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Chapter
5:
The Flight to Madinah:
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Contents: |
Council of the Quraish
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In the Cave of Thaur
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Leaving for Madinah
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Pursued by Suraqah
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Consoling Revelation
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The New Era |
Brotherhood |
A Pact between Various Tribes
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"If you help him not,
Allah certainly helped him when those who disbelieved
expelled him - he being the second of the two; when they
were both in the cave, when he said to his companion:
‘Grieve not, surely Allah is with us’ "
(9:40).
Council of the
Quraish:
The fourteenth year of the
Call set in, and the Holy Prophet, with Abu Bakr and
‘Ali for his only companions, was left in Makkah
surrounded by his enemies. All the rest of his comrades,
bidding farewell to their homes, had taken shelter either in
Abyssinia or Madinah. But the moment of the Prophet's utter
helplessness was yet to come. Abu Bakr would often ask him
to emigrate to Madinah; but God, he replied, had not yet
commanded him to do so. In this too there was at work a
Divine purpose which was made manifest by the final decision
of the Quraish. Up until then, individual efforts to make
away with him had been made, and all had failed. Bitter
opposition had been offered and severe persecution
inflicted. But the last drop was yet needed to fill the cup
of the Makkan's crimes to the brim. At last the hour came.
Finding the Holy Prophet almost alone, they held a big
conference in the Dar al-Nadwah (House of Assembly),
where national affairs were discussed and settled. The
chiefs of the Quraish met there to deliberate on what might
be done with the Holy Prophet. Some thought he should be
fettered, thrown into a cellar, and starved to death. But
this was open to the objection that his companions, gaining
strength, might find an occasion to effect his release.
Another proposed that he should be exiled. But it was
apprehended that wherever he might be sent, he might win
over the people there with his impressive teachings and
might some day overcome the Quraish. Abu Jahl at length came
forward with the proposal that strong and stout youths of
noble lineage should be selected, one from each of the
Quraishite clans and armed with sharp swords, they should
fall upon the Holy Prophet in a body. Thus, no particular
clan would be held accountable for his murder. The Banu
Hashim would therefore have to content themselves with
blood-money instead of vengeance. This was unanimously
agreed upon.
In the Cave of
Thaur:
While the Quraish were thus
maturing their plans, Divine revelation informed the Holy
Prophet of their foul intent, warning him not to remain in
his bed that night. Sending for ‘Ali, he informed him
of the Divine command, and told him to sleep in his (the
Holy Prophet's) bed; for he himself had charge of many a
trust which ‘Ali should duly make over to the
respective owners the following morning, and then follow him
to Madinah. What a tribute to his integrity that,
notwithstanding such strong opposition public trusts were
still placed in his charge! And for this express purpose he
commissioned ‘Ali to stay behind, whereas Abu Bakr was
told to make the necessary preparation for flight; for the
Divine behest had been received. Abu Bakr eagerly enquired
if he might accompany the Holy Prophet and, on being told
that he should, he burst into tears of joy. Why such intense
pleasure at the prospect of hardships and troubles? Only
because he would. be in the company of him for whom he was
prepared to sacrifice his all. Abu Bakr had already arranged
for two camels in anticipation of this hour. All other
necessaries being forthwith provided, a meeting place was
arranged between him and the Holy Prophet. Just after dusk,
the body of armed men drawn from among the Quraishite tribes
laid siege to the Holy Prophet's house, ready to fall upon
him as soon as he ventured out. (It was against the Arab
sense of chivalry to kill any one within the four walls of
his house.) ‘Ali, however, was lying in, the Holy
Prophet's bed and this gave the Quraish the impression that
the Holy Prophet was there and fostered the belief that
their intended victim was in their hands. Meanwhile, the
Holy Prophet, trusting in the protecting hand of Allah who
had all these thirteen years preserved him in the midst of
his enemies, waited for darkness and then calmly walked out
through the midst of his would-be assassins and went to Abu
Bakr's house as prearranged. Together they set out for
Madinah and reached a certain cave known as the Cave of
Thaur, three miles from Makkah. Abu Bakr went in first,
cleaned it and closed the holes that he could feel in the
dark cave. Then the Holy Prophet followed.
The names of two caves figure
prominently in the history of Islam. It was in the Cave of
Hira' that the Divine Call first came to the Holy Prophet.
Now it was in the Cave of Thaur that Islam was taking a new
birth. The Flight is a red-letter day in the annals of
Islam, so much so that the Muslim calendar begins from that
time.
