The Life of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq

Chapter 2: The Migration to Medina, 622CE

Muhammad seeks armed support from the Thafiq

When his uncle Abu Talib died, Muhammad lost all protection against his own people, the Quraysh. So he went alone to the nearby town of al-Taif in the hope that the Thafiq tribe would accept Islam and support him against his own people.

Instead, the leaders of the Thafiq [who were devotees of the goddess Al-Lat] mocked him cruelly and incited their ruffians and slaves to insult him and jeer at him until a mob formed and he had to take refuge in a vineyard belonging to Utba b. Rabia and his brother Shayba, Qurayshi noblemen, who took pity upon him and gave him grapes to eat.

Conversion of jinn to Islam

The apostle was forced to return to Mecca. On the return journey, when he reached Nakhla, he rose to pray in the middle of the night, as a number of jinn [spirits] passed by. They listened to him and when the prayer was over, they returned to their people as believers and warners, saying, ‘Lo, we have heard a Book, confirming previous scriptures, guiding to the Truth and the straight path. Believe in Allah. He will forgive you your sins and deliver you from a painful doom!’ (Sura 46. 29-31)

Marriage to Sauda and Aisha

On his return to Mecca, Muhammad found that the Quraysh were more bitterly opposed to him than ever, apart from the few lower-class people who believed in him and the only way he could enter Mecca was with the armed protection of al-Mutim b. Adiy. [It was then that the apostle married Sauda, a poor widow of mature age, whilst becoming betrothed to Aisha, the six-year-old daughter of his close companion, Abu Bakr.]

The beginning of Islam among the men of Medina, 620CE

Whenever he could, Muhammad continued to preach the word of Allah to the Arab tribes at the encampments of the fairs near Mina, until at al-Aqaba, he met some men of Yathrib [now known as Medina, 270 miles north of Mecca] who told him they were of the Khazraj tribe.

They and the tribe of Aus lived alongside tribes of Jews (the Beni Qaynuka, the Beni al-Nadir and the Beni Qurayza), who were People of the Book [people with knowledge of the Bible scriptures], whilst they themselves were idolators. When the Khazraj heard the apostle recite the Quran, they said to one another, ‘This is the very prophet the Jews warned us about and threatened us with! Let us accept him before they do!’

They thereupon became Muslims, saying, ‘We hereby renounce our own people, for no tribes are so divided by bitterness and loathing as they are. Perhaps through you, Allah will bring them together. We will summon them to this faith of yours; and if Allah does unite us, you will be the greatest man amongst us.’

Thus saying, they returned home to Medina as believers and Ansar (Helpers), promising to meet up with Muhammad the following year.

Muhammad’s Night Journey

Soon after this encounter with the Ansar, it is said that the apostle was transported by night ‘from the Sacred Temple [the Kabah] to the Further Temple,’ which is the Temple of Aelia [Jerusalem]’. The apostle said, ‘Buraq, a white animal, half mule, half donkey, with wings on either side, whose every stride carries it as far as its eye can reach, and on which the prophets before me used to ride, was brought to me, and I was seated upon it by Gabriel who then flew beside me to see the marvels of heaven and earth, until we came to the Temple of Jerusalem.

There we found Ibrahim [Abraham], Musa [Moses] and Isa [Jesus] amongst a company of prophets and they brought me three vessels containing milk, wine and water. I chose the vessel of milk and drank it, and Gabriel said, ‘You have been rightly guided and so will your people be, Muhammad!’

The apostle’s Ascent to Heaven

Then a fine ladder was brought to me, and I climbed it with my companion until we came to the Gate of the Watchers. I was shown the fiery furnace and tortures of Hell, before being led up through the heavens, where I saw the Prophets [of Islam]: Adam in the first heaven, reviewing the spirits of the dead, and in the second, cousins Isa [Jesus] and Yahyah [John the Baptist].

In the third heaven was a man with a face like the full moon [radiant]. This was my brother Yusuf [Joseph]. Idris was in the fourth. In the fifth heaven was a most handsome man with white hair and a long beard. This was the beloved of his people, Harun [Aaron]. In the sixth was a dark man with a hooked nose, my brother Musa [Moses]. Then to the seventh heaven and there, enthroned at the gate of the immortal mansion was my father Ibrahim [Abraham]. Never have I seen a man more like myself!

