THE FIRST PHASE THE STATUS QUO IN MADINAH AT THE TIME OF EMIGRATION
Emigration to Madinah could never be attributable to attempts to escape from jeers and oppression
only, but it also constituted a sort of cooperation with the aim of erecting the pillars of a new society a secure place. Hence it was incumbent upon every capable Muslim to contribute to building this new
homeland, immunizing it and holding up its prop. As a leader and spiritual guide, there was no doubt
the Noble Messenger (Peace be upon him), in whose hands exclusively all affairs would be resolved.
In Madinah, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had to deal with three distinctively different categories people with different respective problems:
1.His Companions, the noble and Allâh fearing elite (May Allah be pleased with them).
2.Polytheists still detached from the Islam and were purely Madinese tribes.
3.The Jews.
1. As for his Companions, the conditions of life in Madinah were totally different from those experienced in Makkah. There, in Makkah, they used to strive for one corporate target, but
physically, they were scattered, overpowered and forsaken. They were helpless in terms of
pursuing their new course of orientation. Their means, socially and materially, fell short of
establishing a new Muslim community. In parallel lines, the Makkan Chapters of the Noble Qur’were confined to delineating the Islamic precepts, enacting legislations pertaining to the
believers individually and enjoining good and piety and forbidding evils and vices.
In Madinah , things were otherwise; here all the affairs of their life rested in their hands. Now,
they were at ease and could quite confidently handle the challenges of civilization, construction means of living, economics, politics, government administration, war and peace, codification othe questions of the allowed and prohibited, worship, ethics and all the relevant issues. In a
nutshell, they were in Madinah at full liberty to erect the pillars of a new Muslim community not
only utterly different from that pre-Islamic code of life, but also distinctive in its features in the world at large. It was a society that could stand for the Islamic Call for whose sake the Muslims Had been put to unspeakable tortures for 10 years. No doubt, the construction of a society that runs in line with this type of ethics cannot be accomplished overnight, within a month or a yeaSt requires a long time to build during which legislation and legalization will run gradually in a
complementary process with mind cultivation, training and education. Allâh, the All-Knowing, course undertook legislation and His Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), implementation
and orientation:
¡ “He it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger [Muhammad (Peace be upon
him) from among themselves, reciting to them His Verses, purifying them (from the filt
of disbelief and polytheism), and teaching them the Book (this Qur’ân, Islamic laws and
Islamic Jurisprudence) and Al-Hikmah [As-Sunnah: legal ways, orders, acts of worship, eof the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)].” [62:2]
The Prophet’s Companion (May Allah be pleased with), rushed enthusiastically to assimilate
these Qur’ânic rules and fill their hearts joyfully with them:
¡ “
And when His Verses (this Qur’ân) are recited unto them, they (i.e. the Verses) increase their Faith.” [8:2]
With respect to the Muslims, this task constituted the greatest challenge for the Messenger of
Allâh (Peace be upon him). In fact, this very purpose lay at the heart of the Islamic Call and the Muhammadan mission; it was never an incidental issue though there were the matters that
required urgent addressing. The Muslims in Madinah consisted virtually of two parties: The first one already settled down in
their abode, land and wealth, fully at ease, but seeds of discord amongst them were deeply
seated and chronic enmity continually evoked; they were Al-Ansar (the Helpers). The second
party were Al-Muhajirun (the Emigrants), homeless, jobless and penniless. Their number was not
small, on the contrary, it was increasing day by day after the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had
given them the green light to leave for Madinah whose economic structure, originally not that
prosperous one, began to show signs of imbalance aggravated by the economic boycott that the
anti-Islamic groups imposed and consequently imports diminished and living conditions
worsened.
