By ensuring that Ali b. Abi Talib stayed behind to assist him in returning the trusts to their owners, the Prophet (pbuh) was leaving behind a patrimony: in a state of attrition, the Islamic timeless values of honesty and trustworthiness cannot be sacrificed on the altar of spiritual vocation. In essence, to take what belongs to the unbelievers or the masses unjustly is the very antithesis of the spirit of emigration.
Thus, the journey to Madinah became an open track with unknowable and inestimable possibilities. The Prophet began the journey in the full knowledge that he was leading humanity from service to humanity to the service of the Almighty. The Hijrah essays the importance of the emergence of a global leader who would emigrate with humanity from the heinous theatre of ethnicity and profanity to the Eldorado of religiosity and equality.
Eventually, they began the journey to Madinah. The distance between Makkah and Madinah was strewn with fear and uncertainty; but the Madinah, the destination, was a paradise awaiting those who were ready to overcome the temporary and empty ministrations of Shaytan. Put differently, the distance between Makkah and Madinah was like an open space and one in which the enemy was ready to appropriate; but it was also a closed space for those who had an unshakeable faith in Him, the Almighty.
Once he became aware that the enemy was behind, he told his companion that they should enter the cave – the cave of Thawr. Face to face with the enemies, the prophet told his friend and companion, “Don’t grieve! He (Allah) is with us”. Face to face with the challenges of life, and in between the Makkah of our lives and the Madinah awaiting us, are we also ready to tell our companions: ‘Don’t grieve! He is with us?’. Face to face with the challenges of life and in-between our ‘Makkah’ of today – the ‘Makkah’ that is represented in yet-to-be-fulfilled earthly desires- are we ready to look our spouses, friends, kith and kin in the eyes and say: ‘don’t grief! He is with us”?
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Eventually, he arrived in Madinah where the Hijrah became a symbol of an obligation from which there can be no departing. In our world today, as was the case during the Prophetic era, there can be no Hijrah from the observance of the five daily prayers; from the observance of fasting in the month of Ramadan; from pilgrimage to Makkah for those who can afford to do so; from perpetual testimony that He, in His essence, cannot be dualised let alone trinitised.
It is settled in this religion that a Muslim would not wake up one day and say he is tired of being a Man and as such he should be assisted to migrate from being male to female or vice versa as is now common in “advanced” societies today where transgender practices are now the order of the day. We embark on migration from ourselves unto Him; a Muslim does not and would not embark on migration from God to Satan.
Even more: The hijrah reminds us that every age or clime produces and nurtures its oppressors. There cannot be an Abu Lahab unless a Muhammad is appointed against him. As soon as a Fir’awn emerges anywhere in the world, it is certain that a “Musa” would be commissioned by the Almighty to lead him either to the grace of our Creator or His damnation. But the Musa that led Fir’awn to his perdition had to spend some years under the oppressive suzerainty of the latter.
But the Hijrah also led to the emergence of new identities within the Islamic polity consequent upon the arrival of the Prophet to Madinah. This is calling attention to the fifth columnist within, those who claim Islam in the open and side with un-Islam in the hidden; the friend of the Muslim community in the day and the confidant of the enemy outside in the night. In other words, whereas the Hijrah provided incentives for the establishment of a community of faith, it equally, and paradoxically too, led to the ‘birth’ of hypocrites within the Ummah. Thus, no human society could be free of the challenges of the human in its polity.
While the Hijrah produced “angels” among men: men like Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, Umar b. Khatab, Uthman b Affan and ‘Ali b. Abi Talib, it also produced the other men too: men like Ubayy b. K’ab b. Salul. While the Hijrah produced women of excellence like ‘Aisha, it equally ‘birthed’ women like Hind. Thus, the Hijrah was a history of men and women of excellence; it was about men and women of history.
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