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Seerah 05 · 623–627 · after the move to Madinah · Madinah
The Hijrah — migration to Madinah
The believers left Makkah for the city of Madinah, where they were finally free to build a community of their own.
16 events · the Prophet ﷺ aged 53–58
What happened
From ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm
Standard — the chapter told properly, in paragraphs
The community becomes a society. This chapter carries the Hijrah, the first mosque, the pairing of migrants with helpers, the charter of the city, and then Badr, Uḥud and the Trench — with revelation now legislating for a people, not only consoling a Prophet ﷺ.
The Hijrah and the cave of ThawrHe ﷺ and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه left southwards to the cave of Thawr while the search went north, and hid three nights. Abū Bakr's son brought news, a shepherd covered their tracks, and Asmāʾ رضي الله عنها brought food. When the searchers stood at the cave mouth Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه was afraid, and he ﷺ said, 'What do you think of two whose third is Allah?'
Qubāʾ and the mosque of the Prophet ﷺHe stopped at Qubāʾ and built the first mosque there, then entered Madinah and let his camel choose the ground for his own. He insisted on paying two orphan boys for the plot rather than taking it as a gift. The mosque he built of mud brick and palm trunks was also the school, the court and the assembly hall.
The first Friday prayerOn the way into Madinah he ﷺ prays Jumuʿah with Banū Sālim.
Brotherhood and the Constitution of MadinahHe paired each migrant who had arrived with nothing to a helper of Madinah as brothers with real obligations; when one was offered half a man's property, he asked to be shown the market instead. A written charter then set the terms of the city: the believers as one community, the Jewish tribes with their own religion, shared defence, and disputes referred to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
The call to prayer is givenInstead of a horn or a bell, the community is called by a man's voice.
The change of the qiblahFor about sixteen months they had prayed towards Jerusalem while he ﷺ kept turning his face to the sky. The command to face the Kaʿbah came in the middle of a prayer, and word spread so fast that one congregation turned while still bowing. Al-Baqarah answers the objection before it is even made.
Fasting of Ramaḍān and zakāh are made obligatoryIn the same year as Badr, the pillars of fasting and zakāh are put in place.
Badr — the day of criterionIn Ramaḍān of the second year the caravan escaped but the Quraysh army came anyway — about a thousand of them against three hundred and odd believers. He consulted his companions, who told him they would follow him into the sea, and he stood in prayer that night until his cloak fell. Seventy of Quraysh were killed, including Abū Jahl, and seventy captured; literate captives bought their freedom by teaching children of Madinah to write.
Banū Qaynuqāʿ break the covenantAfter Badr, the first of the treaty tribes turns openly hostile and is expelled.
Uḥud — the archers and the lessonA year later three thousand came for revenge. He ﷺ put fifty archers on a hill and told them not to move whatever happened. The day was being won until most of them left for the spoils, and Khālid ibn al-Walīd's cavalry came round behind. Seventy were killed, Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه and Muṣʿab among them, and he ﷺ was wounded. Āl ʿImrān then goes through the day honestly — the disobedience, the rumour of his death, and the order to forgive and consult again.
Ar-Rajīʿ and Biʾr MaʿūnahTwo groups of teachers are asked for and then killed — the worst year for the reciters.
Banū an-Naḍīr are expelledA plot to drop a millstone on him ﷺ ends a second covenant.
Al-Khandaq — the trench and the confederatesTen thousand came to finish Madinah. On Salmān رضي الله عنه al-Fārisī's رضي الله عنه advice they dug a trench across the open northern side — a Persian idea the Arabs did not use — and he ﷺ carried earth with them with a stone tied to his stomach from hunger. The siege held about a month, through cold, hunger and betrayal from inside, until a freezing wind tore the camp apart.
Banū Qurayẓah after the trenchThe tribe that joined the siege from inside is judged by the man they chose.
The slander of ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها (al-ifk)ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها was left behind by the army while looking for a lost necklace and brought back by a companion, and the head of the hypocrites turned it into an accusation that some believers repeated. She wept for nights, and said she could only say what Yaʿqūb عليه السلام said: beautiful patience. Sūrat an-Nūr then cleared her and set the rules for accusation and slander.
Banū al-Muṣṭaliq and the hypocrites exposedAn expedition ends with two quarrels that show who the hypocrites are.
