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Seerah 05 · 1–5 AH · 8 events
Hijrah and the building of Madinah
Madinah · the Prophet ﷺ aged 53–58
The chapter, narration by narration
What happened, and who reported it
Every event is graded by the strength of the report behind it, and can be added to your spaced-repetition queue the way an āyah or a root can.
The Hijrah and the cave of Thawr
Established1 AH · Rabīʿ al-Awwal
He ﷺ and Abū Bakr hide three nights in Thawr, then ride north.
They left southwards to Thawr, the opposite direction from Yathrib. ʿAbdullāh ibn Abī Bakr carried news, ʿĀmir ibn Fuhayrah grazed sheep over their tracks, and Asmāʾ رضي الله عنها brought food. Abū Bakr, seeing the feet of the searchers at the mouth of the cave, said, 'If one of them looked down at his feet he would see us.' He ﷺ answered, 'What do you think of two whose third is Allah?' Surāqah pursued them for the bounty and his horse sank into the ground; he returned and concealed their route.
- Qurʾān 9:40The cave, the two of them, and the sakīnah sent down.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3905; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2009
Qubāʾ and the mosque of the Prophet ﷺ
Established1 AH · Madinah
The first mosque is built at Qubāʾ, then the Masjid in Madinah.
He ﷺ stayed some nights at Qubāʾ and built the mosque founded upon taqwā. Entering Madinah, he let his camel choose the ground and bought the plot from two orphan boys rather than accept it as a gift. The mosque was built of palm trunks and mud brick, with the Ṣuffah at its rear for the poor who studied there, and his own rooms alongside — the mosque was also the school, the court and the assembly.
- Qurʾān 9:108'A mosque founded upon taqwā from the first day.'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
Brotherhood and the Constitution of Madinah
Established1 AH · Madinah
Muhājirūn are paired with Anṣār; a written compact binds the city's tribes.
He ﷺ made brotherhood between the migrants who arrived with nothing and the Anṣār, who offered to split their property; ʿAbd ar-Raḥmān ibn ʿAwf asked instead to be shown the market. A written document then set out the terms of the city: the believers are one community, the Jews of the tribes have their religion and the Muslims theirs, mutual defence of Madinah, and disputes referred to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
- Qurʾān 59:9The Anṣār who 'prefer others over themselves, even in poverty'.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3937; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
The change of the qiblah
Established2 AH · Rajab · Madinah
After some sixteen months facing Jerusalem, the prayer turns to the Kaʿbah.
Al-Barāʾ رضي الله عنه reported that they prayed towards Bayt al-Maqdis for sixteen or seventeen months, and that the Prophet ﷺ used to turn his face to the sky. The command came mid-prayer; a man who had prayed with him passed a congregation in rukūʿ and called out that the qiblah had changed, and they turned while still praying. The foolish among the people asked what had turned them from their former qiblah.
- Qurʾān 2:142–150The qiblah passage and the naming of this Ummah as a witness over mankind.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4486; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 525
Badr — the day of criterion
Established2 AH · 17 Ramaḍān · Badr
Three hundred and odd believers meet a thousand of Quraysh and are given victory.
In Ramaḍān of the second year the caravan escaped but the army came. He ﷺ consulted his Companions; al-Miqdād and Saʿd ibn Muʿādh pledged to follow him into the sea if he ordered it. He stood in the shelter that night making du'ā until his cloak fell, and Abū Bakr said, 'Enough, Messenger of Allah.' Fourteen Muslims were killed; seventy of Quraysh were killed and seventy captured, among them Abū Jahl. Literate captives ransomed themselves by teaching ten children of Madinah to write.
- Qurʾān 3:123'Allah gave you victory at Badr while you were weak.'
- Qurʾān 8:9–12The angels sent down, and the sakīnah.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3951; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1763
Uḥud — the archers and the lesson
Established3 AH · Shawwāl · Uḥud
A near-victory turns when the archers leave the hill; seventy are martyred.
In Shawwāl of the third year three thousand of Quraysh came for revenge. He ﷺ placed fifty archers on the hill with the order not to move whether they saw victory or saw birds carrying away their flesh. When the enemy broke, most left to collect spoils, and Khālid ibn al-Walīd — still not Muslim — turned the flank. Ḥamzah and Muṣʿab ibn ʿUmayr were killed; the Prophet's ﷺ tooth was broken and his face wounded. Āl ʿImrān then dissects the day: the wound, the disobedience, the rumour of his death, and the command to forgive and consult again.
- Qurʾān 3:152–153'Until you lost courage and disputed about the order.'
- Qurʾān 3:159'Had you been harsh and hard-hearted they would have dispersed from around you.'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4043; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1789
Al-Khandaq — the trench and the confederates
Established5 AH · Shawwāl · Madinah
Ten thousand besiege Madinah; a trench on Salmān's advice holds them.
In the fifth year the confederates came. On the counsel of Salmān al-Fārisī رضي الله عنه a trench was dug across the exposed northern approach; the Prophet ﷺ carried earth with them, stone tied to his stomach from hunger, and they sang as they worked. The siege lasted about a month under cold, hunger and the treachery of Banū Qurayẓah, until a wind scattered the camps. He ﷺ said afterwards, 'Now we shall go to them, and they shall not come to us.'
- Qurʾān 33:9–11'When they came at you from above you and from below you... there the believers were tested.'
- Qurʾān 33:22The believers' response: 'This is what Allah and His Messenger promised us.'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4103; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1803
The slander of ʿĀʾishah (al-ifk)
Established5–6 AH · Madinah
A month of rumour ends with ten āyāt of Sūrat an-Nūr.
Returning from an expedition, ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها was left behind searching for a lost necklace and was brought back by Ṣafwān ibn al-Muʿaṭṭal. ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy spread the accusation and some believers repeated it. She fell ill, wept for nights, and when confronted said she could only say what Yaʿqūb عليه السلام said: 'Beautiful patience.' Revelation then cleared her, set the burden of four witnesses, and legislated the ḥadd for slander.
- Qurʾān 24:11–20The ifk passage: 'Do not think it bad for you; rather it is good for you.'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4750; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2770