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In An-Nadwah (Council) House
The Parliament of Quraish
The polytheists were paralysed by the carefully
planned and speedy movement of Muhammad’s followers towards their new abode in
Madinah. They were caught in unprecedented anxiety and got deeply worried over
their whole pagan and economic entity. They already experienced Muhammad
 as an
influential leader; and his followers as determined, decent and always ready to
sacrifice all they had for the sake of the Messenger of Allâh
. Al-Aws and
Al-Khazraj tribes, the would-be-hosts of the Makkan Muslims, were also known in
Arabia for their might and power in war, and judicious and sensible approach in
peace. They were also averse to rancour and prejudice for they themselves had
had bitter days of inter-tribal warfare. Madinah , itself, the prospective
headquarters of the ever-growing Islamic Call, enjoyed the most serious
strategic position. It commanded the commercial routes leading to Makkah whose
people used to deal in about a quarter of a million gold dinar-worth commodities
every year. Security of the caravan routes was crucial for the perpetuity of
prosperous economic life. All those factors borne in mind, the polytheists felt
they were in the grip of a serious threat. They, therefore, began to seek the
most effective method that could avert this imminent danger. They convened a
meeting on Thursday, 26th Safar, the year fourteen of Prophethood / 12th
September 622 A.D., i.e. two and a half months after the Great
‘Aqabah Pledge. On that day, "the Parliament of Makkah" held the most serious
meeting ever, with one item on the agenda: How to take effective measures with a
view to stopping that tidal wave. Delegates representing all the Quraishite
tribes attended the meeting, the most significant of whom were:
- Abu Jahl bin Hisham, from Bani Makhzum;
- Jubair bin Mut‘im, Tuaima bin ‘Adi, and Al-Harith
bin ‘Amir representing Bani Naufal bin ‘Abd Munaf;
- Rabi‘a’s two sons Shaibah and ‘Utbah besides
Abu Sufyan bin Harb from Bani ‘Abd Shams bin ‘Abd Munaf;
- An-Nadr bin Al-Harith (who had besmeared the
Prophet
with animal entrails) to speak for Bani ‘Abd Ad-Dar;
- Abul Bukhtary bin Hisham, Zama‘a bin Al-Aswad
and Hakeem bin Hizam to represent Bani Asad bin ‘Abd Al-‘Uzza;
- Al-Hajjaj’s two sons Nabih and Munbih from
Bani Sahm;
- Omaiyah bin Khalaf from Bani Jumah.
On their way to An-Nadwah House, Iblis
(Satan) in the guise of a venerable elderly man standing at the door interrupted
their talk and introduced himself as a man from Najd curious enough to attend
the meeting, listen to the debate and wish them success to reach a sound
opinion. He was readily admitted in.
There was a lengthy debate and several
proposals were put forward. Expulsion from Makkah was proposed and debated in
turn but finally turned down on grounds that his sweet and heart-touching words
could entice the other Arabs to attack them in their own city. Imprisonment for
life was also debated but also refused for fear that his followers might
increase in number, overpower them and release him by force. At this point, the
arch-criminal of Makkah, Abu Jahl bin Hisham suggested that they assassinate
him. But assassination by one man would have exposed him and his family to the
vengeance of blood. The difficulty was at last solved by Abu Jahl himself, who
suggested that a band of young men, one from each tribe, should strike Muhammad
simultaneously with their swords so that the blood-money would be spread over
them all and therefore could not be exacted, and his people would seek a
mind-based recourse for settlement. The sinful proposal was unanimously
accepted, and the representatives broke up the meeting and went back home with
full determination for immediate implementation.
Migration of the Prophet
When the iniquitous decision had been made,
Gabriel was sent down to Muhammad
to reveal to
him Quraish’s plot and give him his Lord’s Permission to leave Makkah. He fixed
to him the time of migration and asked him not to sleep that night in his usual
bed. At noon, the Prophet
went to see
his Companion Abu Bakr and arranged with him everything for the intended
migration. Abu Bakr was surprised to see the Prophet
masked
coming to visit him at that unusual time, but he soon learned that Allâh’s
Command had arrived, and he proposed that they should migrate together, to which
the Prophet
gave his consent.
