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The First Year of Hijra
According to the investigations of the late Mahmood
Pasha al-Falaki of Egypt, the day when Muhammad Mustafa, the Messenger of God, arrived in
Quba was Monday, 8th of Rabi-I of the year 13 of the Proclamation, a date which
corresponds to September 20, 622. On the following Friday, 12th of Rabi-I (September
24), the Messenger of God left Quba, and entered Yathrib. He was lodged at the house of
Abu Ayyub, as already noted. The Construction of the Mosque in Yathrib The first act of Muhammad Mustafa, may God bless him
and his Ahlul-Bait, upon arrival in Yathrib, was to build a mosque in which to worship
Allah. In front of the house of Abu Ayyub there was a vacant lot which belonged to two
orphans. The Apostle summoned them and their guardians, and told them that he wanted to
buy that land. They told him that they would be very happy to make that land a gift to
him. But he refused to accept it as a gift, and insisted on paying its price. They
eventually agreed to accept payment for their land. Payment was made and ground-breaking
was begun immediately. Explaining the reasons why the Apostle of God did
not accept the land as a gift, M. Abul Kalam Azad says in his book, Rasul-e-Rahmet
(Messenger of Mercy), (Lahore, Pakistan, 1970): The Apostle did not want to take anyone's
obligation. Who can claim to be more faithful to him than Abu Bakr? And he himself said
that he was more grateful to Abu Bakr for his moral and material support than to anyone
else. And yet, when Abu Bakr wished to make a present to him of a camel on the eve of
their departure from Makkah to Yathrib, he did not accept it until he had paid Abu Bakr
its price. Similarly, in Yathrib, when he wanted to buy land to build a mosque on it, its
owners offered it to him as a gift. But he refused to accept it as a gift. The land was
acquired only when its owners agreed to accept its price from him which he paid. The mosque of Yathrib was the ultimate in simplicity
of conception and design. The material used in its construction was unbaked bricks and
mortar for the walls, and date fronds for the roof which was supported by trunks of palm
trees. The alcove of the mosque pointed toward Jerusalem in the north. Each of the other
three sides was pierced by a gate. The floor of the mosque had no covering at the
beginning, not even a coarse matting. Two huts were also built on the outer wall, one for
Sauda the daughter of Zama'a; and the other for Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, the two
wives of the Prophet at the time. New huts were built for new wives as they came in later
years. It was the first time when Muslims worked as a team in a community project. In the
years to come, this team was to build the mighty edifice of Islam. Inspired by the presence of the Messenger of God,
everyone of the Companions was vying to outdo the others. Among the Companions was Ammar
ibn Yasir, who, according to Ibn Ishaq, was the first man in Islam to build a mosque. Ibn
Ishaq, did not specify which mosque it was that Ammar built. But Dr. Taha Husain of Egypt
says that Ammar had built a mosque in Makkah itself and he prayed in it, long before he
migrated to Yathrib. When the mosque was being built, an incident took
place which Ibn Ishaq has recorded as follows: "Ammar b. Yasir came in when they had
overloaded him with bricks, saying, "They are killing me. They load me with burdens
they cannot carry themselves." Umm Salama, the Prophet’s wife said: "I saw
the Apostle run his hand through his (Ammar’s) hair – for he was a curly-haired
man – and say, "Alas, Ibn Sumayya! It is not they who will kill you, but a
wicked band of men." (This prophecy is said to have been fulfilled when
Ammar was killed at Siffin – Suhayli, ii, p.3) Ali composed a rajaz verse on that day (when the
mosque was being built): There’s one that labors night and day To build us mosques of brick and clay And one who turns from dust away. Ammar learned it and began to chant it. When he persisted in it, one of the Prophet's
companions thought that it was he who was referred to in it, according to what Ziyad b.
Abdullah el-Bakkai told me from Ibn Ishaq. The latter had actually named the man. He said: "I have heard what you have been
saying for a long time, O Ibn Sumayya, and by God I think, I will hit you on the
nose!" Now he had a stick in his hand, and the Apostle was very angry and said:
"What is wrong between them and Ammar? He invites them to Paradise while they invite
him to hell. Ammar is as dear to me as my own face. If a man behaves like this he will not
be forgiven, so avoid him." Sufyan b. Uyana mentioned on the authority of
Zakariya from al-Shabi that the first man to build a mosque was Ammar bin Yasir. (Suhayli says: Ibn Ishaq did name the man, but Ibn
Hisham preferred not to do so, as not to mention one of the Prophet's companions in
discreditable circumstances. Therefore it can never be right to inquire after his
identity. Abu Dharr says: Ibn Ishaq did name the man and said, "This man was Uthman
b. Affan." The Cairo editors say that in the Mawahib al-Laduniya, al-Qastallani, d.