Next morning, at daybreak, the Quraish
were amazed to find ‘Ali rising from the Holy Prophet's
bed. Careful search was made on all sides and large rewards
were offered. A tracking party, following the footprints of
the fugitives, reached the mouth of the Cave. Hearing the
sound of their footsteps, Abu Bakr grieved within himself,
not on his own account but for one whose life was dearer to
him than his own. It was indeed a critical moment. The sword
of the blood-thirsty enemy was almost at their throats. A
glance into the Cave and the inmates would be cut to pieces.
In such a situation the bravest heart might sink, the
calmest mind might be dismayed. Death was staring them in
the face and there was no way to escape, nor any earthly
protection. Yet, even in this extreme hour of uttermost
helplessness the Holy Prophet's heart was at perfect peace
and knew no fear. With supreme and matchless faith and
perfect trust in the protecting arm of God, the All-Mighty,
the All-Protecting, he quieted the anxiety and fears of his
friend, with the words: "Be not grieved, for surely Allah is
with us." Surely this could not have been a voice from
within. For the heart of a mortal human being, as the Holy
Prophet was, could not have remained so unperturbed in
circumstances so imminently perilous. It was not a voice
from within, but the voice from above, from Allah, the Lord
of all, came to console and compose a heart afflicted for
His sake. And who but the All-Knowing God could tell that,
on the very point of succeeding in their foul designs, the
enemy would be frustrated.
Leaving for
Madinah:
For three whole days the Holy
Prophet remained in the Cave. Abu Bakr's son brought them
news of all that went on in the town and his daughter,
Asma', would bring them food. His servant, ‘Amir ibn
Fuhairah, while tending his goats, would drive them up to
the mouth of the Cave and milk them for its inmates. At
last, when the search was over, and all was clear, on the
fourth day they emerged. They took one ‘Abd Allah ibn
Uraiqit, a non-Muslim, as their guide. ‘Amir mounted
behind Abu Bakr. When on the way the heat grew scorching
they halted to rest. Abu Bakr, cleaning the ground in the
shade of a rock, spread his mantle for the Holy Prophet to
lie upon, and himself went off in search of food. Coming
across a Bedouin tending his goats, he cleaned the teats of
a goat, milked her in a clean pot and then, covering it with
a piece of cloth, brought it to the Holy Prophet. The Holy
Prophet's companions knew how he loved
cleanliness.
Pursued by
Suraqah:
The Quraish had announced that
whosoever should apprehend the Holy Prophet should have a
hundred camels as reward. Among those that were on the
lookout for him, in order to win the reward, there was one
Suraqah ibn Malik by name. Hearing that three mounted
persons had been seen on the way to Madinah, Suraqah, a
strongly built man, put on his armour, mounted a swift horse
and went in pursuit of them. On the way the horse stumbled
and he fell to the ground. On drawing lots to find out
whether he should continue the chase or not, as the Arabs
usually did in such circumstances, he found the omens
unpropitious. Disregarding them, he resumed the chase but
the same stumbling and the same forbidden omen recurred.
Again he jumped into the saddle and galloped on till he came
quite close to the Holy Prophet, and was about to shoot an
arrow at him when the horse stumbled once more, its feet
this time sinking into deep sand. "Then it transpired to
me," as Suraqah is reported to have recounted the incident
later, "that it was preordained that the Holy Prophet's
cause should triumph." Abandoning the intention of murder,
he came to the Holy Prophet with a penitent heart, begged
his forgiveness, asking not to be punished for his offence
when the Prophet came to power. The Holy Prophet gave him in
writing the promise asked for [Pen and ink were always
kept at hand in order to write down Divine revelation as
soon as it was received.]. He also gave Suraqah the
happy news that the time would come when he would be wearing
the gold bangles of the ruler of Persia. This was a
wonderful vision of an event that was to come about sixteen
years later - an event far beyond the imaginative faculty of
man, especially of one fleeing for his very life. In this
state of helplessness, with his life hanging in the balance,
the Holy Prophet received the happy news that the kingdom of
the Chosroes of Persia would come into his possession. The
words then uttered found fulfilment during the caliphate of
'Umar when, at the fall of Mada’in, the capital of
Persia, Suraqah was sent for and decorated with the bangles
of the Chosroes.
Consoling
Revelation:
The marvellous steadfastness
of the Holy Prophet in the midst of overwhelming perils was
due to Divine revelation that visited him at intervals and
confirmed his faith. "He who has made the Quran binding on
thee will surely bring thee back to the Place of Return (The
Quran, 28:85)",
was another consolation which
he received in the course of his flight to Madinah. In fact,
the emigration was to him nothing unexpected. He had been
informed long before that he would have to leave Makkah and
that the rise of Islam was to start from some other centre.
