The HIJRA – The Cave Thawr – Masjed Quba

بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمنِ الرَّحِيمِ. الْحَمْدُ لِلَّهِ رَبِّ الْعَالَمِينَ وَالْعَاقِبَةُ لِلْمُتَّقِينَ وَصَلَّى اللَّهُ عَلَى مُحَمَّدٍ خَاتَمِ النَّبِيِّينَ وَعَلَى جَمِيعِ الأَنْبِيَاءِ وَالْمُرْسَلِينَ.

All Praise is due to Allah, we praise Him and we seek help from Him. We ask forgiveness from Him. We repent to Him; and we seek refuge in Him from our own evils and our own bad deeds. Anyone who is guided by Allah, he is indeed guided; and anyone who has been left astray, will find no one to guide him. I bear witness that there is no god but Allah, the Only One without any partner; and I bear witness that Muhammad, peace and blessings on him, is His servant, and His messenger. 

Dear Brothers and Sisters …

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

The Hijrah (emigration) was a great event in the Islamic history. Through it the Islamic nation was established. And from it, the invitation to Islam sprung forth. And it is sufficient that the emigrants were able to worship Allah Almighty without fear or harm from the polytheists.

And the number of Muslims before the Hijrah (emigration) was few. The number of Muslims increased and Islam spread after it. In Badr, the number of Muslims was only 319. The number of emigrants was sixty plus men, although the Prophet ﷺinvited to Islam for 13 years in Makkah. And after only six years after Badr, the Prophet ﷺ marched to the conquest of Makkah with 10,000  Muslims. And one year after the conquest, the Prophet ﷺ  marched to Tabuk with more than 30,000 fighters. And it was said that 40,000 joined along the way and their total number was 70,000.

This great increase was achieved in a very few years, not exceeding seven years. And Hijrah (emigration) was the reason for this. Then Islam expanded and spread. And it is still, by the grace of Allah Almighty, expanding and spreading to this day, in spite of the plots of the plotters, the scheming of the devious, the hindrance of the obstructers, and the distortion of the disbelievers and hypocrites.

And in this hadith, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, tells part of what she had experienced from the Hijrah. She narrates that by the time she grew up and could comprehend things, her parents, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq and Umm Ruman, were adherents to the religion of Islam. And not a day passed except that Messenger of Allah ﷺ visited them once at the beginning of the day and once at the end of the day. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ was in Mecca at the time. So he told the Muslims that he had seen in a vision – and the visions of the prophets are true and a revelation from Allah Almighty – the place of their emigration (Madeenah). Among its signs: is that its land is a mudflat. That is: it is overly saltwater and only a few types of trees can grow in it. That it contains palm trees and black rocks.

So when the Prophet ﷺ mentioned that, some Muslims emigrated to Madeenah. And some of those who emigrated to Abyssinia returned to Madeenah.

And Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, got ready to emigrate from Mecca. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ said to him: Wait, for I hope that Allah will permit me to emigrate. Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, said: Let my father be sacrificed for you, do you hope for that? The Prophet ﷺ responded: Yes, I hope for that. So Abu Bakr waited and did not emigrate so that he would accompany the Messenger of Allah during the emigration. And it was what Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, wanted. And he had two she-camels. So he fed them the leaves Sommer tree for four months to strengthen them for travel.

The Mother of the Believers, Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, relates that while they were sitting one day in their house when the sun had reached its peak, someone said to Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him): This is the Messenger of Allah ﷺ approaching with his head covered. And it was not the custom of the Prophet ﷺ to come to Abu Bakr at this time. So Abu Bakr said: May my father and mother be sacrificed for your sake. So the Messenger of Allah ﷺ entered. And because the emigration jeopardized the life of the Prophet ﷺ,  he wanted to inform Abu Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, while he was alone with him. So when he entered he said: Let those who are with you, go out. Abu Bakr replied, “(There is no stranger); they are your family. Let my father be sacrificed for you. There was no one aside from his daughters Aishah and Asmaa (may Allah be pleased with them). And the Prophet ﷺ had already made a (marriage) contract with Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her). Then the Prophet ﷺ informed him that he was given permission to leave Makkah and go to Madeenah. And Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) immediately requested the companionship during the Hijrah (emigration) journey. Then the Prophet ﷺ agreed with his companionship. So the Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) wished to give the Prophet ﷺ one of his riding animals. And it was a she-camel that was used for travel. So the Prophet ﷺ responded: I will take it for its price. That is, he would buy it for its value. Aishah (may Allah be pleased with her) continued: So we prepared them as quickly as possible. And we placed their travel food in a leather bag. Then Asmaa the daughter of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with her) cut off a piece of her strap which was a garment worn by women to tighten their mid-section.  She used it to fasten the leather bag. And for this reason she was called Thaata Nitaaq (of the girdle). Or Thataa Nitaaqayn (of the girdles). Because she tore her girdle and used one piece for the journey of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and the other piece for herself. Then the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) set out and went to a cave in the Mountain of Thawr which is to the south of Makkah.

