This week's guest blogger is Thomas Medhurst. He examines the events of Muhammad's emigration to Madinah. The emigration from Makkah to Madinah is so significant in Islamic history that the Islamic calendar is dated from this time.
In an AO1 question you may be asked to examine the events of the hijra as well as the events leading up to the hijra.
In the 622CE the prophet Muhammad and his disciples fled experienced persecution in the form of severe brutality that was carried out without mercy and with extreme prejudice resulting in him and those who were devoted leaving post haste to what would later be a safe haven for Muhammad and those who believed in his message this was called the Hijra.
The retreat
The journey itself does not mark the beginning of the Hijra but instead the retreat of Muhammad and his followers as the Quraysh knew of Muhammad’s plan to leave so they sent an assassin from every clan so that they could stab him simultaneously and never knew who provided the killing thrust and thus stop retribution from taking place, when the men came to his house Allah covered their eyes with mud to stop the men from seeing Ali being placed in Muhammad’s bed as a decoy, the men then fell asleep and awoke to see that Ali was in the bed instead of Muhammad.
Abu Bakr asked if he could follow the prophet on his journey to Madinah of he said yes resulting in Abu Bakr weeping.
Before Muhammad left Makkah he said “if I wasn’t forced to leave I would never have left you” and then commenced their journey.
The journey
As Muhammad and his companions left Makkah they saw that they were being followed and decided to enter a cave and as the followers came closer spiders began to quickly spin a web around the entrance to obscure the followers view and allow Muhammad and companions to hide.
The pledges
Muhammad met 6 men from Madinah called Yathribians and told them of Allah and his revelations which made the men immediately see his as the prophet from the Jewish scriptures and decided to pledge allegiance to his and return with more people next time.
Coverts to Islam came from every tribe in Madinah and the follower met in secret to pledge a second time to Muhammad.
When Muhammad came to Madinah he saw the great divide between the tribes of Madinah and decided to allow his camel decide where it was they would stay to avoid any biases.