To make the necessary preparations for the
implementation of their devilish plan, the chiefs of Makkah had chosen eleven
men: Abu Jahl, Hakam bin Abil Al-‘As, ‘Uqbah bin Abi Mu‘ait, An-Nadr bin Harith,
Omaiyah bin Khalaf, Zama‘a bin Al-Aswad, Tu‘aima bin ‘Adi, Abu Lahab, Ubai bin
Khalaf, Nabih bin Al-Hajjaj and his brother Munbih bin Al-Hajjaj. All were on
the alert. As night advanced, they posted assassins around the Prophet’s house.
Thus they kept vigil all night long, waiting to kill him the moment he left his
house early in the morning, peeping now and then through a hole in the door to
make sure that he was still lying in his bed. Abu Jahl, the great enemy of
Islam, used to walk about haughtily and arrogantly jeering at Muhammad’s words,
saying to the people around him: "Muhammad claims that if you follow him, he
will appoint you rulers over the Arabs and non-Arabs and in the Hereafter your
reward will be Gardens similar to those in Jordan, otherwise, he will slaughter
you and after death you will be burnt in fire."He was too confident of the success of his devilish plan. Allâh, the All-Mighty,
however, in Whose Hands lie the sovereignty of the heavens and earth, does what
He desires; He renders succour and can never be overpowered. He did exactly what
He later said to His Prophet:
- "And (remember) when the disbelievers
plotted against you (O Muhammad
) to
imprison you, or to kill you, or to get you out (from your home, i.e. Makkah);
they were plotting and Allâh too was planning, and Allâh is the Best of the
planners." [8:30]
At that critical time the plans of Quraish
utterly failed despite the tight siege they laid to the Prophet’s house, the
Prophet and
‘Ali were inside the house. The Prophet
told ‘Ali
to sleep in his bed and cover himself with his green mantle and assured him full
security under Allâh’s protection and told him that no harm would come to him.
The Prophet
then came out of the room and cast a handful of dust at the assassins and
managed to work his way through them reciting verses of the Noble Qur’ân:
- "And We have put a barrier before them, and
a barrier behind them, and We have covered them up, so that they cannot see."
[36:9]
He proceeded direct to the house of Abu Bakr
who, immediately accompanied him and both set out southwards, clambered up the
lofty peak of Mountain Thawr, and decided to take refuge in a cave.
The assassins who laid siege to the house were
waiting for the zero hour when someone came and informed them that the Prophet
had already
left. They rushed in and to their utter surprise, found that the person lying in
the Prophet’s bed was ‘Ali not Muhammad
. This
created a stir in the whole town. The Prophet
had thus
left his house on Safar 27th, the fourteenth year of Prophethood, i.e. 12/13
September 622 A.D.
Knowing already that Quraish would mobilize all
its potentials to find him, he played a clever trick on them and instead of
taking the road to Madinah in north side of Makkah as the polythiest would
expect, he walked along a road least expected lying south of Makkah and leading
to Yemen. He walked for 5 miles until he reached a rough rocky mountain called
Thawr. There his shoes were worn out, some said he used to walk tiptoe in order
not to leave a trail behind him. Abu Bakr - may Allah be pleased with him -
carried him up the mountain to a cave called after the name of the mountain,
Cave Thawr. Abu Bakr first entered to explore the cave and be sure that it was
safe, closed all holes with pieces torn off from his clothes, cleaned it and
then asked the Prophet
to step in.
The Prophet
went in and immediately laid his head in Abu Bakr’s lap and fell asleep.
Suddenly Abu Bakr’s foot was stung by a poisonous insect. It hurt so much that
his tears fell on the Prophet’s face. The Prophet
immediately
applied his saliva on Abu Bakr’s foot and the pain went off on the spot. They
confined themselves to this cave for three nights, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
‘Abdullah, the son of Abu Bakr would go to see them after dusk, stay the night
there, apprise them of the latest situation in Makkah, and then leave in the
early morning to mix with the Makkans as usual and not to draw the least
attention to his clandestine activities. ‘Amir bin Fuhairah, while in the
company of other shepherds of Makkah tending his master Abu Bakr’s flock, used
to stole away unobserved every evening with a few goats to the cave and
furnished its inmates with a plentiful supply of milk.