Then the Messenger of Allah and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them) stayed in it for three nights hiding from Quraish because they plotted to kill him ﷺ. And AbdAllah the son of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them) used to stay with them. And he was a smart, clever young lad. He would return from there to Makkah at the last part of the night. So he would wake up with Quraish in Makkah as if he spent the night in Makkah. He would not hear anything from them except that he would memorize it and convey to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) what he heard from them of plotting that they wished to do. When the darkness would enter, Aamer bin Fuhairah the servant of Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with them) would take a sheep to them and they would drink its milk. Then Aamer bin Fuhairah would return it to the rest of his sheep before dawn. He would do this each night of those three nights.

And in the Hadith of the Tabiee urwah bin Az Zubair that the Messenger of Allah ﷺ while he was on way of emigration he met Az Zubair bin Al awaam (may Allah be pleased with him) in a group of Muslims who were traders returning from the Levant.  So Az Zubair clothed the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) with white garments.

And the Muslims who were in Madeenah heard of the departure of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from Makkah to Madeenah. Thus they would come out each morning to place a called Harrat Qubaa’ waiting for his arrival. At noon time due to the intense heat, they would return to their homes. And Urwah Bin Az Zubair informed that on one of those days when they waited for the Messenger of Allah ﷺ they returned to their homes after waiting for a long time.

So when they reached their homes, a man from the Jews climbed one of their fortresses and saw the Prophet ﷺ and his companions and they were wearing the white garments. The topography would shield them so sometimes they would appear and at other times they would disappear. The Jew called out in his loudest voice: Oh you Arabs, your fortune and leader that you have been waiting for to be joyous is approaching. So the Muslims uncovered their weapons to receive and guard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ from harm. So they received the Prophet ﷺ above the place adjoining Quba. So, he ﷺ headed with them to the west of Quba until he reached Bani Amr bin Awf bin Malik Al Awsee. And it was on a Monday during the month of Rabi’ Al Awal in the hotter part of the morning before the high point of the sun. Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) stood up to greet those receiving them from the Ansar and the Messenger of Allah ﷺ sat down silently. So whoever came from the Ansar greeted Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) thinking that he was the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. When the sun hit the Messenger of Allah ﷺ Abu Bakr (may Allah be pleased with him) went to the Prophet ﷺ until he stood behind him and shaded him from the sun’s rays using his upper garment. So when he (may Allah be pleased with him) shaded  him the people knew that he was the Messenger of Allah. Then the Prophet ﷺ spent ten plus days with Bani Amr and Bani Awf and established Masjed Quba which was the first Masjed that the Prophet ﷺ built in al Madeenah. And the Messenger of Allah ﷺ prayed in it during the days that he stayed in Quba. Then the Prophet ﷺ rode his riding animal. So the people walked with him until his she-camel sat down at the place of the Masjed of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. The place belonged to two orphans named Sahl and Suhail and was a place where the date fruit was dried. The Prophet ﷺ then said: this is the place that we will stay because Allah Almighty selected it for us. Then the Messenger of supplicated for the two boys and requested to buy the piece of land from them so that he could build a masjed on it. The two lads came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ to gift it to him without taking any money. Then the Prophet ﷺ refused to accept it from them without paying. So he bought it from them and he built his noble Masjed on it.

It was from Allah Almighty’s success for the Companions (may Allah be pleased with them) and the precision of their jurisprudence and their understanding is that they coincided the start of the Muslim calendar with the prophetic emigration for its virtue in Islam and because it is the real start for building the ummah (nation).

And this indicates the virtue of the Hijri calendar. And it is obligatory for the Muslim Ummah to safeguard it and not to neglect it. And to use it for transactions and appointments, because it is linked to the prophetic emigration through which Islam was glorified. And to use it for the acts of worship, Hajj and the Zakat period and not any other calendars. And to distinguish this Ummah (nation) from other nations. For Allah Almighty chose it for them. And Allah Almighty does not chose for the best of nations except what is best for them.

Al Imran (3) 110: You are the best nation produced [as an example] for mankind.

May Allah Almighty fill our hearts with love for the Prophet ﷺ and his companions. And make us among those who venerate the symbols of Allah. Indeed Allah is All Hearing, Answering.

I conclude with this and send prayers of blessings and peace upon your Prophet as your Lord commanded:

Al Ahzaab (33) 56: Indeed, Allah confers blessing upon the Prophet, and His angels [ask Him to do so]. O you who have believed, ask [ Allah to confer] blessing upon him and ask [ Allah to grant him] peace.

Allahumma Sallai Al’a Muahmmad’n wa’aila Muhammad

Remember Allah, the Great – He will remember you. Thank Him for His favours – He will increase you therein.  And seek forgiveness from Him – He will forgive you. And be conscious of Him – He will provide you a way out of difficult matters. And, establish the prayer.

BY IMAM MCCIRLAM MAHBOOB RASOOL