A.D. 1517, said that the man is said to be Uthman b. Mazun. This latter writer may safely
be ignored on this point.) " At the site of the construction of the mosque, one
may witness a most touching scene in the story of the early days of Islam – Muhammad
Mustafa, the Messenger of God, removing dust, with his own hands, from the head and the
face of Ammar ibn Yasar. He did not honor any other companion with a sign of such
affection, love and tenderness. When the Apostle of God reproved his companions for
meddling with Ammar, and said that he (Ammar) was inviting them to paradise whereas they
were inviting him to hell, he (the Apostle) was, most probably, paraphrasing the 41st
verse of the 40th chapter (Sura-tul-Momin) in Qur’an which reads as
follows: And o my people! How strange it is for me to call
you to salvation while you call me to the fire. Commenting upon this verse, Abdullah Yusuf Ali, the
translator of Al-Qur’an al-Majid, says: It may seem strange according to the laws of this
world that he should be seeking their good while they are seeking his damnation; but that
is the merit of Faith. The companion who tangled with Ammar ibn Yasir when
the mosque of Yathrib was being built, was no one other than Uthman b. Affan, one of the
future khalifas of the Muslims. He was squeamish about working in dust and mud, and
getting his clothes soiled. When the Apostle of God showed him his displeasure, he had to
keep quiet but the incident rankled in his heart, and he never forgot it. Many years later
when he became khalifa, and found power in his hand, he ordered his slaves to knock down
Ammar ibn Yasir and to beat him up – the man who was as dear to Muhammad Mustafa, the
Apostle of God, as his (the Apostle's) own face. The claim that it was not Uthman bin Affan but
Uthman bin Mazun or somebody else who, by threatening Ammar ibn Yasir, roused the anger of
the Apostle of God, is only an attempt at window-dressing by the "court"
historians of later times. At this time, Ammar ibn Yasir already enjoyed four
distinctions which must have made him the envy of all the other companions of Muhammad,
the Messenger of God. They were: 1.He belonged to the First Muslim Family. 2.He was the son of the First and the Second Martyrs
of Islam. His mother, Sumayya, was the first, and his father, Yasir, was the second martyr
in Islam. It was an honor not attained by any other companion of Muhammad Mustafa. 3.He was the builder of the first mosque. 4.He was the beloved of Muhammad Mustafa, the
Apostle of God. May God bless Ammar ibn Yasir and his parents. Adhan and Prayer It was mandatory for Muslims to pray five times a
day. They had to suspend their workaday activities, and to perform this duty. But there
was no way to alert them that the time had come for praying. According to the Sunni traditions, a companion
suggested to the Prophet that a trumpet should be blown or a bell should be rung to alert
Muslims before the time of each prayer. He did not accept this suggestion, as he said that
he did not want to adopt the Jewish or Christian customs. Abdullah bin Ziyad was a citizen of Yathrib. He came
to see the Prophet, and said that while he was half-awake or half-asleep, a man appeared
before him and told him that the human voice ought to be used to call the faithful to
prayer; and he also taught him the Adhan (call to prayer), and the manner of saying it. The Sunni historians say that the idea appealed to
the Prophet, and he adopted it forthwith. He then called Bilal, taught him how to call the
Muslims to prayer, and appointed him the first Muezzin (caller to prayer) of Islam. These stories are discounted by the Shia Muslims.
They say that just as Al-Qur’an al-Majid was revealed to Muhammad Mustafa, so was
Adhan. They assert that the manner of calling the faithful to prayer could not be left to
the dreams or reveries of some Arab. They further say that if the Apostle could teach
Muslims how to perform lustrations, and how, when and what to say in each prayer, he could
also teach them how and when to alert others before the time for each prayer. According to the Shia traditions, the angel who
taught the Messenger of God how to perform lustrations preparatory to prayers, and how to
say the prayers, also taught him how to call others to prayer. Yathrib Becomes Medina The name "Yathrib" soon became obsolete.
