Muhammad (10 page)

Muhammad had recently introduced some new practices. As a result of the night journey, perhaps, Muslims now prayed facing the direction
(qiblah
) of Jerusalem, reaching out to the holy city of the People of the Book. Muhammad had also instructed Mus‘ab to hold a special prayer meeting on Friday afternoon while the Jews were preparing for their Sabbath, and to fast with the Jews on Yom Kippur. Muslims would now pray in the middle of the day, as the Jews did, and observe a modified version of the Jewish dietary laws, similar to those adopted by the early Christians.
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Scholars used to think that Muhammad introduced these new devotions in order to appeal to the Jews of Yathrib, but this view has recently been challenged. Muhammad would not have expected the Jews to convert to his religion, because they had their own revealed din. God had decreed that each community should have its own messenger.
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But it was natural for Muslims to pray and fast in the same way as the other members of the Abrahamic family.

In 622 a large party of pilgrims left Yathrib for the hajj. Some were pagans, but seventy-three of the men and two of the women were Muslims. Yet again, Muhammad went out to greet them at ‘Aqabah, but this time the meeting took place at dead of night. On this occasion, there was a sense of menace and of bridges being irrevocably burned. The Qur’an speaks of the “scheming” of the Quraysh: perhaps Muhammad had reason to believe that the kafirun were plotting to expel him and bar the Muslims from the Haram.
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At all events, Muhammad was now taking practical steps to leave his tribe. Ibn Ishaq claims that this was a positive decision on his part, but the Qur’an repeatedly claims that the Muslims were “expelled” or “driven out” of Mecca.
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The meeting was conducted in deadly secrecy. The Muslims from Yathrib did not even mention it to the pagans in their party, in case they gossiped and alerted the Quraysh to what was afoot.

Muhammad was about to do something absolutely unprecedented.
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He was asking the Muslims of Mecca to make a
hijrah
(migration) to Yathrib. This did not merely involve a change of address. The Muslims were about to abandon their kinsfolk and accept the permanent protection of strangers. In Arabia, where the tribe was the most sacred value of all, this amounted to blasphemy; it was far more shocking than the Qur’anic rejection of the goddesses. There had always been a system of confederation, whereby an individual or an entire group could become honorary members of another tribe, but these were usually temporary arrangements and had never entailed alienation from one’s own people. The very word
hijrah
suggests a painful severance. The root
HJR
has been translated: “he cut himself off from friendly or loving communication or intercourse . . . he ceased . . . to associate with them.”
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Henceforth the Muslims who made the
hijrah
to Yathrib would be called the
Muhajirah
, the Emigrants: this traumatic dislocation was central to their new identity.

The Muslims of Yathrib were also embarking on a dangerous experiment. Even if a foreigner was adopted by a tribe, he always remained a
zalim
(“outsider”), a word which carried the connotation “base, ignoble, evil.”
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Poets described the zalim as a useless, super-fluous accretion. Tribal loyalty was experienced as burning love of kinsfolk and harsh contempt for the alien. Anybody who put a despised zalim before his own people invited passionate scorn and revulsion. But now the Aws and Khazraj were about to swear allegiance to the Qurayshi Muhammad, and promising to give protection and help (
nasr
) to a large group of outsiders who would inevitably put a strain on the limited resources of the oasis. Henceforth the Muslims of Yathrib would be known as the
Ansar.
This is usually translated “the Helpers,” but this gives a somewhat anemic impression of what was involved. Nasr meant that you had to be ready to back up your aid with force. When they met Muhammad that night in ‘Aqabah, the Helpers had decided to make a second pact with Muhammad, which would be known as the Pledge of War.