2.The purely Madinese polytheists constituted the second sector with whom the Prophet (Peace be
upon him) had to deal. Those people had no control at all over the Muslim. Some of them nursed
no grudge against the Muslims, but were rather skeptical of their ancestors’ religious practices,
and developed tentative inclination towards Islam and before long they embraced the new faith
and were truly devoted to Allâh. However, some others harboured evil intentions against the
Prophet (Peace be upon him) and his followers but were too cowardly to resist them publicly,
they were rather, under those Islamically favourable conditions, obliged to fake amicability and
friendliness. ‘Abdullah bin Ubai, who had almost been given presidency over Al-Khazraj and AlAws
tribes
in
the
wake
of
Bu‘ath
War
between
the
two
tribes,
came
at
the
head
of
that
group
of
hypocrites.
The
Prophet’s
advent
and
the
vigorous
rise
of
the
new
spirit
of
Islam
foiled
that
orientation
and
the
idea
soon
went
into
oblivion.
He,
seeing
another
one,
Muhammad
(Peace
be
upon
him),
coming
to
deprive
him
and
his
agents
of
the
prospective
temporal
privileges,
could
not
be
pleased,
and
for
overriding
reasons
he
showed
pretension
to
Islam
but
with
horrible
disbelief
deeply-rooted
in
his
heart.
He
also
used
to
exploit
some
events
and
weak-hearted
new
converts
in
scheming
malevolently
against
the
true
believers.
3.The Jews (the Hebrews), who had migrated to Al-Hijaz from Syria following the Byzantine and
Assyrian persecution campaigns, were the third category existent on the demographic scene in
Madinah. In their new abode they assumed the Arabian stamp in dress, language and manner of
life and there were instances of intermarriage with the local Arabs, however they retained their
ethnic particularism and detached themselves from amalgamation with the immediate
environment. They even used to pride in their Jewish-Israeli origin, and spurn the Arabs around
designating them as illiterate meaning brutal, naïve and backward. They desired the wealth of
their neighbours to be made lawful to them and they could thus appropriate it the way they
liked.
l “… because they say: “There is no blame on us to betray and take the properties of the illiterates
(Arabs)” [3:75]
Religiously, they showed no zeal; their most obvious religious commodity was fortunetelling, witchcraft
and the secret arts (blowing on knots), for which they used to attach to themselves advantages of
science and spiritual precedence.
They excelled at the arts of earning money and trading. They in fact monopolized trading in cereals,
dates, wine, clothes, export and import. For the services they offered to the Arabs, the latter paid
heavily. Usury was a common practice amongst them, lending the Arab notables great sums to be
squandered on mercenary poets, and in vanity avenues, and in return seizing their fertile land given as
surety.
They were very good at corrupting and scheming. They used to sow seeds of discord between adjacent
tribes and entice each one to hatch plots against the other with the natural corollary of continual
exhaustive bloody fighting. Whenever they felt that fire of hatred was about to subside, they would
nourish it with new means of perpetuity so that they could always have the upper hand, and at the
same time gain heavy interest rates on loans spent on inter-tribal warfare.
Three famous tribes of Jews constituted the demographic presence in Yathrib (now Madinah): Banu
Qainuqua‘, allies of Al-Khazraj tribe, Banu An-Nadir and Banu Quraizah who allied Al-Aws and inhabited the suburbs of Madinah.
Naturally they held the new changes with abhorrence and were terribly hateful to them, simply because
the Messenger of Allâh was of a different race, and this point was in itself too repugnant for them to
reconcile with. Second, Islam came to brabout a spirit of rapport, to terminate the state of enmity and
hatred, and to establish a social regime based on denunciation of the prohibited and promotion of the
allowed. Adherence to these canons of life implied paving the way for an Arab unity that could work to
the prejudice of the Jews and their interests at both the social and economic levels; the Arab tribes
would then try to restore their wealth and land misappropriated by the Jews through usurious practices.
The Jews of course deeply considered all these things ever since they had known that the Islamic Call
would try to settle in Yathrib, and it was no surprise to discover that they harboured the most enmity
and hatred to Islam and the Messenger (Peace be upon him) even though they did not have the
courage to uncover their feelings in the beginning.
