The Migration to Abyssinia and the Persecution Period

When the persecution of the Muslims in Makkah intensified and no tribal protection was sufficient to shield the vulnerable converts, the Prophet directed a group of his followers to emigrate to Abyssinia, a Christian kingdom ruled by the Negus (al-Najashi) Ashama ibn Abjar, of whom the Prophet said: 'There is a king there who wrongs no one, and it is a land of truthfulness.' Al-Suhayli annotates this directive carefully, noting that the migration to Abyssinia preceded the better-known migration to Madinah by more than a decade and that it represents an important chapter in early Islamic history that is sometimes overshadowed by the later Hijra. He discusses the composition of the migrating group, which included men and women of various social backgrounds, and notes that Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayya bint Muhammad, the Prophet's own daughter, were among them.

The speech of Ja'far ibn Abi Talib before the Negus is preserved in the Sira and is annotated by al-Suhayli as a model of effective religious communication. When the Quraysh sent emissaries to demand the return of the emigrants, the Negus gave the Muslims the opportunity to speak. Ja'far presented the Islamic message concisely: the pre-Islamic condition of Arabia, the divine guidance brought by the Prophet, the Islamic affirmation of the prophethood of Jesus and the virginal conception of Mary as expressed in the Quran, and the refusal to return to what they had left. Al-Suhayli notes that the Negus wept upon hearing the Quranic verses about Jesus and Mary, and that he extended his protection to the Muslim emigrants, declining the gifts of the Qurayshi emissaries.

The significance of this episode for Islamic-Christian relations has long been recognized. Al-Suhayli observes that the Negus found the Islamic position on Jesus compatible with his own sincere faith, even if the theological formulations differed from the councils' definitions. When the Negus died, the Prophet is reported in authenticated narrations to have prayed the funeral prayer in absentia (salah al-gha'ib) for him, which al-Suhayli takes as evidence that the Negus died as a believer. The episode demonstrates that the early Muslim community's engagement with Christians was not invariably hostile, and that the Quran's nuanced differentiation between different Christian communities reflects genuine distinctions that the Prophet himself recognized.

The persecution period in Makkah, including the social and economic boycott of Banu Hashim imposed by the Quraysh, is presented by al-Suhayli as the crucible in which the early Muslim community was formed. The three-year confinement in the valley of Shi'b Abi Talib, where the Muslims and their supporters suffered hunger and deprivation, tested the conviction of the believers. Al-Suhayli notes that this period ended only when several prominent Qurayshis, moved by conscience, tore up the document of boycott that had been hung in the Ka'ba. The deaths of both Khadijah and Abu Talib in the same year, which the Prophet called the Year of Grief (Am al-Huzn), concluded the Makkan period and set the stage for the emigration to Madinah.