When the time came, the Ansar left their pagan companions sleeping in their tents and stole “softly like sandgrouse” to ‘Aqabah, where they met Muhammad and his uncle ‘Abbas, who acted as his spokesman. ‘Abbas had not converted to Islam and he must have been shocked by Muhammad’s decision to leave Mecca, but he wanted to make sure that he would be safe in Yathrib. Muhammad, he said, was protected by the Hashim in Mecca, but was ready to forgo this security in order to join the Ansar. If they had the smallest doubt about his safety, they should give up the entire project immediately. But the Ansar stood firm. Bara’ Ibn Mar‘ur, a chief of Khazraj, took Muhammad by the hand, and swore that Aws and Khazraj would both extend to Muhammad exactly the same protection as they gave to their own women and children. But while he was speaking, another Helper interrupted. What if Muhammad went back to Mecca and abandoned Yathrib to the wrath of the Quraysh? Muhammad smiled and replied: “I am of you and you are of me. I will war against them that war against you and be at peace with those at peace with you.”
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And so the Ansar made this solemn oath: “We pledged ourselves to war in complete obedience to the apostle, in weal or woe, in ease and hardship and evil circumstances; that we would not wrong anyone; that we would speak the truth at all times; and that in God’s service we would fear the censure of none.”
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The pact was couched in tribal terminology, and concentrated on mutual defense.
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There was as yet no thought of a single, united ummah. Aws, Khazraj, and Quraysh would still operate separately. Muhammad would not go to Yathrib as head of state, but simply as the arbitrator (hakam) of disputes between Aws and Khazraj and as the chief of the Emigrants from Mecca. The Ansar would be ruled by twelve “overseers” from the various clans. Even though Islam had made great strides in Yathrib—after a single year, the Muslim community there was almost as large as the beleaguered ummah in Mecca—the fact remained that even after the hijrah
,
the Muslims would remain a tiny minority in the oasis, dwarfed in size by the aloof, appraising pagans, hanifs, and Jews.
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The Pledge of War marked a major expansion of Islam: the new religion had spread to other tribal groups, but it had not yet transcended the tribal ethos. The hijrah was a risky enterprise, an irrevocable, frightening step. Nobody knew how it would work out, because nothing quite like it had ever happened in Arabia before.

After the hajj, the Ansar returned to Yathrib to await the arrival of the Muslim fugitives. The Qur’an now adopted the Aramaic name that the Jews gave to the settlement of Yathrib:
medinta
(“the city”). Yathrib was about to become
al-Madinat,
the city of the Prophet. In Mecca, Muhammad began to persuade Muslims to make the hijrah, but he did not command it. Anybody who felt it to be beyond his or her strength was free to remain behind. But during July and August 622, about seventy Muslims set off with their families to Medina, where they were lodged in the houses of the Ansar until they could set up their own homes. The Quraysh do not seem to have made a concerted effort to detain them though some women and children were forcibly prevented from leaving, and one man was carted back in triumph, tied to his camel. For their part, the Muslims were careful not to draw attention to their flight, and usually agreed to meet up outside the city limits and to travel in small, unobtrusive groups. ‘Umar left with his family; ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan and Ruqayyah made the journey with Zayd and Hamzah, but Muhammad and Abu Bakr stayed behind until nearly everybody had left. But it was not long before this major defection left disturbing gaps in the city, revealing the open wound that Muhammad had inflicted on his tribe. The big houses in the middle of Mecca looked desolate and portentous to passers by, “doors blowing to and fro, empty of inhabitants.”
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In August, shortly before he was due to leave, Mu‘tim, Muhammad’s Meccan protector, died. Muhammad’s position in Mecca was now untenable, because he was fair game for assassination. There was a special meeting to discuss his fate in the assembly, from which Abu Lahab pointedly absented himself. Some of the elders simply wanted to throw Muhammad out of Mecca, but they were overruled by those who felt that to allow him to join those unprincipled renegades in Yathrib would be dangerous. Abu Jahl came up with a plan: each clan would select a strong and well-protected young man. Collectively, they would represent the entire tribe, and would kill Muhammad together. There would be no vendetta, because the Hashim could not take on the whole of Quraysh.

So that night a band of carefully chosen youths gathered outside Muhammad’s home, but were disturbed to hear the voices of Sawdah and some of the Prophet’s daughters through the window. It would be shameful to kill a man in the presence of his women, so they decided to wait until he left the house the following morning. One of them peered in and saw a figure lying in bed, wrapped in Muhammad’s cloak. Unbeknownst to them, Muhammad had already escaped through a back window, leaving ‘Ali lying apparently asleep, wearing his clothes. When ‘Ali strolled outside the next morning, the young men realized that they had been tricked, and the Quraysh offered a reward of a hundred camel mares to anybody who would bring Muhammad back, dead or alive.