The Holy Quran abounds in prophecies to this effect. Just at
the time when the storm of opposition was at its highest and
the helplessness of the Holy Prophet at its uttermost, it
was proclaimed that Islam must triumph in the long run, even
though the opponents exerted themselves to the utmost. The
accounts of previous prophets, the opposition they had met
with, and their ultimate success, as narrated in the Holy
Quran were mostly revealed in this period of the Holy
Prophet's career as consolation to sustain him in his
troubles. A little before the flight, he had a vision that
he had emigrated to a place, rich and fertile. It was no
other than Madinah, which is still famous for its
gardens.
That the prosperity of Islam was bound
up with the Hijrah or the Flight, was well-known to
early Muslims. Thus they looked upon this event as the birth
of Islam, and the Muslim calendar, as already observed,
dates not from the first Call in the Cave of Hira', but from
the time of the Holy Prophet's flight. It was in the
Hijrah that the climax of the Holy Prophet's
helplessness was reached. Therefore, the Holy Quran refers
to this event as a testimony to the fact that the helping
hand of God was at the back of Islam and was a guarantee for
its ultimate success. If the Mans did not help him, the Holy
Quran says, Allah did surely help him, in the hour of his
extreme helplessness, when he had to flee from Makkah, with
but one companion [The Quran,
9:40.].
The two had to take refuge in
a cave, it goes on to say, but even there they were not
safe. Pursuers following close on their heels traced them up
to the mouth of the Cave. His companion felt anxious that
they had been overtaken. At so anxious a moment, he consoled
his friend not to entertain any fear, for Allah was surely
with them. This implicit and deep-rooted faith in Divine
help was in fact the very secret of his courage and hope
under the most trying and discouraging circumstances. Never
did a word of despair or complaint escape his lips. He knew
no despondency, no despair, no dismay. Even in the most
critical situations, his heart was aglow with hope. In this
hour of dire helplessness when, humanly speaking, even the
very last shelter in the Cave appeared to have been
withdrawn, he exclaims with a heart full of hope and
confidence: "Most surely Allah is with us."
During the Mean period, extending over
thirteen years, the Holy Prophet had to work in the teeth of
the most bitter opposition. His spiritual force produced
three hundred giants of spirituality, who never for a single
moment wavered in their faith in him, stood by him in spite
of excruciating tortures and bade farewell to their homes
and their property but did not desert him. The phenomenal
transformation brought about by him in the brief space of
thirteen years, notwithstanding the united resistance of the
whole nation, has won unwilling appreciation, even from a
critic like Muir, who thus draws a sketch of his
companions:
"In so short a period, Mecca had by
this wonderful movement been rent into two factions which,
unmindful of the old landmarks of tribe and family, had
arrayed themselves in deadly opposition one against the
other. The Believers bore persecution with a patient and
tolerant spirit, and though it was their wisdom to do so,
the credit of a magnanimous forbearance may be freely
accorded. One hundred men and women, rather than abjure
their previous faith, had abandoned home and sought refuge,
till the storm should be overpast, in Abyssinian exile. And
now again a large number, with the Holy Prophet himself,
were emigrating from their fondly loved city with its sacred
Temple, to them the holiest spot on the earth, and fleeing
to Madinah. There, the same marvellous charm had within two
or three years been preparing for them a brotherhood ready
to defend the Prophet and his followers with their blood.
Jewish truth had long sounded in the ears of the men of
Madinah; but it was not until they heard the spirit stirring
strains of the Arabian Prophet that they too awoke from
slumber, and sprang suddenly into a new and earnest life.
The virtues of his people may be described in the words of
Mahomet himself:
‘The servants of the
Merciful are they that walk upon the earth softly, and
when the ignorant speak unto them, they reply,
Peace.
‘They that spend the night
worshipping their Lord, prostrate and
standing;
‘And who say, O our Lord! Turn
away from us the torment of Hell; verily, from the
torment thereof there is no release. Surely it is an evil
abode and resting place.
‘Those that when they spend
are neither profuse nor niggardly, but take a middle
course;
‘Those that invoke not with
God any other god; and slay not a soul that God has
forbidden, otherwise than by right; and commit not
fornication; ....
‘They who bear not witness to
that which is false; and when they pass by vain sport,
they pass it by with dignity.
‘They who, when admonished by
the revelations of the Lord, fall not down as if deaf and
blind;
‘Who say, O our Lord! Grant us
of our wives and children such as shall be a comfort unto
us, and make us examples unto the pious."'
