Migration to Ethiopia (Abyssinia)
(Al Quran 16:41)
About 615 A.D, Rasulullahﷺ had allowed his
followers to migrate, he could not bear to witness the cruelly tortured
companions without being able to protect them.
The destination for refuge was Abyssinia, Rasulullahﷺ knows the
righteousness, tolerance, and hospitality of its king. The migration of
Muslims to Abyssinia consisted of eleven men and four women who left Makkah in
secrecy, with no hope of returning back to their beloved motherland.
Disheartened with sadness to leave their native land was to them the greatest
calamity. However, their faith in Allah kept them resolute. Most of them came
from the well to do rich and influential families. This shows Makkah was not
safe. As for the poor and the slaves, they had neither the means nor the
opportunity to migrate. Leaving Makkah the emigrants traveled as far as Jeddah
on foot, then by ship to Abyssinia. By then the Kafir Quraish had learned of
this migration and immediately sent a strong detachment to capture them and bring
them back, but to no avail, the exiles had sailed. Those who migrated to Abyssinia
had a peaceful life. They are well treated by King Negus with a warm reception on
foreign land. The good tidings from Abyssinian prompted more companions to wish to
migrate from Makkah.
The Quraish of course could not tolerate this, for to them it foretold defeat. In mitigating the consequence sent a deputation to the King Negus demanding the fugitives back. Valuable presents were given to the couriers to facilitate the success of their objective, so with gifts who had ear of the king. The mission was headed by Abdullah ibn Rabia, in due course reached Abyssinia. By distributing the presents lavishly, found themselves in the presence of the Negus, to whom they also presented costly gifts, and begged that the offenders should be handed over to them. However, King Negus declined to do that until he had heard the case from both sides. The next day the Muslims in Abyssinia were summoned to the palace of King Negus and inquired from them the justification why they should or not be handed to the Quraish demand. Jaafar ibn Abu Talib who led the migration rose and addressed King Negus; “O, King! We were ignorant people given to idolatry. We used to eat corpses even of animals that died a natural death and to do all sorts of evil and unclean things. We never made good our obligations to our relations, we ill-treated our neighbors. The strong among us would grow fat on the blood of the weak until at last God raised Rasulullah ﷺ from among us to reform us by showing us the path of righteousness. Rasulullah ﷺ is well known to us. We know him to be most noble, truthful, and persuaded us to give up idolatry and stone worshipping.
Rasulullah ﷺ enjoined on us, to tell the truth, to have a love for our kith
and kin. Further to that to fulfill our promises and to do good to others. Rasulullah ﷺ taught us to shun everything that is bad
and cease bloodshed. Rasulullah ﷺ also forbade us from all indecent things such as
telling lies, robbing and cheating orphans and widows so with bearing false
witness.
Rasulullah ﷺ taught us to keep the chastity of women sacred. So we believe in him and acted up to his teachings so far as we can. Thereupon these men began to torture us, thinking that we might be induced to give up our faith and go back to idolatry.
When their cruelties exceeded all bounds we came to seek peace
and shelter in your country and where we trust we shall come to no harm.”
Thereupon King Negus wished to hear the Quran. Then Sayidina Jaafar IbnAbu Talib ra, recited the chapter entitled “Surah Maryam.” Upon completion of
reading Surah Maryam by Sayidina Jaafar Ibn Abu Talib ra, King Negus refuses to hand over
the exiles to the Makkan Kafir. Failed in their attempt to convince King Negus
they decided to play a mean trick on the Muslims. First, they obtain an audience
with King Negus, telling the King that the Muslim held views about Jesus,
repugnant to the King. They had thought
of a plan to prejudice the King against the Muslims. Then King Negus sent for
them again, and this time they were genuinely afraid that the deputation would
be achieved in effecting their extradition.
For they thought that the replies might have would offend the
King. The Negus asked them point-blank what they thought about Jesus and these
truthful people not caring for the consequences’ boldly replied that they
believed in Jesus to be the Prophet of God but not the son of God. The Negus
admired this courage of theirs and again refuses to hand over the Muslims thus
putting the Makkan Kafir to shame. They were asked to leave Abyssinia immediately,
who now returned in confusion to Makkah.
Numbers of Muslims were seeking safety in far-off lands, Rasulullah ﷺ stuck to his post amidst every insult and outrage. The Quraish came to him
again, offering him the richest of the land, to which the Prophet replied:
“I am neither desirous of riches nor am I fond of power and
kingship. I am sent by Allah to give you glad tiding. I give you His message
and if you accept it, He will reward you both in this world and the hereafter.
But, if you refuse, I leave to Allah to judge between you and me.” They then mocked at him, scoffed at him, and went
away. They demanded of him impossible things to prove his Prophet Hood. It was
in fact the old story. The followers of Jesus had insisted upon him to perform
miracles. As someone has remarked: “The immediate disciples of Jesus have always misunderstood him and his work. Wanting him to call down fire from
heaven; wanting him to declare himself the king of the Jews. The other like of
many peoples of destroyed nations wanting him to show them their father and to
make God visible.
Why could he not perform miracles like Moses and Jesus?
Why could he not change the hill of Safa into gold?
Why not make the book itself? Of which he talks so much? Make it
fall down from heaven?
Why not show them this so-called angel? Who comes to speak to
him?
