Muhammad's Events

--

EPISODES IN LIFE OF MUHAMMAD

1. Persecution of Muslims by the Meccans
2. Isra and Mi'raj
3. Second pledge at al-Aqabah
4. Pledge of the Tree
5. Treaty of Hudaybiyyah
6. Year of the Elephant
7. Hanif
8. Urmonotheismus
9. Urreligion


# Persecution of Muslims by the Meccans

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Muslims_by_the_Meccans

First migration to Abyssinia
Second migration to Abyssinia
Meccan boycott of the Hashemites
Muhammad's visit to Ta'if
Migration to Medina

In the early days of Islam at Mecca, the new Muslims were often subjected to abuse and persecution.

Some were killed, such as Sumayyah bint Khabbab, the seventh convert to Islam, who was tortured first by Abu Jahl. Muhammad was protected somewhat by the influence of his family, but even he was subjected to such abuse; while he was praying near the Kaaba, Abu Lahab threw the entrails of a sacrificed camel over him, and Abu Lahab's wife Umm Jamil would regularly dump filth outside his door. And if free Muslims were attacked, slaves who converted were subject to far worse. The master of the Ethiopian Bilal ibn Rabah (who would become the first muezzin) would take him out into the desert in the heat of midday and place a heavy rock on his chest, demanding that he forswear his religion and pray to the polytheists' gods and goddesses, until Abu Bakr bought him and freed him.

It was due to this that Abu Bakr bought the freedom of the following persons:

Bilal
Abu Fakih
Ammar ibn Yasir
Abu Fuhayra
Lubaynah
Al-Nahdiah
Umm Ubays
Harithah bint al-Muammil.


List of Specific Recorded Instances

Slaves who were Muslims

Male
Yasir ibn Amir – tortured and killed .
Bilal ibn Ribah – lied on burning sand, had a very heavy stone put on his chest with somebody jumping on it.
Khabbab ibn al-Aratt – lied on burning sand, had hot metal put on his head,
Abu Fakih – tied and dragged on burning sand, had a very heavy stone put on his chest
Abu Fuhayra
Ammar ibn Yasir – tortured .


Female
Sumayyah bint Khabbab – killed by spear .
Al-Nahdiah – tortured
Umm Ubays – tortured
Lubaynah– extensively beaten
Zinnira – beaten until she lost her eyesight temporarily .

Free Muslims
Muhammad – entrails of animals thrown at him while praying, people trying to strangle him, subjected to boycott, assassination attempt.
Umm Kulthum bint Muhammad – was divorced on orders of Abu Lahab
Ruqayyah bint Muhammad – was divorced on orders of Abu Lahab
Sa'd ibn Ubadah – tortured


In 8 BH (614 CE), the early Muslims were on their way to the hills of Mecca to hold a meeting with Muhammad, when a group of polytheists observed their gathering and began to abuse and fight them. Sa'ad beat a polytheist and shed his blood, reportedly the first instance of bloodshed in the history of Islam.

In seventh Islamic month (Rajab) of 7 BH (614–615 CE) twelve male and twelve female Sahaba, the Muslims who originally converted in Mecca, migrated to Aksumite Ethiopia (in Arabic, al-Habash, or "Abyssinia"), seeking refuge from persecution.

Migration to Abyssinia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_migration_to_Abyssinia

According to Islamic tradition, twelve male and twelve female Sahaba, the Muslims who originally converged in Mecca, sought refuge from Quraysh persecution in the Kingdom of Aksum (modern-day Ethiopia) in seventh Islamic month (Rajab) of 7 BH (614–615 CE). This act is known as the First migration to Abyssinia; Abyssinia in this incident because of the Arabic word, al-Habasha, whence "Abyssinia" is derived. They returned after three months to Arabia due to misinformation, only to find that the persecution had not halted.

After the conversion of Hamza, the companions of Muhammad began to offer prayers publicly. In turn, the Quraysh intensified their opposition by torturing the Muslims. Muhammad told his followers to leave for Ethiopia, where "a king rules without injustice, a land of truthfulness-until God leads us to a way out of our difficulty." After persecution and torture, Muhammad ordered his companions to migrate to Abyssinia.

In seventh Islamic month (Rajab) of 7 BH (614–615 CE) , eleven men and four women undertook the first migration . The group was headed by a companion called Uthman ibn Mazoon.

They snuck out of Mecca on a dark night and headed for the sea where two boats happened to be sailing for their destination, Ethiopia. News of their intended departure reached Quraish, so some men were despatched in their pursuit, but the Muslims had already left Shuaibah Port towards their secure haven where they were received warmly and accorded hospitality by Negus, King of Abyssinia, also called al-Najashi. Among these emigrants were Uthman and Ruquyyah.

Gradually, the number of emigrants increased in Abyssinia. Only a few days had passed in peace, when a rumour reached them that the Meccans had finally embraced Islam. On hearing this, most of the Muslims decided to return to Mecca. When they reached the city, they came to know that the report was false. The Meccans began to persecute even more severely those persons who had returned from Abyssinia. In spite of this, however, about a hundred Muslims managed to leave Mecca and settled in Abyssinia. The Meccans however did their utmost to check the tide of emigration, but all in vain.

