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While Muhammad was engaged in these reforms, trying to organize the Muslim
community at Medina and lay down the foundations of a stable and peaceful society
wherein Muslims and non- Muslims could live side by side, the enemies at Mecca
were restless. Their hatred of the Muslims was burning, and their determination to
eliminate Islam was getting stronger and stronger every day. They reviewed their
tactics and as soon as they completed their new plans, they started to implement them.
They decided to make trouble for the Muslims from within and from without.
Plundering and fighting raids were organized to attack Medina and get back to Mecca
with whatever loot they could lay their hands on. The non-Muslims at Medina were
getting increasingly envious of the popularity of Islam and the novel spirit of
brotherhood among the Muslims, something which they themselves did not
experience or particularly like to see experienced. So, the enemies at Mecca hastened
to exploit the situation and stir internal troubles for the Muslims. The response of the
envious non-Muslims of Medina to the instigation of the Meccans was quick and
manifest, and serious troubles were arising all over Medina
Now the Muslims were being constantly threatened from within by the disenchanted
at Medina as well as by the raids organized from Mecca. They were driven to a point
where they could not stand any more persecution and threats. Their families were
separated from them by force. Their properties were confiscated. Their blood was
shed. They were forced to leave their dear hometown in three waves of migration: two
to Abyssinia and one to Medina. They endured for over thirteen years. With the new
tactics of the Meccan enemies there was no course for the Muslims except to await
their final annihilation in a plural massacre or defend themselves against oppression
and persecution
It must have been a paradox. Islam came to assure them of dignity and strength,
freedom and security, and to ally them with God the Supreme Source of goodness and
help, power and peace. Yet here they were helpless and anxious, threatened and
terrified. Islam commissioned them to establish peace, to enjoin the right and forbid
the wrong, to support the oppressed and emancipate the subjugated, and to prove how
reliable and helpful to His servants God is. But how could they do that, if they
themselves were oppressed, subjugated to terror and projected to helplessness?
What perplexed them most of all was that the Qur’ an had been silent on the matter,
and had given them no specific instructions as to what to do. Their perplexity did not
last long, and God relieved their grief by a Divine resolution to solve their problems
and those of any who might find themselves in a similar situation. Here is how God
words His resolution:
Verily God will defend those who believe: Verily God loves not any that is a traitor to
faith or shows ingratitude. To those against whom war is made, permission is given
(to fight), because they are wronged; and verily, God is Most Powerful for their aid;
(they are) those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right, (for no
cause) except that they say: ‘ Our Lord is God’ . Did not God check one set of people
by means of another, there would surely have been pulled down monasteries,
churches, synagogues, and mosques, in which the name of God is commemorated in
abundant measure. God will certainly aid those who aid His (cause); for verily God is
Full of strength, Exalted in Might, (Able to enforce His Will). (They are) those who,
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