The following incident could attest clearly to that abominable antipathy that the Jews harboured
towards the new political and religious changes that came to stamp the life of Madinah. Ibn Ishaq, on
the authority of the Mother of believers Safiyah (May Allah be pleased her) narrated: Safiyah, daughter
of Huyayi bin Akhtab said: I was the closest child to my father and my uncle Abi Yasir’s heart.
Whenever they saw me with a child of theirs, they should pamper me so tenderly to the exclusion of
anyone else. However, with the advent of the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) and setting in
Quba’ with Bani ‘Amr bin ‘Awf, my father, Huyayi bin Akhtab and my uncle Abu Yasir bin Akhtab went to
see him and did not return until sunset when they came back walking lazily and fully dejected. I, as
usually, hurried to meet them smiling, but they would not turn to me for the grief that caught them. I
heard my uncle Abu Yasir say to Ubai and Huyayi: “Is it really he [i.e. Muhammad (Peace be upon
him)]?” The former said: “It is he, I swear by Allâh!” “Did you really recognize him?” they asked. He
answered: “Yes, and my heart is burning with enmity towards him”
An interesting story that took place on the first day, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) stepped in
Madinah, could be quoted to illustrate the mental disturbance and deep anxiety that beset the Jews.
‘Abdullah bin Salam, the most learned rabbi among the Jews came to see the Prophet (Peace be upon
him) when he arrived, and asked him certain questions to ascertain his real Prophethood. No sooner did
he hear the Prophet’s answers than he embraced Islam, but added that if his people knew of his
Islamization they would advance false arguments against me. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) sent
for some Jews and asked them about ‘Abdullah bin Salam, they testified to his scholarly aptitude and
virtuous standing. Here it was divulged to them that he had embraced Islam and on the spot, they
imparted categorically opposite testimonies and described him as the most evil of all evils. In another
narration ‘Abdullah bin Salam said, “O Jews! Be Allâh fearing. By Allâh, the only One, you know that he
is the Messenger of Allâh sent to people with the Truth.” They replied, “You are lying.” ... That was the
Prophet’s first experience with the Jews.
That was the demo-political picture within Madinah. Five hundred kilometres away in Makkah, there still
lay another source of detrimental threat, the archenemy of Islam, Quraish. For ten years, while at the
mercy of Quraish, the Muslims were subjected to all sorts of terrorism, boycott, harassment and
starvation coupled by a large scale painstaking psychological war and aggressive organized
propaganda. When they had emigrated to Madinah, their land, wealth and property were seized, wives
detained and the socially humble in rank brutally tortured. Quraish also schemed and made attempts on
the life of the first figure of the Call, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) . Due to their acknowledged
temporal leadership and religious supremacy among the pagan Arabs, given the custodianship of the
Sacred Sanctuary, the Quraishites spared no effort in enticing the Arabians against Madinah and
boycotting the Madinese socially and economically. To quote Muhammad Al-Ghazali: “A state of war
virtually existed between the Makkan tyrants and the Muslims in their abode. It is foolish to blame the
Muslims for the horrible consequences that were bound to ensue in the light of that long-standing
feud.”
The Muslims in Madinah were completely eligible then to confiscate the wealth of those tyrants, mete
out for them exemplary punishment and bring twofold retaliation on them in order to deter them from committing any folly against the Muslims and their sanctities.
That was a resume of the major problems that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) had to
face, and the complicated issues he was supposed to resolve.
In full acknowledgment, we could safely say that he quite honestly shouldered the responsibilities of
Messengership, and cleverly discharged the liabilities of both temporal and religious leadership in
Madinah. He accorded to everyone his due portion whether of mercy or punishment, with the former
usually seasoning the latter in the overall process of establishing Islam on firm grounds among its
faithful adherents.