Why not make the dead speak?
Why not moves a mountain?
“You (Prophet Muhammad) would do well to ask Allah with whom you
are on such good terms, to loosen the grip of these mountains stifling our town
so disastrously.” The Quraish sniggered:
“or it would be enough to make a beautiful spring, purer than
Zamzam, gush forth; for we really lack water. And as prophets can foretell the
future you might as well advise about the approaching price of goods. Cannot
your God disclose which articles will rise in price? We should like to know these
things in order to regulate our trade and speculate with certainty.”
To such as would ask for miracles the holy Prophet Muhammad
would reply:
“I am able neither to
procure advantage unto me, nor to avert harm from me, but as God pleas
Seth. If I knew the secret of God, I should enjoy an abundance of good, neither
should evil befall me. I am nothing but a warner and the giver of good news to
a people who believe”
Quran 7:188
Quran: 18:110
I have just said that Rasulullah ﷺ was left with those who were
not able to migrate behind in Makkah, while the Quraish intensified their
campaign of torture. Many and various were the ways they adapted to stem the
rising tide of the new faith. It was at this time that by Divine revelation
(Quran 15:94), Rasulullah ﷺ was ordered by Allah SWT to proclaim Allah’s message to the
world, and he had to begin preaching in public.
Rasulullah ﷺ climbed Mount Safa one day and called out to all the Quraish
gathered there, “Have you ever heard me tell a lie?” With one voice they replied that they had not.
Upon which Rasulullah ﷺ said: “If I tell you that there is hidden behind this
mountain a large army ready to attack you, would you believe me?” “Certainly,”
they all replied, “ for we have never heard you tell a lie.” Then Rasulullah ﷺ gave them the message of Allah and exhorted them to give up idolatry, shun all
kinds of evil, and follow the path of righteousness.
Rasulullah ﷺ continued to say: “Well! I now tell you important news: O!
Banu Abdul Manaf, O! Banu Taym, O! Banu Makhzum, O! Banu Asad…O! Assembled
Qurayshite, redeem your own souls, for I can do nothing for you in God’s
presence…Listen to what He commanded me to tell you..”
Abu Lahab, Rasulullah ﷺ’s uncle, then rose and cried: “May you are
cursed for the rest of your life! Why gather us together for trifles like
this?”
Rasulullah ﷺ, disconnected, looked at his uncle without
speaking, His face grew red and then pale; his eyes twitched; he could not
breathe. Holding out his hand towards his assailant, he spoke, but it was
really the angel of wrath speaking for him;
“The hands of Abu Lahab shall perish, and he shall perish: His
riches shall not profit him, neither that which he hath gained, He shall go
down to be burned into a flaming fire.”
Quran: 110.
This meeting made them offensive and insulting, but Rasulullah ﷺ was undeterred and went on delivering his message. Thus more hearts warmed to
his teaching and embraced Islam. This further infuriated the Quraish when the
news of failures of the deputation to Negus of Abyssinia. This added fuel to
the fire; they decided to kill Rasulullah ﷺ. So they went again to Abu Talib,
this time with a handsome youth whom they wanted Abu Talib to adopt and bring
up, and give them, in return, Rasulullah ﷺ to be put to death. Abu Talib
declined to listen to such a ludicrous proposal, whereupon the Quraish decided
to extend a system of persecution to the whole of the Bani Hashim family.
The first they promulgated was a kind of social ban that stopped
inter-marriage and commercial relations. An agreement to that effect was drawn
up and hung in the Kaabah. On learning of this, the Bani Hashim moved to a place
known as Shi’b, but the Quraish saw to it that the blockade was enforced. When
someone only remotely related wanted to supply provisions the Quraish offered
obstruction, in which Abu Jahl, himself a Bani Hashim, played the cruelest
part. The whole family cheerfully suffered this ostracism for the sake of Rasulullah ﷺ, which they would never have done had they had no respect for him.
During the ban, the preaching was confined to the banned, and Rasulullah ﷺ took
full advantage of this. Only during the days of pilgrimage, when bloodshed was
sacrilegious, Rasulullah ﷺ would come out and preach to the people assembled
from all sides.
After some time the gentle-hearted Quraish began to object to the
prolonged ban, and five of them decided to remove it, which they did, first by
tearing into shreds the scroll hung in the Kaabah. They then went to Shi’b and
brought the Hashemites out, and sent them to their homes, nobody having the
courage to stop them. The ban had lasted for three years. Immediately after
this Abu Talib, who had been such a good uncle of over eighty years of age, and
brave supporter, passed away, and shortly afterward Rasulullah ﷺ’s faithful
wives and greatest help, Khadijah passed away too. In Islamic history, this year is known as “The
Years of Grief”.
The loss of his beloved wife and his uncle is the continuous test of a Prophet. Those two people in his life who were the greatest supporter in his life. As we shall see, the events following will show that Rasulullah ﷺ had still greater difficulties to face. In fact, these two deaths ushered in a new era of troubles. The following chapter will more than ever prove our claim that it was only through his conviction in the truth of his mission and his absolute faith in Allah Rabbul Jalalluh, that Rasulullah ﷺ was able to braves all obstacles. An exemplary undertaking of a man's hard struggle for a nobler destiny towards the liberation of his people from the bondage of idolatry”.
