The beginning of the Hijra from Mecca to Medina

The dream of the land of palm trees and the designation of Medina

The chapter of the beginning of the Hijra from Mecca to Medina. az-Zuhri reported, from Urwa, from A’isha: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), while he was in Mecca, said to the Muslims: "the place of your emigration has been shown to me: I have been shown a marshy plain with palm trees between two lava fields." The Muslims emigrated toward Medina when the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) mentioned it, and those of the Muslims who had emigrated to the land of Abyssinia returned to Medina. Al-Bukhari reported it.

And Abu Musa reported from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): "I saw in a dream that I would emigrate from Mecca to a land with palm trees, and I thought it was al-Yamama or Hajar: and behold, it was Medina, Yathrib." And this hadith, al-Bukhari reported it elsewhere in its long form, and Muslim reported it, both from Abu Kurayb. Muslim added: and Abdallah ibn Barrad, both from Abu Usama, from Burayd ibn Abdallah ibn Abi Burda, from his grandfather Abu Burda, from Abu Musa Abdallah ibn Qays al-Ash’ari, from the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), the hadith in its long form.

And the hafiz Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us by dictation: Abu l-Abbas al-Qasim ibn al-Qasim as-Sayyari informed us, in Marv: Ibrahim ibn Hilal told us, from Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Shaqiq, from Isa ibn Ubayd al-Kindi, from Ghaylan ibn Abdallah al-Amiri, from Abu Zur’a ibn Amr ibn Jarir, from Jarir: the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah inspired me: of these three lands, the one in which you have settled is the place of your emigration: Medina, or al-Bahrayn, or Qinnasrin." The people of knowledge said: Medina was then designated for him, and he commanded his companions to emigrate to it. This is a very strange hadith. And at-Tirmidhi reported it in the merits, in his Jami’, alone through this chain, from Abu Ammar al-Husayn ibn Hurayth, from al-Fadl ibn Musa, from Isa ibn Ubayd, from Ghaylan ibn Abdallah al-Amiri, from Abu Zur’a ibn Amr ibn Jarir, from Jarir: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "Allah inspired me: of these three, the one in which you have settled is the place of your emigration: Medina, or al-Bahrayn, or Qinnasrin." Then he said: strange: we know it only from the hadith of al-Fadl, and Abu Ammar is its sole transmitter. I say: and this Ghaylan ibn Abdallah al-Amiri, Ibn Hibban mentioned him in ath-Thiqat, but he said: he reported from Abu Zur’a a strange hadith about the emigration. And Allah knows best.

The permission to fight and the order to emigrate

Ibn Ishaq said: when Allah the Most High permitted fighting, by His word: "Permission to fight is given to those who are fought, because they have been wronged; and Allah is surely Able to help them - those who have been expelled from their homes unjustly, only because they said: Our Lord is Allah", the verses of al-Hajj, from the thirty-ninth to the fortieth: and when Allah permitted fighting, and this group of the Ansar had pledged allegiance to him on Islam and on support, for him and for whoever followed him of the Muslims who would come to them, the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) commanded his companions of the emigrants of his people, and the Muslims who were with him in Mecca, to go out to Medina, to emigrate to it, and to join their brothers of the Ansar, and he said: "Allah has made for you brothers, and a dwelling place in which you will be safe." So they went out one by one, and the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) stayed in Mecca, awaiting his Lord’s permission to leave Mecca and emigrate to Medina.

The first of his companions of the emigrants of Quraysh, of Banu Makhzum, to emigrate to Medina was Abu Salama, Abdallah ibn Abd al-Asad ibn Hilal ibn Abdallah ibn Umar ibn Makhzum: his emigration to it was a year before the pledge of al-Aqaba, when Quraysh had harmed him on his return from Abyssinia: so he resolved to return to it, then he learned that he had brothers in Medina, and resolved for it.

Umm Salama’s odyssey and the nobility of Uthman ibn Talha

Ibn Ishaq said: my father told me, from Salama ibn Abdallah ibn Umar ibn Abi Salama, from his grandmother Umm Salama: when Abu Salama resolved to go out to Medina, he saddled his camel for me, loaded me upon it, and placed my son Salama ibn Abu Salama in my lap: then he went out, leading me on his camel. When the men of Banu al-Mughira saw him, they rose to him and said: it is yourself that you take away, you have overpowered us in that: do you think we shall leave our woman to go wandering with you through the land? They tore the camel’s halter from his hand and took me. Umm Salama said: Banu Abd al-Asad, the clan of Abu Salama, became angry at that and said: by Allah, we shall not leave our son with her, since you have taken away her companion. They disputed my son Salama among them until they dislocated his arm: and Banu Abd al-Asad went off with him, Banu al-Mughira detained me with them, and my husband Abu Salama went to Medina: I was separated from my son and my husband.