Emigration to Madinah could never be attributable to attempts to escape from jeers and oppression
only, but it also constituted a sort of cooperation with the aim of erecting the pillars of a new society a secure place. Hence it was incumbent upon every capable Muslim to contribute to building this new
homeland, immunizing it and holding up its prop. As a leader and spiritual guide, there was no doubt
the Noble Messenger (Peace be upon him), in whose hands exclusively all affairs would be resolved.
In Madinah, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had to deal with three distinctively different categories people with different respective problems:
1.His Companions, the noble and Allâh fearing elite (May Allah be pleased with them).
2.Polytheists still detached from the Islam and were purely Madinese tribes.
3.The Jews.
1. As for his Companions, the conditions of life in Madinah were totally different from those experienced in Makkah. There, in Makkah, they used to strive for one corporate target, but
physically, they were scattered, overpowered and forsaken. They were helpless in terms of
pursuing their new course of orientation. Their means, socially and materially, fell short of
establishing a new Muslim community. In parallel lines, the Makkan Chapters of the Noble Qur’were confined to delineating the Islamic precepts, enacting legislations pertaining to the
believers individually and enjoining good and piety and forbidding evils and vices.
In Madinah , things were otherwise; here all the affairs of their life rested in their hands. Now,
they were at ease and could quite confidently handle the challenges of civilization, construction means of living, economics, politics, government administration, war and peace, codification othe questions of the allowed and prohibited, worship, ethics and all the relevant issues. In a
nutshell, they were in Madinah at full liberty to erect the pillars of a new Muslim community not
only utterly different from that pre-Islamic code of life, but also distinctive in its features in the world at large. It was a society that could stand for the Islamic Call for whose sake the Muslims Had been put to unspeakable tortures for 10 years. No doubt, the construction of a society that runs in line with this type of ethics cannot be accomplished overnight, within a month or a yeaSt requires a long time to build during which legislation and legalization will run gradually in a
complementary process with mind cultivation, training and education. Allâh, the All-Knowing, course undertook legislation and His Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him), implementation
and orientation:
¡ “He it is Who sent among the unlettered ones a Messenger [Muhammad (Peace be upon
him) from among themselves, reciting to them His Verses, purifying them (from the filt
of disbelief and polytheism), and teaching them the Book (this Qur’ân, Islamic laws and
Islamic Jurisprudence) and Al-Hikmah [As-Sunnah: legal ways, orders, acts of worship, eof the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him)].” [62:2]
The Prophet’s Companion (May Allah be pleased with), rushed enthusiastically to assimilate
these Qur’ânic rules and fill their hearts joyfully with them:
¡ “
And when His Verses (this Qur’ân) are recited unto them, they (i.e. the Verses) increase their Faith.” [8:2]
With respect to the Muslims, this task constituted the greatest challenge for the Messenger of
Allâh (Peace be upon him). In fact, this very purpose lay at the heart of the Islamic Call and the Muhammadan mission; it was never an incidental issue though there were the matters that
required urgent addressing. The Muslims in Madinah consisted virtually of two parties: The first one already settled down in
their abode, land and wealth, fully at ease, but seeds of discord amongst them were deeply
seated and chronic enmity continually evoked; they were Al-Ansar (the Helpers). The second
party were Al-Muhajirun (the Emigrants), homeless, jobless and penniless. Their number was not
small, on the contrary, it was increasing day by day after the Prophet (Peace be upon him) had
given them the green light to leave for Madinah whose economic structure, originally not that
prosperous one, began to show signs of imbalance aggravated by the economic boycott that the
anti-Islamic groups imposed and consequently imports diminished and living conditions
worsened.