As a matter of fact, these as well as
hundreds of other verses in the Holy Quran, which depict the
characteristics of the virtuous, do not draw an imaginary
picture. They set forth a true description of the lives of
the Holy Prophet's companions. It was the soul-force of a
single personality that wrought this miraculous
transformation. In a marvellously short time, hundreds of
people, sunk in vice and superstition given to the most
debased forms of idolatry and fettered in the shackles of
the vilest and most cruel social customs, were uplifted and
raised to the heights of morality. He breathed a new Life
into them so that the principles of truth, of virtue, of
doing good to fellow-men, once accepted were never lost
despite terrible harassment. He infused into them a sense of
human dignity and responsibility. Here indeed was the
greatest benefactor of humanity.
The New
Era:
The Holy Prophet and his
companions accomplished in eight days the journey to Madinah
which usually took eleven days and arrived there on the
12th of Rabi‘i, in the 14th year
of his mission, corresponding to June 28, 622 A.D. News of
his disappearance from Makkah had preceded him, but his
three days' hiding in the Cave was known to no one. The city
had been in eager expectation of his arrival. Every morning
people would go out on the road to Makkah to await the
appearance of their Master. The tedious hours of impatient
expectancy were at last over, and the illustrious visitor
appeared on the horizon. At a distance of three miles from
Madinah lies the habitation known as Quba'. It is considered
a suburb of Madinah. Here dwelt several families from among
the Ansar or the Helpers, of which that of ‘Amr
ibn ‘Auf was the most distinguished. Before entering
the city, the Holy Prophet accepted his invitation and
stopped at Quba'. A number of Emigrants (Muhajirin)
were also putting up there. Muslims from the city
flocked to Quba' in crowds to meet their revered leader. For
fourteen days the Holy Prophet stayed here. ‘Ali joined
him at this place. A mosque was built there, the first
mosque in the history of Islam, known as the mosque of
Quba'. It is of this mosque that the Holy Quran speaks in
the ninth chapter as "the mosque founded on piety. [The
Quran, 9:108.]" The Holy Prophet and the companions
erected it with their own hands, all working as ordinary
masons and labourers. This was followed by his entry into
the city of Madinah, which was wearing a look of jubilation.
People came out to greet him, clad in their gayest attire.
Women sang in chorus from the housetops to welcome their
noble guest. Everyone was eager that he should stop at his
house. Slackening the reins of his camel, he let it have its
own way. Wherever it stopped, he said to the eager crowds
around him, there would he lodge. The camel moved on until
it reached an open space in front of Abu Ayyub's house,
where it halted.
Muslim
Brotherhood:
The courtyard belonged to two
orphan boys. They offered it as a free gift for the erection
of a mosque, but the Holy Prophet would not accept it
without payment. They had therefore to take the price. The
first thing done was the construction of a mosque, the Holy
Prophet and his comrades working at it with their own hands.
Each looked upon this labour of love as a proud privilege
and, as they worked, all chanted in chorus after the Holy
Prophet, "O Lord! there is no felicity, but the felicity of
the Hereafter; O Lord! help the Helpers and the Refugees."
The mosque was a monument of simplicity -walls made of mud
bricks, the roof supported by trunks of palm-trees, and
covered over with palm leaves and twigs it could not keep
out rain, which made the unpaved floor muddy. To remove this
difficulty, the floor was strewn with gravel. In a corner of
the courtyard, a sort of platform with a roof was raised to
accommodate those who had neither family nor home. Those who
lived there were known as the residents of the Suffah
(ashab al-Suffah). This was, so to speak, a kind
of seminary attached to the mosque for those accommodated
there, devoting their whole time to the study of religion.
Adjoining the mosque were erected two apartments for the
household of the Holy Prophet.
In Makkah Muslims could not say their
prayers openly in congregation. Now that the peaceful
conditions of Madinah permitted public prayers various ways
were one day considered to summon the faithful to prayers at
the fixed hours. 'Umar had seen a vision of a man repeating
the words, Allahu-Akbar, Allahu-Akbar (Allah is
Great) and so forth - the full text of the Muslim call to
prayer. Next morning he narrated his vision to the Holy
Prophet. Another of the companions had had exactly the same
vision. This was approved by the Holy Prophet as the call to
prayer. The first Friday congregational prayer was held here
on the day when the Holy Prophet left Quba' and entered into
the city of Madinah.
