The Migration to Madinah

The Hijra — the migration from Makkah to Madinah in 622 CE — is among the most pivotal events in Islamic history. Its significance was recognized by the early Muslim community: the Islamic calendar begins not with the birth of the Prophet, not with the first revelation, but with the Hijra, reflecting a communal judgment that this event marked the beginning of the Islamic civilization as a social and political reality. Mubarakpuri's account is among the most detailed and evocative treatments of this dramatic episode.

The background to the Hijra was the growing opposition in Makkah and the extraordinary development in Yathrib (later Madinah). At the pilgrimage season, twelve men from Yathrib had pledged their allegiance to the Prophet in the First Pledge of Aqabah, followed the next year by seventy-three men and two women in the Second Pledge. These Madinans — the Ansar (Helpers) — promised to protect the Prophet as they would protect their own families, providing a secure base for the migration.

When the Quraysh's conspiracy to assassinate the Prophet was revealed through divine warning, the Prophet instructed his Companions to begin migrating to Madinah. The departure of the Prophet himself, accompanied by Abu Bakr, was a scene of extraordinary drama: slipping out of Makkah at night while Ali slept in his bed as a decoy, the Prophet and Abu Bakr took an unusual southern route toward a cave in Mount Thawr where they hid for three days. The cave episode — when the Quraysh search party came within feet of their hiding place and Abu Bakr's anxiety prompted the divine consolation 'Do not grieve; indeed Allah is with us' (9:40) — is one of the most intimate moments of prophetic biography.

Mubarakpuri traces the journey from Thawr to Madinah through the desert, guided by the tracker Abdullah ibn Urayqit, passing through places that later generations would identify and honor. The reception at Quba — where the Prophet rested for days and laid the foundation of the first mosque in Islamic history — and the triumphal entry into Yathrib/Madinah are described with reference to the contemporary sources: the women and children of the Ansar singing songs of welcome, the crowd pressing to hold the bridle of the Prophet's camel, and the Prophet choosing the site of his mosque by allowing the camel to stop where it would.

The chapter also covers the remarkable institution-building that immediately followed the arrival in Madinah: the construction of the Prophet's mosque (which served simultaneously as worship space, community meeting place, and administrative center), the establishment of the brotherhood (mu'akhat) between the Muhajirun and Ansar, and the drafting of the Constitution of Madinah — a remarkable political document that organized the diverse tribes and communities of Madinah into a single polity under the Prophet's leadership. This immediate constitutional ordering reflects the Prophet's extraordinary capacity for practical governance alongside his spiritual mission.