2.The purely Madinese polytheists constituted the second sector with whom the Prophet (Peace be
upon him) had to deal. Those people had no control at all over the Muslim. Some of them nursed
no grudge against the Muslims, but were rather skeptical of their ancestors’ religious practices,
and developed tentative inclination towards Islam and before long they embraced the new faith
and were truly devoted to Allâh. However, some others harboured evil intentions against the
Prophet (Peace be upon him) and his followers but were too cowardly to resist them publicly,
they were rather, under those Islamically favourable conditions, obliged to fake amicability and
friendliness. ‘Abdullah bin Ubai, who had almost been given presidency over Al-Khazraj and AlAws
tribes
in
the
wake
of
Bu‘ath
War
between
the
two
tribes,
came
at
the
head
of
that
group
of
hypocrites.
The
Prophet’s
advent
and
the
vigorous
rise
of
the
new
spirit
of
Islam
foiled
that
orientation
and
the
idea
soon
went
into
oblivion.
He,
seeing
another
one,
Muhammad
(Peace
be
upon
him),
coming
to
deprive
him
and
his
agents
of
the
prospective
temporal
privileges,
could
not
be
pleased,
and
for
overriding
reasons
he
showed
pretension
to
Islam
but
with
horrible
disbelief
deeply-rooted
in
his
heart.
He
also
used
to
exploit
some
events
and
weak-hearted
new
converts
in
scheming
malevolently
against
the
true
believers.
3.The Jews (the Hebrews), who had migrated to Al-Hijaz from Syria following the Byzantine and
Assyrian persecution campaigns, were the third category existent on the demographic scene in
Madinah. In their new abode they assumed the Arabian stamp in dress, language and manner of
life and there were instances of intermarriage with the local Arabs, however they retained their
ethnic particularism and detached themselves from amalgamation with the immediate
environment. They even used to pride in their Jewish-Israeli origin, and spurn the Arabs around
designating them as illiterate meaning brutal, naïve and backward. They desired the wealth of
their neighbours to be made lawful to them and they could thus appropriate it the way they
liked.
l “… because they say: “There is no blame on us to betray and take the properties of the illiterates
(Arabs)” [3:75]
Religiously, they showed no zeal; their most obvious religious commodity was fortunetelling, witchcraft
and the secret arts (blowing on knots), for which they used to attach to themselves advantages of
science and spiritual precedence.
They excelled at the arts of earning money and trading. They in fact monopolized trading in cereals,
dates, wine, clothes, export and import. For the services they offered to the Arabs, the latter paid
heavily. Usury was a common practice amongst them, lending the Arab notables great sums to be
squandered on mercenary poets, and in vanity avenues, and in return seizing their fertile land given as
surety.
They were very good at corrupting and scheming. They used to sow seeds of discord between adjacent
tribes and entice each one to hatch plots against the other with the natural corollary of continual
exhaustive bloody fighting. Whenever they felt that fire of hatred was about to subside, they would
nourish it with new means of perpetuity so that they could always have the upper hand, and at the
same time gain heavy interest rates on loans spent on inter-tribal warfare.
Three famous tribes of Jews constituted the demographic presence in Yathrib (now Madinah): Banu
Qainuqua‘, allies of Al-Khazraj tribe, Banu An-Nadir and Banu Quraizah who allied Al-Aws and inhabited the suburbs of Madinah.
Naturally they held the new changes with abhorrence and were terribly hateful to them, simply because
the Messenger of Allâh was of a different race, and this point was in itself too repugnant for them to
reconcile with. Second, Islam came to brabout a spirit of rapport, to terminate the state of enmity and
hatred, and to establish a social regime based on denunciation of the prohibited and promotion of the
allowed. Adherence to these canons of life implied paving the way for an Arab unity that could work to
the prejudice of the Jews and their interests at both the social and economic levels; the Arab tribes
would then try to restore their wealth and land misappropriated by the Jews through usurious practices.
The Jews of course deeply considered all these things ever since they had known that the Islamic Call
would try to settle in Yathrib, and it was no surprise to discover that they harboured the most enmity
and hatred to Islam and the Messenger (Peace be upon him) even though they did not have the
courage to uncover their feelings in the beginning.