Prayers being thus regulated, the Holy
Prophet next turned to the question of providing for the
Refugees. Most of them, while in Makkah, had lived in ease
and plenty, but they had had to abandon their wealth and
property. So he established a brotherhood between Helpers
and Refugees - a brotherhood unique in the history of the
world. Each of the Refugees was bound to one of the Helpers
in a bond of brotherhood. The fellow-feeling and love on
which this new brotherhood was created found wonderful
expression. Each one of the Helpers took a brother Refugee
home with him, placed half his house at his disposal and
equally divided all his goods and chattels with him. The
Helpers were an agriculturist people, and wished to divide
their farms equally with their new brethren. The Refugees
were tradesmen by profession, quite unused to farming. On
realising this, the Helpers said they would do the whole
labour themselves and give half the produce to the Refugees.
So strong, in short, was this new tie that it surpassed even
the relationship of brothers. When either of the couple thus
joined passed away, his property was inherited not by his
brother-in-blood, but by his brother-in-faith. But the Holy
Quran forbade that the tie should have so far-reaching an
effect and enjoined the inheritance to go in the natural
course to the blood-relations [The Quran,
8:75.].
Such was the genuine sacrificial
spirit with which the Helpers embraced their
brethren-in-faith, but the Refugees did not take undue
advantage of their sympathy ["Surely those who believed
and fled (their homes) and struggled hard in Allah's way
with their wealth and their lives, and those who gave
shelter and helped -these are friends one of another" (The
Quran, 8:72).].
One ‘Abd al Rahman ibn
‘Auf, when offered half of everything owned by his
Helper brother, expressed his gratitude for the kindness,
and asked him only to show him the way to the market so that
he could manage his own living; and in a short time he
developed a flourishing business. Similarly, the rest of the
Refugees also took to trade. Those who could find nothing to
set their hand to, worked as ordinary porters, thereby not
only maintaining themselves, but also sparing something to
contribute towards the Public Treasury (Bait al-Mal)
to be expended on community welfare. Before long, their
business flourished to such an extent that the merchandise
caravans of some of them consisted of seven hundred camels
each. There was a time - a time of want - when, on the
arrival of a guest, the Holy Prophet, finding no provisions
in his own house, asked Abu Talhah, one of the companions,
to entertain him. On going home with the guest, Abu Talhah
found that the food was hardly enough for his own children.
To meet the awkward situation the light was put out and such
food as there was served to the guest, Abu Talhah and his
wife, who had to bear him company as hosts, taking nothing
but moving their hands and mouths as though they were also
partaking of the food. The food being just enough for the
guest, the whole family went hungry.
But the Muslims worked so hard that
poverty soon changed to plenty and prosperity, and they
began to live a comfortable life. Under these fluctuations
of fortune, however, they conducted themselves admirably.
Neither in the state of indigence did they ever grumble, nor
in the time of affluence did they become extravagant. They
spent it in the way of Allah - in helping the poor, the
needy, the orphans and the residents of the Suffah,
whose sole occupation was to attend throughout the day to
the teachings of the Holy Prophet and spend their nights in
prayers. Out of these sprang the band of religious teachers
and preachers who carried the torch of Islam far and wide to
different countries and different peoples. The well-known
Abu Hurairah, through whom a vast number of the Holy
Prophet's sayings have come down to us, was one of them. As
they had no means of livelihood, the well-to-do among the
Muslims used to invite them to take food with them. It is
recorded that Sa'd alone sometimes took home as many as
eighty guests.
A Pact between
Various Tribes:
The third important matter to
which the Holy Prophet addressed himself was to establish
friendly relations among the various tribes living in
Madinah. The Jews were a considerable power there. In
alliance with the tribes of Aus and Khazraj they took part
in their internecine warfare. They were Arabs by descent but
formed a distinct unit by their adoption of Judaism. They
were subdivided into three clans, Banu Qainuqa', Banu Nadir
and Banu Quraizah. The other inhabitants of the town were
the Aus and the Khazraj, always at war with each other. Of
the two chief clans of the Jews, the Banu Quraizah were the
allies of the Aus, while the Banu Nadir joined the Khazraj.
Now, it so happened that the major portion of the Khazraj
and the Aus embraced Islam. So the Holy Prophet concluded a
pact between Muslims and Jews. The main terms were as
follows: Firstly, Muslims and Jews should live as one
people. Secondly, each party should keep to its own faith,
and neither should interfere with that of the other.
Thirdly, in the event of war with a third party, each should
come to the assistance of the other, provided the latter
were the party aggrieved and not the aggressors. Fourthly,
in the event of an attack on Madinah, both should join hands
to defend it. Fifthly, peace should be made only after
consultation with each other. Sixthly, Madinah should be
regarded as sacred by both, all blood-shed being forbidden
therein. Seventhly, the Holy Prophet should be the final
court of appeal in cases of dispute.
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