Umm Salama said: I would go out every morning and sit in the open plain, and I kept weeping until evening, for a year, or nearly, until a man of my cousins, one of Banu al-Mughira, passed by me: he saw my state, pitied me, and said to Banu al-Mughira: will you not let this poor woman go, you who have separated her from her husband and her child? They said to me: go to your husband if you wish. Banu Abd al-Asad then returned my son to me. I saddled my camel, took my son and placed him in my lap, then I went out seeking my husband in Medina, with no one of Allah’s creation with me, until, being at at-Tan’im, I met Uthman ibn Talha ibn Abi Talha, the milk brother of Banu Abd ad-Dar. He said: where are you going, O daughter of Abu Umayya?

I said: I seek my husband in Medina. He said: is no one with you? I said: no one is with me but Allah and this son of mine. He said: by Allah, you have no resting place. He took the camel’s halter and set off with me, keeping apart from me: and by Allah, I never accompanied a man of the Arabs whom I found nobler than he. Whenever he reached a halting place he would kneel my camel, then withdraw from me; when I dismounted he withdrew with his camel, unloaded it, tethered it to a tree, then drew aside to a tree and lay down beneath it. When evening drew near he would rise to my camel, bring it forward and saddle it, then withdraw from me and say: mount. When I had mounted and taken my seat on my camel, he would come, take the halter, and lead me until he brought me down. He ceased not doing so with me until he brought me into Medina. When he looked upon the village of Banu Amr ibn Awf at Quba, he said: your husband is in this village, enter it with the blessing of Allah: and Abu Salama was staying there. Then he returned toward Mecca. She used to say: I know no household in Islam that met what the family of Abu Salama met, and I never saw a companion nobler than Uthman ibn Talha.

And this Uthman ibn Talha ibn Abi Talha al-Abdari accepted Islam after al-Hudaybiya, and emigrated along with Khalid ibn al-Walid. And his father and his brothers were killed on the day of Uhud: al-Harith, Kilab and Musafi’, and his uncle Uthman ibn Abi Talha. And the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) gave him, on the day of the conquest, to him and his cousin Shayba, father of Banu Shayba, the keys of the Kaaba: he confirmed it to them in Islam as it was in the Jahiliyya. And concerning that the word of the Most High came down: "Certes, Allah commands you to render the trusts to those entitled to them", the fifty-eighth verse of an-Nisa.

The empty house of Banu Jahsh and Abu Ahmad ibn Jahsh’s poem

Ibn Ishaq said: then the first to reach it of the emigrants, after Abu Salama, was Amir ibn Rabi’a, ally of Banu Adi, with his wife Layla bint Abi Hathma al-Adawiyya; then Abdallah ibn Jahsh ibn Ri’ab ibn Ya’mar ibn Sabra ibn Murra ibn Kathir ibn Ghanm ibn Daudan ibn Asad ibn Khuzayma, ally of Banu Umayya ibn Abd Shams: he departed with his family and his brother Abu Ahmad, who was named Abd, as Ibn Ishaq mentioned, and it is said: Thamama. as-Suhayli said: the first name is more correct. And Abu Ahmad was a man blind of sight: he used to circle Mecca, its upper and lower parts, without a guide, and he was a poet. And with him was al-Fari’a bint Abi Sufyan ibn Harb, whose mother was Umayma bint Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim. The house of Banu Jahsh was therefore shut, emptied of its people. Utbah ibn Rabi’a passed by it, with al-Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Abu Jahl ibn Hisham, as they were climbing to the upper part of Mecca. Utbah looked at it, its doors swinging, no dweller in it: when he saw it so, he breathed at the heights and said:

Every house, however long its peace, shall one day have calamity and distress seize it.

Ibn Hisham said: this verse is of Abu Dawud al-Iyadi, in a qasida of his. as-Suhayli said: Abu Dawud’s name is Handhala ibn Sharqiyya. And it is said: Jariya. Then Utbah said: the house of Banu Jahsh has become empty of its people. Abu Jahl said: what will you weep over it for, from the scarcity of scarcity? Then he said, meaning to al-Abbas: this is of the work of this nephew of yours: he has divided our community, scattered our affair, and cut between us.