Thawr Cave
Quraish, on the other hand, were quite baffled
and exasperated when the news of the escape of the two companions was confirmed.
They brought ‘Ali to Al-Ka‘bah, beat him brutally and confined him there for an
hour attempting desperately to make him divulge the secret of the disappearance
of the two ‘fugitives’, but to no avail. They then went to see Asma’, Abu Bakr’s
daughter, but here also their attempts went in vain. While at her door Abu Jahl
slapped the girl so severely that her earring broke up.
The notables of Makkah convened an emergency
session to determine the future course of action and explore all areas that
could help arrest the two men. They decided to block all avenues leading out of
Makkah and imposed heavy armed surveillance over all potential exits. A price of
100 camels was set upon the head of each one.Horsemen, infantry and tracers of tracks scoured the country. Once they even
reached the mouth of the cave where the Prophet
and Abu
Bakr were hiding. When he saw the enemy at a very close distance, Abu Bakr
whispered to the Prophet
: "What, if
they were to look through the crevice and detect us?" The Prophet
in his
God-inspired calm replied:
- "Silence Abu Bakr! What do you think of
those two with whom the Third is Allâh."
It was really a Divine miracle, the chasers
were only a few steps from the cave.
For three days Muhammad
and Abu
Bakr lived in the cave and Quraish continued their frantic efforts to get hold
of them.
Someone called ‘Abdullah bin Uraiquit, who had
as yet not embraced Islam, but was trusted by Abu Bakr, and had been hired by
him as a guide, reached the cave after three nights according to a plan bringing
with him Abu Bakr’s two camels. His report satisfied the noble ‘fugitives’ that
the search had slackened. The opportunity to depart was come. Here Abu Bakr
offered the Prophet
the swift
animal to ride on. The latter agreed provided that he would pay its price. They
took with them the food provisions that Asma’, daughter of Abu Bakr, brought and
tied in a bundle of her waistband, after tearing it into two parts, hence the
appellation attached to her: "Asma’ of the two waistbands." The Prophet
, Abu Bakr
and ‘Amir bin Fuhairah departed, and their guide ‘Abdullah bin Uraiquit led them
on hardly ever trodden ways along the coastal route. That was in Rabi‘ Al-Awwal,
1st year A.H., i.e. September 622 A.D. The little caravan travelled through many
villages on their way to Quba’. In this context, it is relevant to introduce
some interesting incidents that featured their wearying journey:
- One day they could find no shelter from the
scorching heat so Abu Bakr - may Allah be pleased with him - cast a glance and
found a little shade beside a rock. He cleaned the ground, spread his mantle
for the Prophet
to lie on
and himself went off in search of food. He came across a shepherd, a bedouin
boy, who was also seeking a shelter. Abu Bakr asked him for some milk and took
it to the Prophet
, cooled
it with some water and waited till the Prophet
woke up
and quenched his thirst.
- Whoever asked Abu Bakr - may Allah be
pleased with him -about the identity of his honorable companion, he would
reply that he was a man who guided him on his way. The questioner would think
that Muhammad
was a
guide, in terms of roads, whereas Abu Bakr used to mean guide to the way of
righteousness.
- Quraish, as we have already mentioned, had
declared that whoever would seize Muhammad
would
receive a hundred camels as reward. This had spurred many persons to try their
luck. Among those who were on the lookout for the Prophet
and his
companion in order to win the reward was Suraqah, the son of Malik. He, on
receiving information that a party of four, had been spotted on a certain
route, decided to pursue it secretly so that he alone should be the winner of
the reward. He mounted a swift horse and went in hot pursuit of them. On the
way the horse stumbled and he fell on the ground. On drawing a lot so as to
divine whether he should continue the chase or not, as the Arabs used to do in
such circumstances, he found the omens unpropitious. But the lust for material
wealth blinded him altogether and he resumed the chase. Once more he met with
the same fate but paid no heed to it. Again he jumped onto the saddle and
galloped at a break-neck speed till he came quite close to the Prophet
. Abu
Bakr’s heart agitated and he kept looking back while the Prophet
remained
steadfast and continued reciting verses of the Qur’ân.