Sūrat al-Anfāl; Sūrah Āl ʿImrān 3:152; Sūrat al-Aḥzāb 33:9–27; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906, 3951, 4043, 4103; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- The Hijrah
- 1 AH; three nights in the cave of Thawr with Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه
- First acts in Madinah
- The masjid, the brotherhood, the charter of the city
- Badr
- 17 Ramaḍān 2 AH — about 313 against about 1,000
- Uḥud
- Shawwāl 3 AH — the archers' hill; 70 killed, Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه among them
- The Trench
- Shawwāl 5 AH — 3,000 against 10,000; Salmān's رضي الله عنه advice
Narration by narration (16)
- Established623 · Rabīʿ al-Awwal
He ﷺ and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه hide three nights in Thawr, then ride north.
He ﷺ and Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه left southwards to the cave of Thawr while the search went north, and hid three nights. Abū Bakr's son brought news, a shepherd covered their tracks, and Asmāʾ رضي الله عنها brought food. When the searchers stood at the cave mouth Abū Bakr رضي الله عنه was afraid, and he ﷺ said, 'What do you think of two whose third is Allah?'
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3905; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2009
- Established623 · Madinah
The first mosque is built at Qubāʾ, then the Masjid in Madinah.
He stopped at Qubāʾ and built the first mosque there, then entered Madinah and let his camel choose the ground for his own. He insisted on paying two orphan boys for the plot rather than taking it as a gift. The mosque he built of mud brick and palm trunks was also the school, the court and the assembly hall.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
- Established623 · Rabīʿ al-Awwal · Madinah
On the way into Madinah he ﷺ prays Jumuʿah with Banū Sālim.
He stayed at Qubāʾ several days and founded its mosque — the first mosque built on taqwā. Leaving on Friday, the time of prayer reached him among Banū Sālim ibn ʿAwf, and he prayed Jumuʿah there with about a hundred men: the first Friday prayer of the Muslim community. Entering the city, every clan took hold of his camel's halter inviting him to stay with them, and he answered that the camel was under command; where she knelt, he stayed — the land of two orphan boys, which he bought and where the mosque was built.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3906; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established623 · Madinah
Muhājirūn are paired with Anṣār; a written compact binds the city's tribes.
He paired each migrant who had arrived with nothing to a helper of Madinah as brothers with real obligations; when one was offered half a man's property, he asked to be shown the market instead. A written charter then set the terms of the city: the believers as one community, the Jewish tribes with their own religion, shared defence, and disputes referred to Allah and His Messenger ﷺ.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3937; Ibn Hishām, al-Sīrah
- Strong report623 · Madinah
Instead of a horn or a bell, the community is called by a man's voice.
The Muslims used to gather for prayer by estimating the time. They discussed a bell like the Christians, a horn like the Jews, a fire lit on a height — and the Prophet ﷺ was not pleased with any of it. ʿAbdullāh ibn Zayd رضي الله عنه saw the words of the adhān in a dream, and ʿUmar رضي الله عنه had seen the same. The Prophet ﷺ said it was a true vision and told him to teach it to Bilāl رضي الله عنه, who had the stronger voice. From then the city was ordered around Bilāl's voice five times a day.
Sunan Abī Dāwūd 498; Jāmiʿ at-Tirmidhī 189; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established624 · Rajab · Madinah
After some sixteen months facing Jerusalem, the prayer turns to the Kaʿbah.
For about sixteen months they had prayed towards Jerusalem while he ﷺ kept turning his face to the sky. The command to face the Kaʿbah came in the middle of a prayer, and word spread so fast that one congregation turned while still bowing. Al-Baqarah answers the objection before it is even made.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4486; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 525
- Established624 · Shaʿbān–Ramaḍān · Madinah
In the same year as Badr, the pillars of fasting and zakāh are put in place.
In Shaʿbān of 2 AH the fast of Ramaḍān was made obligatory, replacing the earlier fast of ʿĀshūrāʾ as an obligation and leaving it recommended. Zakāt al-fiṭr was prescribed at the end of that Ramaḍān, and the ʿĪd prayer was prayed for the first time. Zakāh on wealth was made an ordered duty in the same period. The community was being given a shape — worship, charity and a calendar — in the very year it first had to fight.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 1503, 2002; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established624 · 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 Quraysh army came anyway — about a thousand of them against three hundred and odd believers. He consulted his companions, who told him they would follow him into the sea, and he stood in prayer that night until his cloak fell. Seventy of Quraysh were killed, including Abū Jahl, and seventy captured; literate captives bought their freedom by teaching children of Madinah to write.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3951; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1763
- Traditional ordering624 · Shawwāl · Madinah
After Badr, the first of the treaty tribes turns openly hostile and is expelled.
Banū Qaynuqāʿ were bound by the covenant of Madinah. After Badr they declared that Quraysh knew nothing of war and that fighting them would be different. A Muslim woman in their market was shamed when a goldsmith pinned her garment; a Muslim killed him and was killed in turn. The Prophet ﷺ besieged them fifteen nights until they surrendered, and on the plea of ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy they were expelled to Shām rather than killed.