Ibn Ishaq said: Abu Salama, Amir ibn Rabi’a and the Banu Jahsh alighted at Quba, with Mubashshir ibn Abd al-Mundhir. Then the emigrants arrived one by one. And the Banu Ghanm ibn Daudan were people of Islam who had heard the call of emigration to Medina, their men and their women: Abdallah ibn Jahsh, his brother Abu Ahmad, ’Uqqasha ibn Mihsan, Shuja’ and ’Uqba sons of Wahb, Arbad ibn Humayra, Munchidh ibn Nubata, Sa’id ibn Ruqaych, Muhriz ibn Nadla, Yazid ibn Ruqaych, Qays ibn Jabir, Amr ibn Mihsan, Malik ibn Amr, Safwan ibn Amr, Thaqf ibn Amr, Rabi’a ibn Aktham, az-Zubayr ibn Ubayda, Tammam ibn Ubayda, Sakhbara ibn Ubayda, and Muhammad ibn Abdallah ibn Jahsh. And among their women: Zaynab bint Jahsh, Hamna bint Jahsh, Umm Habib bint Jahsh, Juzama bint Jandal, Umm Qays bint Mihsan, Umm Habib bint Thamama, Amina bint Ruqaych and Sakhbara bint Tamim. Abu Ahmad ibn Jahsh said a poem at their emigration to Medina:

When Abu Ahmad’s mother saw me set out at morning, under the guarantee of Him I fear in the unseen, and the most feared,

She said: if you must truly do it, then steer us through the lands, and let Yathrib be far,

I said to her: what is Yathrib to the uncertain? And what the Merciful wills, the servant rides to.

To Allah my face, and to the Messenger, and whoever turns his face to Allah one day shall not be disappointed.

How many sincere kin we have left, and kinswomen who weep and lament,

You see that our leaving our land is a misfortune, while we see that we seek the aspirations.

I called the Banu Ghanm to the joining of their blood, and to the truth, when the refuge rose for the people,

They answered, praise to Allah, when the caller called them to the truth: to success they were receptive.

And we were with companions who had forsaken the guidance: they aided against us with weapons and banded together,

Like two companies: one of them is guided, upheld upon the truth, and a company punished.

They rebelled and wished for a lie: Iblis turned them from the truth, and they failed and were disappointed.

We turned to the word of the Prophet Muhammad: the guardians of truth favored us and received us well.

I inherited by kin near to them: but no nearness with kin when one is not drawn near,

What sister’s son, after us, will make you secure? And what alliance, after my alliance, will be awaited?

You shall know one day which of us, when they gave way and the people’s affair was removed for the truth, is the soundest.

The trap set for ’Ayyash ibn Abi Rabia and the repentance of Hisham ibn al-’As

Ibn Ishaq said: then Umar ibn al-Khattab and ’Ayyash ibn Abi Rabia went out, and they reached Medina. Nafi’ told me, from Abdallah ibn Umar, from his father: when we intended to emigrate to Medina, I and ’Ayyash ibn Abi Rabia and Hisham ibn al-’As made an appointment at at-Tana’dib, by the millstone of Banu Ghifar above Sarif, and we said: whichever of us is not there at morning has been detained: let his two companions go on. Umar said: I was at morning at at-Tana’dib, I and ’Ayyash, and Hisham was detained: he was tempted and fell into temptation. When we reached Medina we alighted with Banu Amr ibn Awf at Quba. Abu Jahl ibn Hisham and al-Harith ibn Hisham went out to ’Ayyash, who was their cousin and the milk brother of their mother, until they reached Medina, while the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was in Mecca. They spoke to him and said to him: your mother has vowed that no comb shall touch her head until she sees you, nor take shade from the sun until she sees you, and he was softened for her. I said to him: by Allah, this people want from you only to tempt you away from your religion, so beware of them: for by Allah, were lice to afflict your mother she would comb her hair, and were the heat of Mecca to grow severe upon her she would take shade.

