What Does Hijrah Really Mean in Islam?
Hijrah in Islamic Law: Definition, Obligation, and Historical Context in Mecca
Summary
Sheikh Ali Mashhour discusses the concept of Hijrah (migration) in Islamic jurisprudence as part of his commentary on Zadul-Ma'ad. He explains that Hijrah linguistically means to abandon or leave something, and in Islamic law refers to leaving a place where one cannot openly practice Islam. The sheikh clarifies that Hijrah was not obligatory in the early years of prophethood but became mandatory around the tenth year. He details the minimum requirements for obligatory migration: the ability to openly profess Islam, establish prayer, fast during Ramadan, and perform Hajj. The lecture then transitions to the historical context of the Prophet's efforts to call tribes to Islam during the seasonal markets and Hajj seasons in Mecca, describing how the Quraysh nobility, particularly Abu Lahab, actively opposed and undermined the Prophet's message despite his consistent efforts to invite people to Islam.
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It now transitions into the most important events following that incident and that is the start Hedgehola, the start of the main obligatory Hijrah of all of the Muslims, all that could from Mecca to Medina. It's important for us to have a few introductory issues ironed out before we get into this. The first is looking at the actual word El Hidra. Al Hijra. Lugatan. For Sharia.
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Tells us about Hijra. We have to discuss Hijra as a legislation in Islam. Hijra in the Arabic language Adam logically means to abandon something, to leave something and what is meant by it in Islamic law and Islamic jurisprudence is leaving a place that a person is unable to outwardly embrace Islam. To outwardly practice Islam. This is the opinion of the majority of the scholar of Islam. Hijra was not obligatory in the first years of the prophet prophethood. Up until about the tenth year after he was appointed a prophet. Then we see that Hijalah is starting to be eluded to. So Allah would send down verses speaking about how Ibrahim migrated. How? Lord migrated. He did Hijra. Right? We have our Ibrahim and Surat Mariam. did and migrated and we have different verses here and there that kind of articulate that this is something that is approaching. Then, we have the obligation to make hijra. It became obligatory to make so what is hijra? Hijra? Migration that is obligatory is that a person leave the land that they are in or leave the place that they are in where they are unable to outwardly practice their religion As soon as they get to a place where they can practice their religion, which could be, you know, a few miles away back then. Now, it might be an issue of of national law in certain countries, right? So, a person would have to migrate to any place in the Earth where they can outwardly embrace and practice their religion. What do we mean by men.
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Manifest their religion outwardly practice their religion. We mean that a person is able to say I'm Muslim to say to profess that Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. To establish prayer. To make to fast during the month of Ramadan. To go to make Hajj. Right? these especially these basic tenets of Islam that a person must be able to establish these basic tenets of Islam. It doesn't mean that a person is able to establish every single ruling of Islam. Because that ruling of Islam depends on the law that the person is living under. So, their person might be living in a place where they can manifest the major five pillars of Islam, the major aspects of their religion, certain things are regulated differently and this means that that community is too small to start to govern themselves, right? And the companions lived under those circumstances. When we look at hey, in this sense we see that the best hijra in the time of the prophet so the was to leave whatever land a person was in and migrate to Medina. Right? But we see that the bare minimum was to migrate from A land where a person was unable to manifest his religion to anywhere they are able to worship Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala freely and you know, there are places especially there are in the 20th century. You know, the for instance, the Soviet Union when it swept the world and the iron curtain, we see that historically religion is.
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Religion is minimized and full of religion or ostracized and specifically Muslims. So, a person is unable to practice his or her religion in this place and there are still communist countries China for instance and many places in China. We, you know, she leaked League stories of Muslims that are being forced to break their fast during Ramadan. Muslims who are prohibited from praying. Muslims who are given particular things of that they have to say everyday and allegiances that they have to pledge and so forth. If a person's able to leave this kind of place and migrate from there, it's obligatory upon them to migrate from there. So, This is the main issue with regards to Hijalah. Now, Hijalah from Mecca was obligatory. Hijalah from Mecca to Medina to Medina. So, Hijalah from Mecca. At that time, was obligatory. Hijara to Medina was preferred. Was.
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Markets and commerce was something that was seasonal. People would usually come to Mecca from all the Arab Peninsula and also from Hashem and Iraq and all over the place. They would all congregate and muster together there in Mecca for Hajj season. And they would also come there for seasonal markets. Right? Because of the different of the different seasons. Some would come from Yemen during a certain season with things that are seasonal. Fruits that are seasonal or things that are seasonal. And during certain months people would come from the north from Hashem to Mecca with seasonal things and so there were seasonal marketplaces. Is one of them. Is one of them. These are different markets that were seasonal at that time. So, the prophet would take the would take the opportunity of Hajj, the opportunity of these markets to go there and to call people to Islam and to call the major tribesmen of different Arab regions to Islam in order to find someone or some tribe that would accept him, take him in, protect him, and allow him to establish himself with the rest of the Muslims. And so the prophet would do this. And during these times he would go to each and every single tribe. And he would go to every marketplace. And he would go to every area. And different legs and journeys of Hajj and invite the people individually and collectively to Islam. However, the nobility of Mecca or the nobility of Quraish, the notables of Quresh Abu Lahab, had taken it upon themselves to follow him around Anywhere he went and try to convince otherwise. So, the prophet would walk through the marketplaces and say, oh people, say you will become successful. You will come to reign over the Arabs and the non Arabs will bend to your will. And if you die upon you will all be, you will all reign as kings in paradise. And Abu Lahab would follow him around and say, do not obey this man. He is an apostate. He is a liar. An apostate meaning from the religion of his forefathers. And so people were fooled by this propaganda. So many of them would say, look, your own tribes people don't accept your religion. This religion that you claim. They don't accept you as a prophet. They're calling you a magician. They're calling you a madman. Why should we accept you and people don't accept you. Obviously, they know you better than we do, right? And the prophet also went to individual tribes some of these tribes that went to and called to Islam and who rejected his calling to Islam and there's a number of reasons for this. I mean, if you were with the prophet during that period, that time when he was going to each and every tribesmen, each and every tribe, each and every region, calling them to Islam, and they are insulting him and rejecting him. If we had with him during that time. Be very hard to hold on to one's faith during those times because look, how much effort is being put forth and how little fruits are coming as a result of those efforts. But this is one of the one of the tests that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala mentions. With the So we see that this is a test that.
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Worry about quality, right? And to look at the glasses half full rather than half empty. There's a lot of reasons for that. The point is is that it would seem pretty hopeless at that point but there's a reason for that. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala did not will for that to happen yet because it wasn't time. Mecca had not heard enough. Enough Quran wasn't sent down. The Muslims weren't ready to move and migrate. you know it wasn't time yet. And second of all the prophet had a very specific place that he was to end up and that is in Medina. Known at the time as Yathrib. And in inhabited by three Jewish tribes and these are the two Arab tribes of Yethrib at that time. We'll talk about this next time. This is our last class till the end of Ramadan. After Ramadan is over, we will you will start over inshallah. This class, we will continue in it until we're finished. We're about halfway through the book. So, almost done which is an achievement.
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