Home > Sira > The First Year of the Prophetic Hijra
The year 1 of the Hijra: the Hijri calendar, the mosque of Qouba, the Islam of Abdallah ibn Salam, the first Friday prayer, the building of the Prophet's mosque, the fever of Medina, the covenant with the Jews and the brotherhood of the emigrants and the Ansar.
Updated on 07 October 2026 at 8:45 AM
Part of: The Year 1 of the Hijra: the Arrival in Medina and the Foundations of the City
When the Prophet left Qouba riding his she-camel al-Qaswa, it was a Friday, and the time of midday overtook him in the house of the Banu Salim ibn Awf: there he prayed the Friday prayer with the Muslims, in a valley called the valley of Ranouna. It was the first Friday prayer the Messenger of Allah prayed with the Muslims in Medina, or without restriction: for in Mecca he and his companions could not gather to hold a Friday prayer with sermon and public exhortation, because of the opposition of the polytheists and their persecution.
Ibn Jarir reports what reached him of the Prophet’s sermon on that first Friday among the Banu Salim ibn Awf: "Praise belongs to Allah: I praise Him, seek His aid, His forgiveness and His guidance, I believe in Him without denying Him, and I declare enmity against whoever denies Him. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner, and that Mohamed is His servant and His messenger: He sent him with guidance, light and exhortation, after a break in the messengers, a scarcity of knowledge and the straying of men, at the approach of the Hour and the nearness of the term. Whoever obeys Allah and His messenger is rightly guided, and whoever disobeys the two of them has strayed far astray. I counsel you the fear of Allah: there is no better counsel from a Muslim to a Muslim than to urge him toward the Hereafter and command him the fear of Allah.
Beware then of that of which Allah has warned you concerning Himself: there is no better counsel than that, no nobler reminder. It is fear for whoever acts upon it in awe and dread a sincere aid in what you seek of the affair of the Hereafter; and whoever sets right what is between him and Allah, in secret and in public, intending thereby only the Face of Allah, gains thereby a remembrance in the near term of his life and a store for after death, when man is in need of what he sent ahead, while the rest would have him wish for a long respite between him and it.
Allah warns you of Himself, and Allah is gentle with the servants, true in His word and fulfilling His promise, without failing therein: for He the Most High says: no change is there in the words of Allah, and I am not unjust to the servants. Fear Allah in the near and the far of your affairs, in secret and in open: whoever fears Allah, He expiates his evil deeds and magnifies his reward, and whoever fears Allah has won a mighty triumph. The fear of Allah wards off His hatred, His punishment and His wrath; it whitens the face, pleases the Lord and raises the degree. Take your portion, and do not neglect the side of Allah: He has taught you His Book and cleared for you His path, that the truthful may be known and the liars known.
Be excellent as Allah has been excellent to you, fight His enemies, and strive in Allah the striving due to Him: He has chosen you and named you Muslims, that he who would perish might perish after clear evidence, and he who would live might live after clear evidence. There is no might but in Allah: remember Allah much and work for what follows death; for whoever sets right what is between him and Allah, Allah suffices him regarding what is between him and the people. Allah decrees upon the people and they do not decree upon Him, and He owns them and they own nothing of Him. Allah is greater, and there is no might but in Allah, the Most High, the Magnificent."
Such is that sermon as Ibn Jarir relates it, in a discontinuous chain.
The Bayhaqi reports from Ibn Ishaq, from Abou Salama ibn Abd ar-Rahman ibn Awf, that the first sermon the Messenger of Allah delivered in Medina was this: he stood, praised Allah as He deserves, then said: "O people, send ahead for yourselves: by Allah, one of you will surely be made deaf, then leave his flock without a shepherd, then his Lord will say to him, with no interpreter before him and no veil to conceal Him: did My messenger not come to you and convey to you, and did I not give you wealth and favour you, and what did you send ahead for yourself? He will look right and left and see nothing, then look before him and see nothing but the Gehenna. Whoever can protect his face from the Fire, even with half a date, let him do so; and whoever finds nothing, with a good word: for the good word is rewarded tenfold up to seven hundred times." Then the Messenger of Allah stood again and said: "Praise belongs to Allah: I praise Him and seek His aid, and we seek refuge in Allah from the evils of our souls and the sins of our deeds:
whoever Allah guides none can lead astray, and whoever He leads astray none can guide. I bear witness that there is no deity but Allah, alone without partner. The best of speech is the Book of Allah: blessed is he whom Allah beautifies with it in his heart, whom He brings into Islam after disbelief, and whom He prefers to all other speech of men; it is the best of speech and the most eloquent. Love him whom Allah loves; love Allah with all your hearts, do not grow weary of the word of Allah and His remembrance, and let not your hearts harden against Him: for Allah chooses and prefers of everything, and names His chosen among deeds, among servants and among upright speech. Worship Allah and associate nothing with Him, fear Him as He should be feared, be true to Allah in what your mouths utter, and love one another by the spirit of Allah: Allah becomes angry when His covenant is broken." Both routes are discontinuous, but they strengthen one another despite the difference of wording.