He said: I shall fulfill my mother’s vow; and there I have wealth that I shall take. I said: by Allah, you know I am among the richest of Quraysh in wealth: half of my wealth is yours, and do not go with the two of them. He refused me, insisting on going out with them. When he insisted on that I said: now that you have done what you have done, take this she-camel of mine: it is a docile, tractable she-camel: keep to its back, and if any doubt of the people’s affair comes upon you, save yourself upon it. He went out upon it with the two of them, until, being on part of the road, Abu Jahl said to him: O brother, by Allah my camel has become heavy: will you not exchange with me upon your she-camel? He said: yes.

They knelt the two so that he might mount her: and when they were upon the ground they leaped upon him, bound him, then entered Mecca with him: and they tempted him, and he fell into temptation. Umar said: we used to say: Allah does not accept the repentance of one who fell into temptation. And they used to say that about themselves until the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to Medina, and Allah sent down: "Say: O My servants who have committed excesses against their own souls, do not despair of the mercy of Allah. Surely Allah forgives all sins. Truly He is the All-Forgiving, the Most Merciful. And turn in repentance to your Lord, and submit to Him, before there comes to you the punishment and you receive no help. And follow the best of what has been sent down to you from your Lord, before the punishment comes upon you suddenly while you do not perceive", the verses of az-Zumar, from the fifty-third to the fifty-fifth. Umar said: I wrote it with my hand and sent it to Hisham ibn al-’As.

Hisham said: when it came to me I would recite it at Dhi Tuwa, ascending with it and correcting myself, not understanding it, until I said: O Allah, make me understand it. Allah cast into my heart that it had been sent down only concerning us, and what we used to say within ourselves and was said of us. So I returned to my camel, sat upon it, and joined the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) in Medina. Ibn Hisham mentioned that the one who brought Hisham ibn al-’As and ’Ayyash ibn Abi Rabia to Medina was al-Walid ibn al-Walid ibn al-Mughira: he stole them out of Mecca, carrying them on his camel while walking with them: he stumbled, and his finger bled. He said:

Are you but a finger that has bled, and what you met was on the path of Allah.

The first arrivals in Medina and Suhayb’s sacrifice

And al-Bukhari said: Abu l-Walid told us: Shu’ba told us: Abu Ishaq informed us: I heard al-Bara’ say: the first to come to us was Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr and Ibn Umm Maktum, then Ammar and Bilal came to us.

And Muhammad ibn Bashshar told me: Ghundar told us, from Shu’ba, from Abu Ishaq: I heard al-Bara’ ibn ’Azib say: the first to come to us was Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr and Ibn Umm Maktum, and they would teach the people the Quran. Then Bilal, Sa’d and Ammar ibn Yasir came. Then Umar ibn al-Khattab came, with twenty of the companions of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). Then the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came. And I never saw the people of Medina rejoice in anything as they rejoiced in the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): until the slave girls took to saying: the Messenger of Allah has come! Before he had come I had already recited: "Glorify the name of your Lord, the Most High", in a surah of al-Mufassal. And Muslim reported it in his Sahih, from the hadith of Isra’il, from Abu Ishaq, from al-Bara’ ibn ’Azib, in like manner: and therein it states explicitly that Sa’d ibn Abi Waqqas emigrated before the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to Medina. Musa ibn ’Uqba, from az-Zuhri, claimed that he only emigrated after the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): and the correct is what precedes.

Ibn Ishaq said: when Umar ibn al-Khattab came to Medina, he and those of his people who joined him: his brother Zayd ibn al-Khattab, Amr and Abdallah sons of Suraqa ibn al-Mu’tamir, Khunays ibn Hudhafa as-Sahmi, husband of his daughter Hafsa, his cousin Sa’id ibn Zayd ibn Amr ibn Nufayl, Waqid ibn Abdallah at-Tamimi, their ally, Khulay ibn Abi Khulay and Malik ibn Abi Khulay, allies of Banu ’Ijl, and the Banu al-Bukayr: Iyas, Khalid, ’Aqil and Amir, and their allies of Banu Sa’d ibn Layth: they alighted with Rafa’a ibn Abd al-Mundhir ibn Zanbar, with Banu Amr ibn Awf, at Quba.

Ibn Ishaq said: then the emigrants followed in succession: Talha ibn Ubaydallah and Suhayb ibn Sinan alighted with Khubayb ibn Isaf, brother of Bal-Harith ibn al-Khazraj, at as-Sunh. And it is said: rather Talha alighted with As’ad ibn Zurara. Ibn Hisham said: it was related to me from Abu ’Uthman an-Nahdi that he said: it reached me that when Suhayb intended to emigrate, the disbelievers of Quraysh said to him: you came to us poor and lowly, your wealth grew with us and you attained what you attained, and now you intend to go out with your wealth and your self? By Allah, that shall not be. Suhayb said to them: what do you think: if I made over my wealth to you, would you let me go? They said: yes. He said: I have made over my wealth to you. That reached the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), and he said: "Suhayb has profited, Suhayb has profited."