- The party continued its journey until it
reached to solitary tents belonging to a woman called Umm Ma‘bad Al-Khuza‘iyah.
She was a gracious lady who sat at her tent-door with a mat spread out for any
chance traveller that might pass by the way. Fatigued and thirsty, the Prophet
and his
companions wanted to refresh themselves with food and some milk. The lady told
them that the flock was out in the pasture and the goat standing nearby was
almost dry. It was a rainless year. The Prophet
, with her
permission, touched its udders, reciting over them the Name of Allâh, and to
their great joy, there flowed plenty of milk out of them. The Prophet
first
offered that to the lady of the house, and he shared what was left with the
members of the party. Before he left, he milked the goat, filled the container
and gave it to Umm Ma‘bad. Later on, her husband arrived with slender goats
hardly having any milk in their udders. He was astonished to see milk in the
house. His wife told him that a blessed man passed by the way, and then she
gave details about his physical appearance and manner of talk. Here Abu Ma‘bad
realized on the spot that the man was the one whom Quraish were searching for
and asked her to give full description of him. She gave a wonderful account of
his physique and manners, to which we will go in detail later in the process
of talking about his attributes and merits.
- Abu Ma‘bad, after listening to his wife’s
account, expressed a sincere wish to accompany the Prophet
whenever
that was possible, and reiterated his admiration in verses of poetry that
echoed all over Makkah to such an extent that the people therein thought it
was a jinn inculcating words in their ears. Asma’, daughter of Abu Bakr, on
hearing those lines, got to know that the two companions were heading for
Madinah .
The short poem opened with thanks giving to Allâh having given them (the
Ma‘bads) the chance to host the Prophet
for a
while. It then gave an account of the bliss that would settle in the heart of
the Prophet’s companion whosoever he was; it closed with an invitation to all
mankind to come and see by themselves Umm Ma‘bad, her goat and the container
of milk that would all testify to the truthfulness of the Prophet
.
- On his way to Madinah , the Prophet
met Abu
Buraidah, one of those driven by their lust for the reward of Quraish. No
sooner did he face the Prophet
and talk
with him, than he embraced Islam along with seventy of his men. He took off
his turban, tied it round his lance and took it as a banner bearing witness
that the angel of security and peace had come to imbue the whole world with
justice and fairness.
- The two Emigrants resumed their journey. It
was during this time that they met Az-Zubair at the head of a caravan
returning from Syria. There was warm greeting and Az-Zubair presented to them
two white garments which they thankfully accepted.
On Monday, 8th Rabi‘ Al-Awwal, the fourteenth
year of Prophethood, i.e. September 23rd. 622, the Messenger of Allâh arrived at
Quba’.
As soon as the news of Muhammad’s arrival began
to spread, crowds came flocking out of Madinah . They would come every morning
and wait eagerly for his appearance until forced by the unbearable heat of the
midday sun to return. One day they had gone as usual, and after a long wait and
watch they retired to the city when a Jew, catching a glimpse of three
travelers clad in white winding their way to Madinah , shouted from the top of
a hillock: "O you people of Arabia! Your grandfather has come! He, whom you have
been eagerly waiting for, has come!" The Muslims immediately rushed holding
their weapons, (to defend him). The joyful news soon spread through the city and
people marched forward to greet their noble guest.