People began to call it "Medina-tun-Nabi," – the City of the Prophet. In
due course, usage caused a contraction of this name to be adopted simply as
"Medina" – "the City," and that's what the name of the city of
the Prophet of Islam has remained ever since. The Groupings in Medina When the Prophet and the refugees from Makkah
arrived in Yathrib (now Medina), they found three Jewish tribes, viz., Quainuqa, Nadheer
and Qurayza, and two Arab tribes, viz., Aus and Khazraj, living in that city. E. A. Belyaev The basic population of Medina consisted of its
three Jewish tribes, the Quainuqa, the Quraiza and the Nadhir; and of the two Arab tribes,
the Aus and the Khazraj. (Arabs, Islam and the Arab Caliphate in the Early Middle Ages.
1969) The Jews were farmers, merchants, traders,
money-lenders, landlords and industrialists. They had grown rich through the practice of
usury and they enjoyed a monopoly of the armaments industry in Arabia. The two Arab tribes of Medina, Aus and Khazraj, made
their living by farming. Before the arrival of the Prophet, they had been locked up in a
war against each other which had lasted for more than five generations. They had fought
their last battle only four years earlier, i.e., in A.D. 618, and it had left them utterly
exhausted and prostrate. There were a few Christians also living in Medina.
They did not cotton to the Prophet of Islam because he repudiated the doctrine of Trinity,
and preached the Unity of the Creator. A fourth group in Medina was to spring up a little
later, made up of the "hypocrites" or the "disaffected." During the
Prophet's mission in Makkah, there were many Muslims who had to hide their true faith for
fear of persecution. In Medina, the situation was reversed. These people (the hypocrites)
were nominal Muslims; they outwardly professed Islam but they were not sincere. They were
a potential source of subversion, sabotage and insurrection. The Charter or Constitution of Medina The citizens of Yathrib acknowledged Muhammad as
their sovereign, and he gave them a "Citizen's Charter" which is believed to
have been the first written document in Islam (other than Qur’an). The original
charter as preserved by Ibn Ishaq, contains forty-seven (47) clauses. Following are the
more important ones out of them: * All disputes between any two parties in Yathrib
would be referred to Muhammad for his decision on them. * Muslims and Jews would enjoy the same rights. * Each group in Yathrib would follow its own faith,
and no one group would meddle in the affairs of any other groups. * In the event of an external attack upon Yathrib,
both groups, i.e., the Muslims and the Jews, would defend the city. * Both groups would refrain from shedding blood in
the city. * Muslims would not go to war against other Muslims
for the sake of non-Muslims. R. V. C. Bodley Mohammed drew up a charter with the Jews whereby,
among other things, it was established that Jews and Moslems were to aid each other in all
matters concerning the city. They were to be allies against all common enemies, and this
without any mutual obligations toward Islam or Judaism. The main clause of this charter
ran as follows: The Jews who attach themselves to our commonwealth shall have an equal
right with our own people to our assistance and good offices. The Jews of the various
branches domiciled in Yathrib shall form with the Moslems one composite nation. They shall
practice their religion as freely as the Moslems. The clients and allies of the Jews shall
enjoy the same security and freedom. (The Messenger, the Life of Mohammed, New York, 1946)
Muhajireen and Ansar Muhammad changed the names of the two Muslim groups
now living in Medina. He called the refugees from Makkah "Muhajireen"
(Emigrants); and he called the citizens of Yathrib who had welcomed them,
"Ansar" (Supporters). The two groups were known by these names ever after. Economic Conditions in Medina The wealth of Medina was almost entirely
concentrated in the hands of the Jews. The Arabs (now the Ansar) lived in poverty and
perennial want. One reason why they were chronically poor, was the high rates of interest
they had to pay to the Jews on their loans. D. S. Margoliouth Though we hear the names of one or two wealthy
Yathribites, the bulk of them appear to have been poor. In Yathrib in the Prophet's time,
there was only one wedding garment; ornaments had to be borrowed from the Jews. This
poverty was probably aggravated by the Jewish money-lending. (Mohammed and the Rise of
Islam, London, 1931) But if the Ansar were poor, the Muhajireen were even
poorer. In fleeing from Makkah, they had abandoned everything they had possessed, and when
they came to Yathrib seeking sanctuary, they were penniless. In a short time, their