And al-Bayhaqi said: the hafiz Abu Abdallah informed us by dictation: Abu l-Abbas Isma’il ibn Abdallah ibn Muhammad ibn Mikal informed us: ’Abdan al-Ahwazi informed us: Zayd ibn al-Harith told us, from Ya’qub ibn Muhammad az-Zuhri, from Husayn ibn Hudhayfa ibn Sayfi ibn Suhayb: my father and my uncles told me, from Sa’id ibn al-Musayyab, from Suhayb: the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "the place of your emigration was shown to me: a marshy plain between two lava tracts: it will be Hajar, or it will be Yathrib." The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) went out to Medina, and Abu Bakr went out with him. And I had resolved with him to go out, but young men of Quraysh barred me. I spent that night standing, not sitting: they said: Allah has busied him with his belly. And I was not ill. They slept, and I went out: and after I had traveled swiftly, some of them caught up with me to turn me back. I said to them: would you accept that I give you ounces of gold, and you let me go and free me? They did so. I accompanied them to Mecca, then I said: dig beneath the threshold of the door: beneath it are ounces: and go to so-and-so and take the two garments. I went out and came upon the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) at Quba before he had moved from it. When he saw me he said: "O Abu Yahya, the trade has profited," three times. I said: O Messenger of Allah, no one has outstripped me to you: and only Jibril (peace be upon him) informed you.

Ansar hospitality: where the emigrants alighted

Ibn Ishaq said: there alighted also Hamza ibn Abd al-Muttalib, Zayd ibn Haritha, Abu Marthad Kannaz ibn al-Husayn and his son Marthad, the two Ghanawi, allies of Hamza, along with Anasa and Abu Kabsha, freedmen of the Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him): with Kulthum ibn Hidm, brother of Banu Amr ibn Awf, at Quba. And it is said: with Sa’d ibn Khaythama. And it is said: rather Hamza alighted with As’ad ibn Zurara. And Allah knows best. He said: there alighted also Ubayda ibn al-Harith and his two brothers at-Tufayl and Husayn, Mistah ibn Uthatha, Suwaybit ibn Sa’d ibn Hurayla, brother of Banu Abd ad-Dar, and Tulayb ibn ’Umayr, brother of Banu Abd ibn QuSayy, and Khabbab, freedman of Utbah ibn Ghazwan: with Abdallah ibn Salama, brother of Bal’jalan, at Quba. And Abd ar-Rahman ibn ’Awf alighted, with men of the emigrants, with Sa’d ibn ar-Rabi’. And az-Zubayr ibn al-’Awwam and Abu Sabra ibn Abi Ruhm alighted with Mundhir ibn Muhammad ibn ’Uqba ibn Uhayha ibn al-Julah, at al-’Usba, the house of Banu Jahjaba. Mus’ab ibn ’Umayr alighted with Sa’d ibn Mu’adh.

And Abu Hudhayfa ibn Utbah and Salim, his freedman, alighted with: Ibn Ishaq doubted here, and al-Umawi said: with Khubayb ibn Isaf, brother of Banu Haritha. And Utbah ibn Ghazwan alighted with Abbad ibn Bishr ibn Waqsh, among Banu Abd al-Ashhal. And Uthman ibn ’Affan alighted with Aws ibn Thabit ibn al-Mundhir, brother of Hassan ibn Thabit, in the house of Banu an-Najjar. Ibn Ishaq said: and the bachelors of the emigrants alighted with Sa’d ibn Khaythama: for he was a bachelor. And Allah knows best about all of that.

And Ya’qub ibn Sufyan said: Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr ibn al-Harith ibn Zurara ibn Mus’ab ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn ’Awf told me: Abd al-Aziz ibn Muhammad told us, from Ubaydallah, from Nafi’, from Ibn Umar: we came from Mecca and alighted at al-’Usba: Umar ibn al-Khattab, Abu Ubayda ibn al-Jarrah and Salim, freedman of Abu Hudhayfa: and Salim, freedman of Abu Hudhayfa, led them in prayer, for he was the most versed of them in the Quran.