Ibn Al-Qayyim said: "The shouts of ‘Allâhu
Akbar’ (Allâh is Great) resounded in Banu ‘Amr bin ‘Auf. Muhammad’s
elation
correspondingly increased, but with rare sense of timing and propriety, called a
halt. Serenity enveloped him and the revelation was sent down:
- "... then verily, Allâh is his Maula (Lord,
Master or Protector), and Gabriel, and the righteous among the believers, -
and furthermore, the angels - are his helpers." [66:4]
‘Urwah bin Az-Zubair said: They received the
Messenger of Allâh
, and went
with them to the right. There Banu ‘Amr bin ‘Awf hosted him. That was on Monday,
Rabi‘ Al-Awwal. He sat down silent, and Al-Ansar (the Helpers), who had
not had the opportunity to see him before, came in to greet him: It is said that
the sun became too hot so Abu Bakr stood up to shade him from the hot sun rays. It was really an unprecedented day in Madinah . The Jews could perceive
concretely the veracity of their Prophet Habquq, who said: ‘God has come from
At-Taiman, and the Qudus one from Faran Mount.’
Muhammad
stayed in
Quba’ with Kulthum bin Al-Hadm, a hospitable chief of the tribe of ‘Amr bin
‘Awf. Here he spent four days: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday . It was
during this period that the foundation of Quba’ Mosque was laid on the basis of
pure piety.
Qubaa Mosque
‘Ali hung back in Makkah for three days to
return the trusts, on behalf of the Prophet
, to their
respective owners. After that he started his emigration journey to catch up with
him at Quba’.
On Friday morning, the Prophet
, sent for
Bani An-Najjar, his maternal uncles, to come and escort him and Abu Bakr to
Madinah . He rode towards the new headquarters amidst the cordial greetings of
his Madinese followers who had lined his path. He halted at a place in the vale
of Banu Salim and there he performed his Friday prayer with a hundred others. Meanwhile the tribes and families of
Madinah , the new name for Yathrib and a short form of ‘The Messenger’s
Madinah (City)’, came streaming forth, and vied with one another in inviting
the noble visitor to their homes. The girls of the Madinese used to chant
beautiful verses of welcome rich in all meanings of obedience and dutifulness to
the new Messenger.
Though not wealthy, every Ansar (Helper)
was wholeheartedly eager and anxious to receive the Messenger in his house. It
was indeed a triumphal procession. Around the camel of Muhammad
and his
immediate followers, rode the chiefs of the city in their best raiment and in
glittering armor, everyone saying: "Alight here O Messenger of Allâh, abide by
us." Muhammad
used to
answer everyone courteously and kindly: "This camel is commanded by Allâh,
wherever it stops, that will be my abode."
The camel moved onward with slackened rein,
reached the site of the Prophetic Mosque and knelt down. He did not dismount
until it rose up again, went on forward, turned back and then returned to kneel
down in the very former spot. Here, he alighted in a quarter inhabited by Banu
Najjar, a tribe related to the Prophet
from the
maternal side. In fact, it was his wish to honor his maternal uncles and live
among them. The fortunate host, Abu Ayyub Al-Ansari, stepped forward with
unbounded joy for the Divine blessing appropriated to him, welcomed the Noble
Guest and solicited him to enter his house.
A few days later, there arrived the Prophet’s
spouse Sawdah, his two daughters Fatimah and Umm Kulthum, Usama bin Zaid, Umm
Aiman, ‘Abdullah — son of Abu Bakr with Abu Bakr’s house-hold including ‘Aishah. Zainab was not able to emigrate and stayed
with her husband Abi Al-‘As till Badr Battle.
‘Aishah - may Allah be pleased with her - said:
"When the Messenger of Allâh
arrived in
Madinah , both Abu Bakr and Bilal fell ill. I used to attend to their needs.
When the fever took firm grip of Abu Bakr he used to recite verses of poetry
that smacked of near death; Bilal, when the fit of fever alleviated, would also
recite verses of poetry that pointed to clear homesickness." ‘Aishah - may Allah
be pleased with her - added:
"I briefed the Prophet
on their
grave situation, and he replied: O Allâh, we entreat You to establish in our
hearts a strong love for Madinah equal to that we used to have for Makkah, or
even more. O Allâh, bless and increase the wealth of Madinah and we beseech You
to transmute its rotten mud into wholesome edible fat."
Reference: Ar-Raheeq Al-Makhtum
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