The following incident could attest clearly to that abominable antipathy that the Jews harboured
towards the new political and religious changes that came to stamp the life of Madinah. Ibn Ishaq, on
the authority of the Mother of believers Safiyah (May Allah be pleased her) narrated: Safiyah, daughter
of Huyayi bin Akhtab said: I was the closest child to my father and my uncle Abi Yasir’s heart.
Whenever they saw me with a child of theirs, they should pamper me so tenderly to the exclusion of
anyone else. However, with the advent of the Messenger of Allâh (Peace be upon him) and setting in
Quba’ with Bani ‘Amr bin ‘Awf, my father, Huyayi bin Akhtab and my uncle Abu Yasir bin Akhtab went to
see him and did not return until sunset when they came back walking lazily and fully dejected. I, as
usually, hurried to meet them smiling, but they would not turn to me for the grief that caught them. I
heard my uncle Abu Yasir say to Ubai and Huyayi: “Is it really he [i.e. Muhammad (Peace be upon
him)]?” The former said: “It is he, I swear by Allâh!” “Did you really recognize him?” they asked. He
answered: “Yes, and my heart is burning with enmity towards him”
An interesting story that took place on the first day, the Prophet (Peace be upon him) stepped in
Madinah, could be quoted to illustrate the mental disturbance and deep anxiety that beset the Jews.
‘Abdullah bin Salam, the most learned rabbi among the Jews came to see the Prophet (Peace be upon
him) when he arrived, and asked him certain questions to ascertain his real Prophethood. No sooner did
he hear the Prophet’s answers than he embraced Islam, but added that if his people knew of his
Islamization they would advance false arguments against me. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) sent
for some Jews and asked them about ‘Abdullah bin Salam, they testified to his scholarly aptitude and
virtuous standing. Here it was divulged to them that he had embraced Islam and on the spot, they
imparted categorically opposite testimonies and described him as the most evil of all evils. In another
narration ‘Abdullah bin Salam said, “O Jews! Be Allâh fearing. By Allâh, the only One, you know that he
is the Messenger of Allâh sent to people with the Truth.” They replied, “You are lying.” ... That was the
Prophet’s first experience with the Jews.
That was the demo-political picture within Madinah. Five hundred kilometres away in Makkah, there still
lay another source of detrimental threat, the archenemy of Islam, Quraish. For ten years, while at the
mercy of Quraish, the Muslims were subjected to all sorts of terrorism, boycott, harassment and
starvation coupled by a large scale painstaking psychological war and aggressive organized
propaganda. When they had emigrated to Madinah, their land, wealth and property were seized, wives
detained and the socially humble in rank brutally tortured. Quraish also schemed and made attempts on
the life of the first figure of the Call, Muhammad (Peace be upon him) . Due to their acknowledged
temporal leadership and religious supremacy among the pagan Arabs, given the custodianship of the
Sacred Sanctuary, the Quraishites spared no effort in enticing the Arabians against Madinah and
boycotting the Madinese socially and economically. To quote Muhammad Al-Ghazali: “A state of war
virtually existed between the Makkan tyrants and the Muslims in their abode. It is foolish to blame the
Muslims for the horrible consequences that were bound to ensue in the light of that long-standing
feud.”
The Muslims in Madinah were completely eligible then to confiscate the wealth of those tyrants, mete
out for them exemplary punishment and bring twofold retaliation on them in order to deter them from committing any folly against the Muslims and their sanctities.
That was a resume of the major problems that the Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon him) had to
face, and the complicated issues he was supposed to resolve.
In full acknowledgment, we could safely say that he quite honestly shouldered the responsibilities of
Messengership, and cleverly discharged the liabilities of both temporal and religious leadership in
Madinah. He accorded to everyone his due portion whether of mercy or punishment, with the former
usually seasoning the latter in the overall process of establishing Islam on firm grounds among its
faithful adherents.
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