situation became desperate. They had to do something to make a living. But since they knew
nothing about agriculture, the best they could do was to work as unskilled laborers in the
fields and gardens of the Jews and the Ansar. D. S. Margoliouth It had originally been arranged that the Refugees
should assist the Helpers (Ansar) in their field-work; but knowing nothing of
palmiculture, they could only perform the most menial services; thus some literally hewed
wood and drew water; some were employed in watering palms, carrying skins on their backs;
and Ali, at least on one occasion, earned sixteen dates by filling buckets with water, and
emptying them over mould for brick-making at the rate of a date a bucket; which hardly
earned a meal he shared with the Prophet. (Mohammed and the Rise of Islam, London, 1931) To integrate the Muhajireen into the economic life
of Medina, was an extremely complex problem, and it taxed all the ingenuity of the
Apostle. He did not want any member of the Muslim society, much less all the Muhajireen,
to be a burden to anyone else, and did all that he could to curtail their dependence upon
the Ansar. The Brotherhood of the Muhajireen and the Ansar One of the gambits in the efforts of the Apostle to
rehabilitate the homeless Muhajireen in Medina, and to integrate them into the economic
and social life of the city, was to make them "brothers" of the Ansar. A few
months after his arrival in Medina, he told the Muhajireen and the Ansar that they had to
live as "brothers" of each other, and paired them off as follows: Muhajir Brother of Ansari Ammar ibn Yasir " Hudhayfa al-Yamani Abu Bakr Siddique " Kharja bin Zayd Umar bin al-Khattab " Utban bin Malik Uthman bin Affan " Aus bin Thabit Abu Dharr el-Ghiffari " Al-Mundhir b. Amr
Mas'ab ibn Umayr " Abu Ayyub Abu Obaidah Aamer al-Jarrah " Saad ibn Maadh Zubayr ibn al-Awwam " Salama bin Waqsh Abdur Rahman bin Auf " Saad ibn Rabi Talha bin Obaidullah " Ka'ab ibn Malik Ali ibn Abi Talib alone was left without a
"brother." He was wondering why when the Apostle of God held him by his arms and
said to him: "You are my brother in this world and in the next." Muhammad ibn Ishaq The Apostle himself took Ali by hand and said:
"This is my brother." So God's Apostle, the Lord of the sent ones, and leader of
the God-fearing, Apostle of the Lord of the worlds, the peerless and unequaled, and Ali
ibn Abi Talib became brothers. (The Life of the Messenger of God) Edward Gibbon After a perilous and rapid journey along the
sea-coast, Mohammed halted at Koba, two miles from the city, and made his public entry
into Medina sixteen days after his flight from Mecca. His bravest disciples assembled
round his person; and the equal, though various merits of the Moslems were distinguished
by the names of Mohajireen and Ansar, the fugitives of Mecca, and the auxiliaries of
Medina. To eradicate the seeds of jealousy, Mohammed judiciously coupled his principal
followers with the rights and obligations of brethren; when Ali found himself without a
peer, the Prophet tenderly declared that he would be the companion and brother of the
noble youth. (The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire) Muhammad Husayn Haykal The first idea to occur to him (Muhammad) was that
of reorganizing Muslim ranks so as to consolidate their unity and to wipe out every
possibility of a resurgence of division and hostility. In the realization of this
objective, he asked the Muslims to fraternize with one another for the sake of God and to
bind themselves in pairs. He explained how he and Ali ibn Abi Talib were brothers…
(The Life of Muhammad, 1935) Muhammad, may God bless him and his Ahlul-Bait, had
made the Muhajireen and the Ansar "brothers" of each other. But Ali, like
himself, was a Muhajir (Emigrant), and yet he (Muhammad) chose him (Ali) to be his
brother. In doing so, he was accenting the extraordinary position and special status of
Ali in Islam. Ali, though still young, already outranked everyone else in service to Islam
and devotion to duty toward God, and His Messenger. He won this high position by dint of
his ability and character. This was not, however, the first time that the
Apostle of God had declared Ali to be his brother. Earlier, while still in Makkah, he had
made his leading companions the "brothers" of each other. The pairs of
"brothers" in Makkah were made up by Abu Bakr and Umar; Uthman bin Affan and
Abdur Rahman bin Auf; Talha and Zubayr; Hamza and Zayd bin Haritha; and Mohammed Mustafa
ibn Abdullah and Ali ibn Abi Talib. Imam Nooruddin Ali ibn Ibrahim al-Shafei'i has
quoted the Messenger of God in his book, Seeret Halabia (vol. II, p. 120) as saying:
