Politics of Hijra

Also published in Daily Trust

As the new Islamic Hijri year begins, Muslims, as usual, reflect on the event of the prophet’s forced migration from Makkah to Madina 1,435 years ago, especially the unprecedented jubilation with which the extraordinarily hospitable and generous people of Madina welcomed and accommodated him and the other Makkan migrants, which Allah the Almighty Himself acknowledged in various verses of the Qur’an.      

However, not many people bother to intellectually examine, highlight and imbibe lessons from the politics and diplomacy that preceded the migration and led to the provision of the enabling socio-political atmosphere in Madina, which paved the way for the migration and the eventual creation of the Islamic State of Madina.

The political and diplomatic strategies employed by the prophet as leader of the persecuted Muslim community in Makkah provide leaders of oppressed communities struggling for emancipation under tyrannical regimes with not only inspiration but also with skills necessarily needed to pursue and successfully achieve their strategic goals without being deceitful or mischievously cunning.

Besides, even in modern-day largely duplicitous diplomacy and deceptive politicking, leaders, diplomats and politicians of conscience can imbibe lessons from the prophet’s political and diplomatic sagacity to practice politics with utmost sincerity and diplomacy without sycophancy.

Anyway, the series of events leading up to the migration to Madina had actually begun three years earlier after ten years of Da’awah under extremely excruciating circumstances, as brilliantly chronicled by Sheikh Safiyur-Rahman Al-Mubarakpuri in his authoritative collection of the prophet’s biography, Ar-Raheeq-Al-Makhtum. The situation had become not only unbearable but actually impossible for the prophet to continue delivering the message of Allah due to the sheer severity of the persecution he and his faithful companions were subjected to by the powerful Makkan elite.

He would therefore take advantage of the Hajj season when Arab tribes from different parts of the Arab world would converge in Makkah to perform Hajj. By the way, being predominantly idol worshippers before the emergence of Islam, Arabs would yearly converge in Makkah to perform Hajj where they would pay homage to the hundreds of idols built by their ancestors in and around Ka’abah and at various locations in and on the outskirts of Makkah City.

The messenger of Allah would therefore sneak out in the night to meet with some of those Arab pilgrims in their camps to call them to Islam. In one of such missions, he, accompanied by Abubakr As-Siddeq (RA) and Ali ibn Abi Talib (RA), met with a group of six Arab pilgrims from Madina who, after listening to him, accepted Islam secretly and assured him that when they went back to Madina they would embark on calling their war-torn people to Islam secretly while they also expressed optimism that the Madinese might eventually achieve a permanent cessation of hostilities, stability and unity through and in Islamic religion.

During the Hajj season of the subsequent year, and unknown to the Madinese pilgrims, there were twelve Muslims among the Madinese who disguised as pilgrims, five of them were among the six who had accepted Islam the previous year and the remaining seven were new converts who accepted Islam in Madina through those six. Another meeting was arranged and held secretly between them and the prophet on the outskirts of Makkah, where they reaffirmed their commitment to the principles and teachings of Islam.

Afterwards, the prophet realized the need for a resident spiritual guide for the tiny but steadily growing Muslim community in Madina, so he sent Mus’ab bin Umair (RA) where he stayed for almost a year teaching the Muslims and propagating Islam among the non-Muslim Madinese.

Also as the Muslim community continued its phenomenal growth in Madina while the inhuman persecution of the prophet and his faithful companions in Makkah continued to get worse, the Madinese Muslim community, which had already grown big enough to provide adequate protection for the prophet and his Makkan companions, in Madina, began to consider persuading the prophet to migrate to them. They therefore intended to take advantage of the next Hajj season to meet with the prophet in Makkah to discuss it.

As in the previous year, there were disguised Muslim elements, numbering more than seventy, among the Madinese pilgrims who came to make case for the prophet’s migration from Makkah to Madina. A crucial and secret meeting was arranged between them and the prophet on the outskirts of Makkah. The over seventy Madinese Muslims sneaked out one by one from their camp and converged at the appointed location and time. Afterwards, the Prophet arrived accompanied by his uncle Abbas bin Abdulmutallib who, though was not a Muslim then, was not hostile to the prophet.

Abbas who opened the deliberations and who clearly underestimated the Madinese unconditional readiness and willingness to make whatever sacrifices needed to protect the prophet and help promote his mission, had apparently thought that the whole issue was all about personal interests, so in an apparent move to put the prophet in a strong bargaining position he began by asserting that the prophet was not desperately helpless after all, instead he was, according to him, protected among his Makkan people yet only wanted to migrate to Madina anyway.

The deliberations continued where specific terms and conditions were discussed and ratified by both parties, the most important of which were the Madinese pledge to protect the prophet, the Makkan migrants and indeed the religion of Islam even at the expense of their personal interests, while the prophet gave them assurance that he would remain with them for the rest of his life under any circumstances. Finally, the meeting ended after exhaustive deliberations.

Soon Muslims’ secret departure from Makkah to Madina began at a steadily growing rate culminating in the departure of prophet himself accompanied by his closest confidant, Abubakr As-Siddeq (RA), after the prophet had escaped an assassination attempt. After a journey of more than 400 kilometres they arrived in Quba on the outskirts of Madina on Monday, September 23rd of the year 622 before they proceeded to Madina city the next Friday.

Shortly, a constitution, which was said to be the first written constitution in the world, was written and unanimously adopted. The Hijra year was later adopted by the second rightly guided Khalif, Umar bin Khattab (RA) as the basis of Islamic calendar.