Ibn Hishām; Abū Dāwūd 3001; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established625 · Shawwāl · Uḥud
A near-victory turns when the archers leave the hill; seventy are martyred.
A year later three thousand came for revenge. He ﷺ put fifty archers on a hill and told them not to move whatever happened. The day was being won until most of them left for the spoils, and Khālid ibn al-Walīd's cavalry came round behind. Seventy were killed, Ḥamzah رضي الله عنه and Muṣʿab among them, and he ﷺ was wounded. Āl ʿImrān then goes through the day honestly — the disobedience, the rumour of his death, and the order to forgive and consult again.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4043; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1789
- Established626 · Ṣafar · Najd and Hudhayl
Two groups of teachers are asked for and then killed — the worst year for the reciters.
In Ṣafar of 4 AH men of ʿAḍal and al-Qārah asked for teachers; at ar-Rajīʿ they were betrayed to Hudhayl and ten Companions were killed or sold to Makkah, among them Khubayb ibn ʿAdī, crucified there after praying two rakʿahs. In the same month Abū Barāʾ asked for reciters for Najd; about seventy were killed at Biʾr Maʿūnah by ʿĀmir ibn aṭ-Ṭufayl and the tribes of Sulaym. The Prophet ﷺ made qunūt against those tribes for a month — the only time he is reported to have done so at such length.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3989, 4090; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established626 · Rabīʿ al-Awwal · Madinah
A plot to drop a millstone on him ﷺ ends a second covenant.
He ﷺ went to Banū an-Naḍīr over blood money owed under the covenant. They sat him against a wall of a house and agreed among themselves to drop a millstone on him from the roof. Revelation informed him and he left at once. They were told to leave Madinah; ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy promised them support that never came, and after a siege of some days they left for Khaybar and Shām, carrying what their camels could hold. Sūrat al-Ḥashr was revealed about them.
Ibn Hishām; Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4028; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established627 · Shawwāl · Madinah
Ten thousand besiege Madinah; a trench on Salmān's advice holds them.
Ten thousand came to finish Madinah. On Salmān رضي الله عنه al-Fārisī's رضي الله عنه advice they dug a trench across the open northern side — a Persian idea the Arabs did not use — and he ﷺ carried earth with them with a stone tied to his stomach from hunger. The siege held about a month, through cold, hunger and betrayal from inside, until a freezing wind tore the camp apart.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4103; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 1803
- Established627 · Dhū al-Qaʿdah · Madinah
The tribe that joined the siege from inside is judged by the man they chose.
Banū Qurayẓah had broken the covenant during the siege of the trench, negotiating with the confederates while the city was surrounded. When the armies withdrew, the Prophet ﷺ was commanded to go to them, and they were besieged for twenty-five nights until they surrendered and asked that Saʿd ibn Muʿādh رضي الله عنه judge them — their old ally, now dying of a wound from the trench. He judged that the fighting men be killed and the women and children taken captive, a ruling matching the law in their own scripture. The Prophet ﷺ said Saʿd had judged by the judgement of Allah.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 3043, 4122; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī
- Established627–628 · Madinah
A month of rumour ends with ten āyāt of Sūrat an-Nūr.
ʿĀʾishah رضي الله عنها was left behind by the army while looking for a lost necklace and brought back by a companion, and the head of the hypocrites turned it into an accusation that some believers repeated. She wept for nights, and said she could only say what Yaʿqūb عليه السلام said: beautiful patience. Sūrat an-Nūr then cleared her and set the rules for accusation and slander.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4750; Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim 2770
- Established627–628 · Shaʿbān · al-Muraysīʿ
An expedition ends with two quarrels that show who the hypocrites are.
Hearing that al-Ḥārith ibn Abī Ḍirār was gathering men against Madinah, the Prophet ﷺ moved first and met them at al-Muraysīʿ; the battle was short. On the way back a Muhājir and an Anṣārī quarrelled at the water and each called his people, and ʿAbdullāh ibn Ubayy said the words Sūrat al-Munāfiqūn records: 'When we return to Madinah the mightier will drive out the weaker.' His own son offered to deal with him and was refused. The Prophet ﷺ marched the army all day to tire the talk out of them. He married Juwayriyah رضي الله عنها bint al-Ḥārith رضي الله عنها, and the Muslims freed a hundred families of her tribe as in-laws of the Prophet ﷺ.
Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī 4905; Ibn Hishām; ar-Raḥīq al-Makhtūm, al-Mubārakpūrī