Then Abraham took me into Paradise and there I saw a damsel with ruby red lips. She was so delightful that I asked her to whom she belonged, and she told me she was destined for Zayd. I have given Zayd the good news about her.’

Muhammad bargains Allah down to five prayers a day

The apostle continued, ‘On reaching the seventh heaven, the duty of fifty prayers a day was laid upon me. On my return I passed by Moses, and what a fine friend of yours he was! He told me to go back to my Lord to reduce the number, so I went back and forth until only five prayers for the whole day and night were left. However, those of you who perform the five prayers in faith and trust shall have the reward of fifty prayers.’

Many Muslims lose their faith

In his account, al-Hasan said: ‘Then the apostle returned to Mecca and the following morning told the people what had happened.

Many Muslims lost their faith. Some of them went to Abu Bakr, saying, ‘What do you think of your friend Muhammad now, Abu Bakr? He’s claiming that last night he went to Jerusalem, prayed there and returned to Mecca!’

‘You are lying!’ answered Abu Bakr.

‘No, we’re not,’ they said. ‘He’s in the Kabah right now telling everybody about it!’

‘If Muhammad says so, it is true, and what is so surprising about it? He tells me that revelations from Allah come down to him from heaven to earth day and night and I believe him, and that’s more amazing than what you are boggling at now!’

Then Abu Bakr went to the apostle and asked him if the reports were true, and when Muhammad said that they were, Abu Bakr asked him to describe Jerusalem to him, and every time that Muhammad described a part of the city, Abu Bakr confirmed that the description was accurate, saying, ‘I testify that you are the apostle of God.’

Then the apostle said, ‘And you, Abu Bakr are the Siddiq [Testifier to the Truth].’

However, one of Abu Bakr’s family told me that Aisha, the prophet’s wife, used to say, ‘The apostle’s body remained where it was but Allah moved his spirit in the night.’

Some describe the Night Journey as ‘a true vision from Allah’ but only Allah knows how revelation came and he saw what he saw. But whether he was asleep or awake, it was all true and actually happened. Concerning those who left Islam because of this, the Quran came down from Allah: ‘We made the vision only as a test for men. We warn them but it only adds to their heinous error.’ (Sura 17.60)

The First Pledge of Aqaba, 621CE

The following year, twelve of the Ansar [Helpers] from Medina came to Aqaba again to meet up with the apostle, and gave him ‘the pledge of women’ (i.e. no fighting was involved). They undertook: ‘not to associate other gods with Allah, not to steal; nor to commit fornication; nor to kill their offspring, nor to slander their neighbours, and not to disobey him in what was right. If they fulfilled this, Paradise would be theirs. If they committed any of those sins, it was for Allah to punish or forgive them as He pleased.’ (Sura 60.12)

When the Ansar returned to Medina, the apostle sent Musab b. Umayr with them to instruct them in Islam. Musab always led the prayers because the Aus and the Khazraj could not bear to see one of their rivals take the lead.

Allah’s command to wage war on unbelievers, 622CE

Until now, the apostle had not been given permission to wage war or to shed blood. He had simply been ordered to call men to Allah, to endure insult and to forgive the ignorant. But when the Quraysh persisted in their insolence towards Allah, rejecting His gracious purposes, and accusing the apostle of falsehood, and ill-treating those who served Him, then Allah’s messages came down: ‘For those who are attacked, wrongly harmed and driven from their homes for faith in Allah, permission now is given - to take up arms.’ (Sura 22.39) ‘Fight them until oppression is no more and Allah’s religion reigns supreme!’ (Sura 2.193)

The Second Pledge of Aqaba, 622CE

Then, when almost every house in Medina contained men and women who had converted to Islam, Musab returned to Mecca, and the Ansar who had completed the hajj with their fellow tribesmen came to the fair at Aqaba to meet up with the apostle again. When the appointed night came, they said to their tribesman, Abdullah b. Amr, ‘You are one of our most respected chiefs and nobles and we want to wean you from your present state of unbelief and save you from the fires of Hell.’ Then they invited him to Islam, and he came with them and became a naqib (leader).

Ka’ab b. Malik said afterwards, ‘We went stealing softly like sandgrouse to our appointment with the apostle, seventy-three men and two women. The apostle came with his uncle al-Abbas, who was at that time an unbeliever, but he wanted to ensure that his nephew obtained a firm pledge of allegiance.’

