Q. & A. 711 to 1707 with solved Papers css 1971 to date

The Hijrah or Emigration to Medina
83
prejudices. It goes without saying that everyone loves his home and birthplace. But migration provides through Islamic teachings a better criterion and standard of love. It is the love of Allah and the Holy Prophet for which no sacrifice is great enough. The love for Islamic ideology and a purposeful life is superior and preferable to all other kinds of love. This is the philosophy of migration in the name of Allah. Upholding the principles and ideology of Islam at all costs makes such a migration adorable, magnificent and praiseworthy.
Through migration, the Holy Prophet transported the Islamic movement from a state of helplessness and subordination to freedom and strength. It gave Muslims the opportunity and courage to challenge the idolaters in the battlefield. They were no more the silent sufferers of Makkah. In addition to that migration provided the scattered Muslims a chance to unite at one centre and pool their resources as well as numerical strength. Under the guidance and supervision of the Holy Prophet, his followers got the place and time to prove their sincerity and worth. Sacrifice, devoutness, courage and valour earned the Muslims honour and distinction as well as status in the Islamic society. Migration also provided Arab tribes an option to side with the idolaters of Makkah or embrace Islam and join the Muslims. It also gave the people of Medina an opportunity for offering sacrifices and accommodating their brothers in faith. By offering food and shelter to the migrants they were raised in status, popularly known as ”Helpers” in Islam. Migration created two distinct camps and Muslims received the mercy and blessing of Allah. It was proved in the encounters with the invading Quraysh of Makkah who were eventually defeated and subdued. All the scattered Muslims were ordered to migrate and assemble in Medina in order to face the enemy jointly and squarely.5
An important outcome of the migration was the establishment of an Islamic state of preliminary nature. Muslims found a place of refuge in Medina. In this way they were given the status and honour of a citizen of Islamic state. They were provided for and well looked after.6
According to Hugh Kennedy, ”The years of humiliation, of persecution, of seeming failure, of prophecy still unfulfilled, were over and the years of success had begun. The Holy Prophet of Islam
Ahmad Hasan. Islamic History, India. 1980. P 98 Muhammad Arshad, P 18

S4
Political and Cultural History of Islam

>i id been neglected and abused by his own people at Makkall, while
i Medina he was not only received as an honoured chief but also
inide President of the Republic.7 Before his migration to Medina,
Llam was a religion of a persecuted minority in Makkah. For long
’nrteen years, Muhammad (PBUH) had tried to convert the idolaters
M Makkah to his faith by means of peaceful preachings.8
But only a hundred Makkans families, nearly three hundred people, had accepted Islam. With the Hijrah, his power and position began to enhance and Islam was gaining ground day by day. Here he was left undisturbed to preach his mission freely among the misguided people who had giadually accepted Islam and helped in its expansion. But ”the seer in him”, says Hitti, ”now recedes into the background and the practical man of politics comes to the fore.” Muhammad (PBUH) hitherto had been a religious teacher and now he took the role of a politician and a statesman which he played equally well. Thus the great revolutionary measures of migration opened the gates of success upon the Islamic revolution. This wise step provided innumerable advantages to the Muslims and their struggle:
(1) Islamic movement was provided a centre, which became the nucleus of a state in the making. Medina was then chosen as the capital.
(2) The founder of Islamic movement in its centre was regarded as the Head of State.
(3) The call for Islam was provided an open field for propagation.
(4) The old audience were no more there. There were different types of people who were told about Islam and who readily joined the Islamic movement. The wide-open prospects of preaching was a boon for the call of Islam as new opportunities were offered and taken advantage of.
(5) The days of physical torture were over.
(6) With the establishment of Medina as the centre of Islam a golden period of success wad begun and the period of decline
7 Hugh Kenned), The Prophet (PBUH) and the Age of Caliphate, London. 1986, P33
8 Ibid c)Hitti. P 117.
The Hjjrah or Emigration to Medina 85
for non-believers and idolaters had set in. Every step took Islam forward and falsehood backward.
(7) Migration segregated the Muslims from the hypocrites 1 he Islamic movement got rid of its rotten element. Onl\ tiue believers were left in the field.
(8) Migration shifted the Muslims from a position of \veakness to that of strength. They emerged as the builders and helpers of an upcoming Islamic State. Arabs realised that Islam and the IloK Prophet had grown as a power that could not be destroyed. The masses deserted their masters and gathered under the banner of Islam which was beyond anybody’s power to uproot.
(9) Migration was the major cause of the birth of an Islamic society with all its needs and characteristics. It also strengthened the collectiveness of Muslims with all blessings that follow.
(10) After the migration, the Islamic fraternity scattered all o\ei Arab, converged in Medina thereby strengthening Islam and converting it into a formidable power.
(11) After the migration, Islam was no more an ideological concept but emerged as an ideological nation dominating all orthodox concepts of collectiveness.
(12) After reaching Medina, Muslims and idolaters \\eie identified as two warring group. The period of helplessness for Muslims was over. Opportunities of Divine help opened up. The ensuing conflicts culminated in humiliating defeat for the idolaters of Makkah and a grand victory for the Muslims known as the conquest of Makkah. Thus migration became the starting point of a victorious journey towards Makkah.
(13) Migration proved the cardinal principle of Islam that submission to Allah is the super most submission and that Allah’s path fe the best path.
(14) It was due/to migration that a non-tribal and non-racial international Islamic brotherhood emerged It was an ideological brotherhood based on equality and negation of all kinds of discrimination. In short, the strategy of migration played a dominant role in the success of Islam. ”
Asad Gilani. P 133

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