"Ali is my brother in this world as well as in the world Hereafter." An Assessment of the Roles of the Muhajireen and the
Ansar The Muhajireen had lost all their material
possessions in Makkah, and all of them entered Yathrib (Medina) empty-handed. They
consisted of two distinct groups. One group was made up of those men who were merchants
and traders by profession, and they were very rich. When they went to Medina, they entered
business, were successful at it, and they became rich again. The other group comprised the "ascetics"
of Islam. They were poor in Makkah, and when they migrated to Medina, they still chose to
be poor. They spurned worldly riches, and they never held economic power in their hands at
any time. Representatives of this group were men like Abu Dharr el-Ghiffari; Ammar ibn
Yasir and Miqdad ibn al-Aswad. God paid them His tributes in His Book as follows: (some part is due) to the indigent Muhajirs,
those who were expelled from their homes and their property , while seeking grace from
Allah and (His) good pleasure, and aiding Allah and His Apostle: such are indeed the
sincere ones. (Chapter 59; verse 8) The Ansar treated the Muhajireen from Makkah better
than the real brothers of the latter would have done. They lodged them in their own homes,
gave them household effects; made them partners in farming, or gave them half of their
land. Those Ansars who were in business, made the Muhajirs their partners in business.
History cannot produce a parallel to the generosity of the Ansars. They were
"hosts" not only to the homeless and destitute Muhajireen but also to Islam
itself. Islam, uprooted in Makkah, struck new roots in Medina, burgeoned and soon became
viable. The Ansar were indispensable for the physical
survival of Islam. Where would Islam be and where would the Muhajireen be if the Ansar had
not given them sanctuary? When hostilities with the idolaters began, it were the Ansar,
and not the Muhajireen, who bore the brunt of fighting. Without the massive and monolithic
support that they gave to the Prophet, the battles of Islam could not have been fought,
much less victory won. They were also the recipients of Heaven's compliments and
recognition, as we read in the following verse of Al-Qur’an al-Majid: But those who, before them, had homes (in Medina)
and had adopted the faith, – show their affection to such as came to them for refuge,
and entertain no desire, in their hearts for things given to the (latter), but give them
preference over themselves, even though poverty was their (own lot). And those saved from
the covetousness of their own souls, – they are the ones that achieve prosperity.
(Chapter 59; verse 9) The Muhajireen, at the beginning, had no way of
repaying the Ansar for their generosity and kindness. But did they ever acknowledge their
gratitude? It appears that with the exception of two Muhajirs, no one else ever did. The
two exceptions were Muhammad Mustafa, the Apostle of God, and Ali, his vicegerent. They
acknowledged their debt of gratitude to the Ansar both by word and by deed, and they never
missed an opportunity of doing so. After all, both Muhammad and Ali, as the only guardians
of the ethos of Islam, were aware that it (Islam) had found a haven in Medina with the
Ansar. The latter, therefore, held a very special place in their hearts. The rest of the Muhajireen, i.e., the rich ones
among them, did not share the solicitude of Muhammad and Ali for the Ansar. When power
came into their hands, they pushed the Ansar into the background, and relegated them to
play only minor roles. In the beginning, they merely ignored the Ansar. But being ignored
was not so bad compared to what was to befall them in later times. (Between the period covered by the Sira and the
editing of the book itself loom two tragedies of Kerbela, when Husayn and his followers
were slain in 61 A.H., and the sack of Medina in A.H. 63, when some ten thousand of the
Ansar including no less than eighty of the Prophet’s companions were put to death).
– Quoted in the Introduction to the biography of the Prophet by Ibn Ishaq). The Muhajireen foisted the crypt-pagans of Makkah
– the Umayyads - upon them. The Umayyads were the arch-enemies of the Ansar. If the
generosity of the Ansar to the Muhajireen has no parallel in history, the ingratitude of
the latter toward their benefactors also has no parallel. When the Muhajireen came to
Medina, the Ansar were its masters. It was only through the courtesy of the Ansar that the
Muhajireen could enter and live in Medina. But as soon as Muhammad Mustafa, the Messenger
of God, and the friend and patron of the Ansar, died, they ceased to be masters in their
own home. His death was the signal for the abrupt reversal in their fortunes.