By this time, Muhammad and Abu Bakr were hiding in a mountain cave just outside the city. They stayed there for three days, and from time to time, their supporters slipped out to bring them news and provisions. At one point, it was said, a search party actually passed the cave, but did not bother to look inside because an enormous spider’s web covered the entrance and a rock dove, who had clearly been sitting on her eggs for some time, had her nest in an acacia tree in exactly the place where a man would have to put his foot when climbing into the cave. All the while, Muhammad experienced a deep calm and a strong sense of God’s presence. The Qur’an recalls how he comforted Abu Bakr: “ ‘grieve not: verily God is with us.’ And thereupon God bestowed upon him from on high His [gift of ] inner peace.”
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Increasingly the Qur’an would insist that when Muslims found themselves in frightening or disturbing circumstances, they should be serene and tranquil, and should never fall prey to the impetuous rage and vengeful fury of jahiliyyah.

When the hue and cry had died down, Muhammad and Abu Bakr climbed out of the cave, taking care not to disturb the rock dove, and mounted the two camels that Abu Bakr had prepared for their journey. Abu Bakr wanted to give the better camel to Muhammad, but he insisted on paying for her. This was his personal hijrah, his sacrifice to Allah, and it was important to make the whole event entirely his own. Muhammad called the camel mare Qaswa’, and she remained his favorite mount for the rest of his life. It was a dangerous trip, because while he was on the road, Muhammad did not enjoy anybody’s protection, so their guide took them by a circuitous route, and they zigzagged back and forth to throw any pursuers off the scent.

In the meantime, the Muslims were anxiously awaiting their arrival in Medina. Several of the Emigrants from Mecca were living in Quba’, the southernmost point of the oasis, and every day after morning prayers they used to climb the volcanic rocks and scan the barren terrain outside the settlement. On the morning of September 4, 622, one of the Jews spotted a cloud of dust on the horizon and called out to the Ansar: “Sons of Qaylah! He is come! He is come!” At once men, women, and children surged out to meet the travellers and found them resting under a palm tree.

Muhammad and Abu Bakr stayed in Quba’ for three days, but the Muslims in the “city” (as the most densely populated part of the oasis was called) were impatient to see him, so he set off to meet them and decide where he was going to live. Along the way, several people begged him to alight and make his home with them, but Muhammad courteously refused because he was anxious to remain independent of the warring groups within Medina. Instead, he gave Qaswa’ her head, and asked God to guide her. Eventually, she fell to her knees outside a
mirbad,
a place for drying dates, which belonged to one of the Ansar. Muhammad got down, allowed his luggage to be carried into the nearest house and then began to negotiate with the owner for the sale of the land. Once the price was agreed upon, all the Muslims got to work to build the Prophet’s residence, which would also serve as a place for prayer. This was hard for the Emigrants, because the Quraysh were not used to manual labor, and the stylish ‘Uthman found the work particularly grueling.

The first Muslim building was not imposing but it became the model for all future mosques. It was primarily a masjid, “a place of prostration,” an open space roomy enough for the entire community to perform the salat together, and it expressed the austerity of the early Islamic ideal. The roof was supported by tree trunks, and there was no elaborate pulpit; Muhammad stood on a simple stool to address the congregation. Muhammad and his wives lived in little huts round the edge of the big courtyard in front of the mosque. This was a place for public and political meetings; the poor of Medina were also invited to congregate there for alms, food and care.

This humble building in Medina expressed the ideal of tawhid.
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Muhammad wanted to show that the sexual, the sacred, and the domestic could—and, indeed, must—be integrated. Similarly politics, welfare, and the ordering of social life must be brought into the ambit of holiness. In housing his wives within a stone’s throw of the mosque, Muhammad was tacitly proclaiming that there must be no distinction between public and private life, and no discrimination between the sexes. Holiness in Islam was inclusive rather than exclusive. If they wished, Jews and Christians could worship in the mosque, because they too were part of God’s family.