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THE VANGUAD OF MIGRATION (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 (Peace be upon him) 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:
1. 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.
2. 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.”
3. 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 h er.” 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 p olytheists
fell upon ‘Ayyash and tied him. They rode on into Makkah shouting at people to follow their example
with respect to ‘fools’
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 (Peace be upon him) himself, and those helpless noble souls who had been detained in
confinement or were unable to escape. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) , together with Abu Bakr
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