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Prophet Muhammad’s main meal was usually a boiled gruel,
with dates and milk, his only other meal of the day being dates and water; but
he frequently went hungry, sometimes even binding a flat stone against his
belly to alleviate his discomfort. One day a woman gave him a cloak -
something he badly needed - but the same evening someone asked for it to make a
shroud, and he promptly gave it as charity. He was brought food by those who
had a small surplus, but he never seemed to keep it long enough to taste it, as
there was always someone in greater need. With diminished physical strength -
now fifty-two years old - he struggled to build a nation based upon the true
religion of Islam out of the varied assortment of people God had given him as
his raw material.
By force of character combined with extraordinary
diplomatic skill, Prophet Muhammad began to reconcile the warring factions of
Medina. With his other companions also emigrating, a support system for the
newcomers was of essential importance. To unite the ‘emigrants’ (Muhājirūn)
with the local Muslims, the ‘helpers’ (Ansār), he established a
system of personal relationships: each ‘helper’ took an ‘emigrant’ as his
brother, to be treated as such under all circumstances and to stand in order of
inheritance along with members of the natural family. With a few exceptions,
the ‘emigrants’ had lost everything they possessed and were completely
dependent upon their new brothers. The Helpers sometimes
went so far as to give their Emigrant brothers half of whatever they possessed
in the form of houses, assets, lands and groves. Such was the enthusiasm of
the Helpers to share everything with their brothers-in-faith that they divided
everything into two parts to draw lots for allocating their share. In most
cases, they tried to give the Emigrants the fairer portion of their property.
One is tempted to describe as a ‘miracle’ the fact that
this situation seems to have caused no resentment whatever among those who were
so suddenly obliged to take complete strangers into their families. This bond
of brotherhood broke all ties of ancestry, color, nationality and other factors
previously regarded as a standard of honor. The only ties which now mattered
were religious. Seldom has the power of religious faith to change men been
more clearly demonstrated.
The Meccan Muslims, however, had not forgotten their old
skills. An ‘emigrant’ who when his new brother said to him, ‘O poorest of the
poor, how can I help you? My house and my funds are at your disposal!’
replied: ‘O kindest of kind friends, just show me the way to the local market.
The rest will take care of itself.’ This man, it is said, started by selling cheese
and clarified butter, and soon became rich enough to pay the dower of a local girl
and, in due course, was able to equip a caravan of 700 camels.
Such enterprise was encouraged, but there were also
those who had neither the ability to do so nor did they have family or property.
They would spend the day in the Mosque and at night, the Prophet would place
them with various individuals of the Helpers. They came to be known as ‘Ahl
us-Suffa.’ Some were fed at the Prophet’s own table, when there was any to
spare, and with roasted barley from the community chest.
In the first year of his reign at Yathrib, the Prophet
made a solemn covenant of mutual obligation between his people and the Jews
tribes of Medina and its surrounding areas, in which it was agreed that they
would have equal status as citizens of a state and full religious liberty, and
that each would defend the other if attacked.
But their idea of a Prophet was one who would give them
dominion, and a Jewish prophet, not an Arabian one. The Jews had also profited
greatly from the infighting between Arab tribes, as it was through this
instability of the region that they had gained the upper hand in trade and
commodities. Peace among the tribes of Medina and its surrounding areas was a
threat to the Jews.
Also, from among the inhabitants of Medina were those who
resented the newcomers, but held their peace for the time being. The most
powerful of them, Abdullah ibn Ubayy ibn Salool, was extremely resentful of the
arrival of the Prophet, as it was he who was the de facto the leader of Yathrib
prior to the Prophet. He accepted Islam as a matter of formality, though he
would later betray the Muslims as the leader of the ‘hypocrites.’
Due to this common hatred of the Prophet, the Muslims,
and the new state of affairs of Yathrib, the alliance between the Jews and the ‘hypocrites’
of Medina was almost inevitable. Throughout the history of Muslims in Medina, they tried to seduce the followers of the new religion, constantly plotting and
planning against them. Due to this, there is frequent mention of the Jews and hypocrites
in the Medina chapters of the Quran.
The Qiblah
The Qiblah (the direction toward which the Muslims pray)
until this point had been Jerusalem. The Jews imagined that the choice implied
a leaning toward Judaism and that the Prophet stood in need of their instruction.
The Prophet longed for the Qiblah to be changed to the Kaaba. The first place
on earth built for the worship of God, and rebuilt by Abraham. In the second
year after the migration, The Prophet received command to change the Qiblah
from Jerusalem to the Kaaba at Mecca. A whole portion of Surah al-Baqara
relates to this Jewish controversy.
The First Expeditions
The Prophet’s first concern as ruler was to establish
public worship and lay down the constitution of the State: but he did not forget
that the Quraish had sworn to make an end of his religion. Enraged that the
Prophet had succeeded in migrating to Medina, they increased their torture and
persecution of the Muslims who stayed behind in Mecca. Their evil plots did
not stop their. They also tried to make secret alliances with some polytheists
of Medina, such as Abdullah ibn Ubayy previously mentioned, ordering him to
kill or expel the Prophet. The Quraish often sent threatening messages to
Muslims of Medina warning of their annihilation, and so much news of the plots
and plans of the polytheists reached the Prophet himself that he requested the
positioning of security guards around his house. It was at this time that God
had given the Muslims permission to take arms against the disbelievers.
For thirteen years they had been strict pacifists. Now,
however, several small expeditions were sent, led either by the Prophet himself
or some other of the emigrants from Mecca for the purpose of reconnoitering the
routes which led to Mecca, as well as forming alliances with other tribes. Other
expeditions were led in order to intercept some caravans returning from Syria en route to Mecca, a way that Muslims could place economic pressure of the Quraish in order to
quit their harassment of the Muslims, both in Mecca and Medina. Few of these
expeditions ever saw actual battle, but through them, the Muslims established
their new position in the Arabian Peninsula, that they were no longer an
oppressed and weak people, but rather their strength had grown and were now a
formidable force not easily reckoned with.
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