third brother ‘Ayyash. They cunningly tried to
touch the most sensitive area in man, i.e. his relation with his mother. They addressed
him claiming that his mother had sworn she would never comb her hair, nor shade herself
off the sun unless she had seen him. ‘Ayyash took pity on his mother, but ‘Umar
was intelligent enough to understand that they wanted to entice ‘Ayyash away from
Islam so he cautioned him against their tricks, and added "your mother would comb her
hair if lice pestered her, and would shade herself off if the sun of Makkah got too hot
for her." These words notwithstanding, ‘Ayyash was determined to go and see his
mother, so ‘Umar gave him his manageable docile camel advising him to stick to its
back because it would provide rescue for him if he perceived anything suspicious on their
part. The party of three then set forth towards Makkah. As soon as they covered part of
the distance, Abu Jahl complained about his camel and requested ‘Ayyash to allow him
to ride behind him on his camel. When they knelt down to the level of the ground, the two
polytheists fell upon ‘Ayyash and tied him. They rode on into Makkah shouting at
people to follow their example with respect to ‘fools’. [Ibn
Hisham 1/474; Bukhari 1/558]
These are just three self-explanatory models of the
Makkans’ reaction towards anyone intending to migrate. Nevertheless, the believers
still managed to escape in successive groups and so rapidly that within two months of the
Second ‘Aqabah Pledge, entire quarters of Makkah were deserted. Almost all the
followers of Muhammad had migrated to their new abode, except Abu Bakr, ‘Ali, the
Prophet [pbuh] himself, and those helpless noble souls who had been detained in
confinement or were unable to escape. The Prophet [pbuh], together with Abu Bakr and
‘Ali, had made all the necessary preparations for migration but was waiting for leave
from his Lord. [Za'd Al-Ma'ad 2/52]
It is noteworthy that most of the Muslims who had
migrated to Abyssinia (Ethiopia), came back to Madinah to join the rest of the Muslims
there.
The situation was no doubt critical in Makkah but
Muhammad [pbuh] was not at all perturbed. Abu Bakr was, however, urging the Prophet to
depart from that town. He was also eagerly waiting for an opportunity to accompany
Muhammad [pbuh] on this eventful journey. But the Prophet told him that the time had not
yet come; the Lord had not given him the command to migrate. In anticipation of the
Command of Allâh, Abu Bakr had made preparations for the journey. He had purchased two
swift camels and had fed them properly for four months so that they could successively
stand the ordeals of the long desert journey. [Bukhari 1/553]
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