Following the return from the First migration to Abyssinia, the Muslims continued to suffer Persecution by the Meccans . This time, in 6 BH (616 CE) almost one hundred Muslims made a second migration back to Ethiopia were they stayed protected .

After the Muslims in Arabia had migrated to Medina in 7 AH (628) and attained security, the Muslims in Ethiopia migrated back to Arabia and reunited with them in Medina after six years absence

Second Migration

The second migration consisted of 79 men and 9 women. According to some reports the number is 83 men and 18 women (The number differs largely). This group was headed by Jafar ibn Abu Talib, who was also the only person from the Banu Hashim clan who migrated to Abyssinia.

Quraish Delegation

The migration of the Muslims to Abyssinia, and their reception at the friendly court of that country, alarmed the Quraysh. They entertained the fear that Muslims might grow in strength, or find new allies, and then, some day, might return to Makkah to challenge them. To head off this potential threat, such as they saw it, they decided to send an embassy to the court of the king of Abyssinia to try to persuade him to extradite the Muslims to Makkah.

The Muslim refugees who had expected to be left in peace, were surprised by the arrival, in the Abyssinian capital, of an embassy from Makkah, led by a certain Amr bin Aas. Amr had brought rich presents for the king and his courtiers to ingratiate himself with them.

When the king gave audience to the emissary of the Quraysh, he said that the Muslims in Abyssinia were not refugees from persecution but were fugitives from justice and law, and requested him to extradite them to Makkah. The king, however, wanted to hear the other side of the story also before giving any judgment, and summoned Jaafer ibn Abi Talib to the court to answer the charges against the Muslims.

Jaafer made a most memorable defense. Following is a summary of his speech in the court of Abyssinia in answer to the questions posed by the Christian king.

"O King! We were ignorant people and we lived like wild animals. The strong among us lived by preying upon the weak. We obeyed no law and we acknowledged no authority save that of brute force. We worshipped idols made of stone or wood, and we knew nothing of human dignity. And then God, in His Mercy, sent to us His Messenger who was himself one of us. We knew about his truthfulness and his integrity. His character was exemplary, and he was the most well-born of the Arabs. He invited us toward the worship of One God, and he forbade us to worship idols. He exhorted us to tell the truth, and to protect the weak, the poor, the humble, the widows and the orphans. He ordered us to show respect to women, and never to slander them. We obeyed him and followed his teachings. Most of the people in our country are still polytheists, and they resented our conversion to the new faith which is called Islam. They began to persecute us and it was in order to escape from persecution by them that we sought and found sanctuary in your kingdom."

When Jaaffer concluded his speech, the king asked him to read some verses which were revealed to the Prophet of the Muslims. Jaafer read a few verses from Surah Maryam (Mary), the 19th chapter of Al-Qur’an al-Majid. When the king heard these verses, he said that their fountainhead was the same as that of the verses of the Evangel. He then declared that he was convinced of his veracity, and added, to the great chagrin of Amr bin Aas, that the Muslims were free to live in his kingdom for as long as they wished.

But Amr bin Aas bethought himself of a new stratagem, which, he felt confident, would tilt the scales against Jaafer. On the following day, therefore, he returned to the court and said to the king that he (the king) ought to waive his protection of the Muslims because they rejected the divine nature of Christ, and claimed that he was a mortal like other men. When questioned on this point by the king, Jaafer said: "Our judgment of Jesus is the same as that of Allah and His Messenger, viz., Jesus is God's servant, His Prophet, His Spirit, and His command given unto Mary, the innocent virgin."

The king said: "Jesus is just what you have stated him to be, and is nothing more than that." Then addressing the Muslims, he said: "Go to your homes and live in peace. I shall never give you up to your enemies." He refused to extradite the Muslims, returned the presents which Amr bin Aas had brought, and dismissed his embassy.

The Muslims finally returned from Abyssinia in 7 A.H. but to Madina and not Makkah.

Those emigrating to Abyssinia included:

Male

Ja'far ibn Abu Talib
Uthman
Uthman bin Mazoon
Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh
Zubair bin al Awwam

Female

Ruqayyah bint Muhammad
Ramlah binte Abi-Sufyan
Saudah bint az Zama
Aisha

Born: Abdullah ibn Ja'far

Dead: Uday ibn Nadhala ibn Abd al-Uzza and his uncle Urwa ibn Abd al-Uzza (both buried in Negashi Mosque, Wukro).



Second migration to Abyssinia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_migration_to_Abyssinia

Following the return from the First migration to Abyssinia, the Muslims continued to suffer Persecution by the Meccans . This time, in 6 BH (616 CE) almost one hundred Muslims made a second migration back to Ethiopia where they stayed protected .

After the Muslims in Arabia had migrated to Medina in 7 AH (628) and attained security, the Muslims in Ethiopia migrated back to Arabia and reunited with them in Medina after six years absence .