When the twelve leaders of the Ansar, nine from the Khazraj and three from the Aus, asked what reward they would get for their loyalty, Muhammad promised them Paradise, where ‘Allah’s true servants shall feast on fruits in the Gardens of Delight, reclining face to face upon soft couches, drinking from a goblet fine wine that neither dulls their senses nor befuddles them, and attended by bashful, dark-eyed virgins as chaste as sheltered eggs of ostriches.’ (Sura 37.41-49)

Then they gave him their allegiance, this time as men of war, and bound themselves to fight against all and sundry for Allah and his apostle. And the apostle said, ‘I am one with you and you are one with me. I will wage war against those who wage war against you, and make peace with those who make peace with you.’

The Hijrah, the Emigration to Medina

Having received Allah’s command to wage war, and the pledge of armed support from the Ansar, Muhammad ordered his companions in Mecca to emigrate to Medina, saying, ‘Allah will provide you with brethren, and houses of refuge.’

So the Muslims slipped away from Mecca in small groups, until, except for Abu Bakr and Ali, none remained but those under restraint and those who had been forced to renounce their faith. Meanwhile, Muhammad stayed in Mecca waiting for his Lord’s permission to leave and migrate to Medina.

When the Quraysh learned that Muhammad had gained adherents outside the tribe and had decided to wage war against them, they assembled in their council chamber to decide what action to take, for they were now in fear of him and no longer safe against a sudden attack.

One advised that they should put him in irons, another that they should send him into exile. Abu Jahl suggested that every clan should choose a powerful young warrior with a sharp sword, and each one should strike a blow at Muhammad and kill him. Thus they would be relieved of him, and responsibility for his blood would lie upon all the clans. Having come to this decision the people dispersed.

Muhammad escapes capture by the Quraysh

Then Gabriel came to Muhammad and said, ‘Tonight, do not sleep on your usual bed.’

Soon after dark, the Quraysh assembled at the door of Muhammad’s house, waiting for him to go to sleep so that they might fall upon him. But the person lying on the apostle’s bed was Ali, wrapped in the apostle’s own green Hadrami mantle. Muhammad slipped away from the house, and Allah prevented them from seeing him. Then they began to search, and seeing Ali on the bed, said, ‘By God, it is Muhammad sleeping in his mantle.’

Thus they remained until morning when Ali rose from the bed. And among the verses of the Quran that Allah sent down are: ‘And when the unbelievers plot to imprison or kill thee or drive thee out, they plot, but Allah plots also, and Allah is the best of plotters!’ (Sura 8.30)

It was then that Allah granted Muhammad permission to migrate, so he went to Abu Bakr’s house at noon, and when Abu Bakr learned that he was to accompany the apostle, he wept tears of joy. He had bought two camels and had kept them tied up in his house supplying them with fodder in preparation for departure. So they hired Abdullah b. Arqat, an unbeliever, to lead them on the way, and gave him the two camels to keep and water until the time came.

On the appointed day, the two of them left the house by a rear window, and made for a cave on Thaur, a mountain to the south of Mecca, where they hid for three days. Then, when men’s interest had waned, Abdullah came with their two camels and one of his own, and took them by a circuitous route north to Medina. Ali escaped from Mecca and joined them three days later.

Allah guides the camel to the site of the mosque

On arrival at Medina, the apostle stayed for several days in Quba among the Beni Amr b. Auf. Some of the Beni Salim came and asked him to stay with them and enjoy their wealth and protection. However, the apostle turned down their invitation and that of several other clans, saying, ‘Nay, my camel is under Allah’s orders, let her go her way.’

The apostle let the camel’s rein go free, not guiding it, until finally it came to the quarters of the Beni Malik b. al-Najjar tribe, where it knelt down, shook itself off, and lay exhausted with its chest upon a piece of ground used as a drying place for dates.

The apostle dismounted, and Abu Ayyub took his baggage into the house and the apostle stayed with him. When he asked to whom the drying floor belonged, he was told that the owners were two orphans, Sahl and Suhayl, sons of Amr, and that he could buy it from the two young men for use as a mosque. [In fact, the two young orphans were the wards of Abu Umama, chief of the Beni Najjar, the tribe of Muhammad's great-grandmother and one of six converts of Medina at the First Pledge of Aqaba, and the land was already being used for Musab to recite the Quran and lead the Muslims in prayer.]

The building of the mosque and Muhammad’s disputes with the Jews and hypocrites

Muhammad ordered that a mosque should be built on the site, and he stayed with one of the Ansar until the mosque and the houses for his wives were completed. Prayer was instituted, along with the zakat [poor tax] and fasting; legal punishments were fixed, and the haram [forbidden] and halal [permitted] were prescribed, and Islam became established.

Muhammad then invited the Jews to Islam, warning them of Allah’s punishment if they did not accept. But except for a few, they rejected both him and the message of the Quran, saying that he had not brought them anything they recognised, and refusing to tell the apostle’s companions the contents of the Torah.

So Allah sent down about them: ‘Those who conceal the proofs and guidance We sent down after We made it plain to men in the Book, Allah will curse them and those who curse will curse them!’ (Sura 2.159)

The Charter of Medina and the creation of the Muslim ‘umma’

The apostle [having become virtual ruler of Medina, and already planning revenge attacks on the Quraysh] then drew up a ‘charter’ between the Muslims and the Jews of Medina, in which he described ‘the believers and Muslims of the Quraysh and Medina and those who followed them, joined them and worked with them’ as being ‘one umma [community] to the exclusion of all other men.’

‘Jews who follow us will be granted help and equality. They shall contribute to the cost of war when they fight alongside the believers, and are bound to help in the event of any attack on Medina. The Jews must bear their own expenses, and the Muslims their own expenses. In the event of any dispute, the matter must be referred to Allah and to Muhammad, the apostle of Allah.’

Casting out of the ‘hypocrites’

However, the Jewish rabbis continued to show hostility, and were joined by men of the Aus and the Khazraj who clung to the idolatry of their ancestors and denied the existence of the afterlife. When Islam appeared and their people flocked to it, they were forced to feign conversion to save their lives. But in secret they were hypocrites who sided with the Jews because they disbelieved the apostle’s teachings and strove against Islam.

These hypocrites used to gather in the mosque and listen to the recitals of the Muslims and laugh and mock Islam. One day the apostle saw some of them huddled together talking in low voices amongst themselves. He ordered them to be thrown out, and they were punched and dragged forcibly out of the mosque. When they complained of the violence, they were told, ‘Allah has worse punishments than that in store for you!’

The first hundred verses of the Sura of the Cow came down from Allah concerning the Jews: ‘Children of Israel, remember the favour I showed you. God’s curse is on the unbelievers. They have incurred anger upon anger and to the unbelievers there is a shameful punishment. The right path has become plainly distinguished from error so I summon you to Allah and his apostle!’ (Sura 2)

Muhammad reintroduces stoning for adultery

When the apostle came to Medina, the Jewish rabbis gathered in their school. A married man had committed adultery with a married woman. They brought the couple before Muhammad for judgement. Muhammad went to the school house and asked to see a copy of the Torah, but a rabbi put his hand over the verse of stoning.

Then Abdullah b. Salam [Al-Husayn b. Salam, a Jewish rabbi who had betrayed his own people and converted to Islam] struck the rabbi’s hand away and said, ‘Here, O Prophet of Allah, is the verse of stoning which he is refusing to read to you!’

Muhammad called on the rabbis to bring out their most learned men and they produced Ibn Suriya, saying that he was the foremost scholar of the Torah. When Muhammad was alone with him, he put him on his oath as to whether the Torah did not prescribe stoning for adulterers.

‘Yes’, said Ibn Suriya, ‘they know that you are a prophet sent by God but they are jealous of you.’

‘Woe to you Jews!’ cried the apostle. ‘What has induced you to abandon the judgement of Allah? I am the first to revive God’s commandment and His Book and to practise it!’

Muhammad then commanded that the couple should be stoned, and they were stoned at the door of his mosque. And it is said that when the Jew felt the first stone, he crouched over the woman to protect her from the stones until both of them were killed.

Afterwards, Ibn Suriya denied that Muhammad was a prophet, so Allah sent down concerning the Jews: ‘O apostle, let not those who vie in unbelief sadden thee, those who say with their mouths, We believe, but their hearts do not believe, and those Jews who listen to lies.’ (Sura 5.41)