Following the first migration to Abyssinia, the Meccan polytheists were on the alert for a second migration, however they were not able to stop the Muslims' escape .

Second migration
The second migration took place in 616 CE . The group of emigrants this time comprised eighty three men and eighteen to nineteen women .

Delegation from Mecca
The Meccan polytheists did not appreciate that the Muslim had found a refuge, so they equipped ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and ‘Abdullah bin Abi Rabi‘a with valuable gifts and sent them to the court of Aksum. They became successful in winning some of the courtiers over to their side and argued that the King should expel the Muslims back to Mecca and made over to them, on the grounds that they had apostated and preached a religion alien to both the Meccan religion and Christianity, the official Aksumite religion .

First meeting
The king of Aksum, Ashama ibn Abjar in the Muslim tradition (Ella Seham and variants in the Ethiopian), summoned the Muslims to the court and asked them to explain the teachings of their religion. The Muslim emigrants had decided to tell the whole truth whatever the consequences were. Ja'far ibn Abu Talib, the son of Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib, the powerful Banu Hashim leader, stood up and addressed the king in the following words :

O king! we were plunged in the depth of ignorance and barbarism; we adored idols, we lived in unchastity, we ate the dead bodies, and we spoke abominations, we disregarded every feeling of humanity, and the duties of hospitality and neighbourhood were neglected; we knew no law but that of the strong, when God (Arabic: الله‎ Allāh) raised among us a man, of whose birth, truthfulness, honesty, and purity we were aware; and he called to the Oneness of God, and taught us not to associate anything with Him. He forbade us the worship of idols; and he enjoined us to speak the truth, to be faithful to our trusts, to be merciful and to regard the rights of the neighbours and kith and kin; he forbade us to speak evil of women, or to eat the substance of orphans; he ordered us to fly from the vices, and to abstain from evil; to offer prayers, to render alms, and to observe fast. We have believed in him, we have accepted his teachings and his injunctions to worship God, and not to associate anything with Him, and we have allowed what He has allowed, and prohibited what He has prohibited. For this reason, our people have risen against us, have persecuted us in order to make us forsake the worship of God and return to the worship of idols and other abominations. They have tortured and injured us, until finding no safety among them, we have come to your country, and hope you will protect us from oppression.
Ashama was impressed by the speech and asked for some of God's Revelations. Ja‘far recited the opening verses of Surah Maryam. The chapter is about the birth of John and Jesus, and Mary having been fed with the food miraculously . The story moved to tears the bishops and king who exclaimed: "It seems as if these words and those which were revealed to Jesus are the rays of the light which have radiated from the same source." Turning to the crest-fallen envoys of Quraish, he said, "I am afraid, I cannot give you back these refugees. They are free to live and worship in my realm as they please." .

Second meeting
The following day, the ‘Amr ibn al-‘As and ‘Abdullah bin Abi Rabi‘a went to the king and said that Muhammad and his followers blasphemed Jesus. Ja‘far again stood up and replied: "We speak about Jesus as we have been taught by our prophet, that is, he is the servant of Allâh, His Messenger, His spirit and his word breathed into Virgin Mary." The king replied, "Even so do we believe. Blessed be you, and blessed be your master." The king turned to the two frowning Meccan envoys and to his bishops who got angry, he said: "You may fret and fume as you like but Jesus is nothing more than what Ja‘far has said about him."

The King assured the Muslims full protection and returned the gifts to the envoys of Quraish and sent them away.

Return to Arabia
The Muslims lived in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) unmolested for a number of years. During this period were the Muslims in Arabia subjected to the Meccan boycott of the Hashemites (617), the Year of Sorrow (619), Muhammad's visit to Ta'if (620), the Isra and Mi'raj (621) and finally the Migration to Medina (622) . The Muslims in Ethiopia would not return to Arabia and reunited with their fellow Muslims in Medina until in 7 AH (628) according to Tabari

During this migration, the prophet Muhammad married Ramlah bint Abu Sufyan while not present there, since her husband relapsed to Christianity.

They returned to Mecca after some years under the protection of Ashama ibn Abjar, the Emperor of Ethiopia.


Meccan boycott of the Hashemites

According to tradition, in 617 the leaders of Makhzum and Banu Abd-Shams, two important clans of Quraysh, declared a public boycott against the clan of Banu Hashim, their commercial rival, in order to put pressure on the clan to withdraw its protection from Muhammad. The terms imposed on Banu Hashim, as reported by Ibn Ishaq, were "that no one should marry their women nor give women for them to marry; and that no one should either buy from them or sell to them, and when they agreed on that they wrote it in a deed." The boycott lasted for two or three years but eventually collapsed mainly because it was not achieving its purpose; the boycott had caused extreme privation and the sympathizers within the Quraysh finally united to annul the agreement.

It became a source of great troubles for the Muslims, and they were forced to do their second migration to an area called Shib Abi Talib or Shib Abi Hashim where they suffered hunger. The boycott was ended in 619, the Year of Sorrow.

The Quraysh gathered together to confer and decided to draw up a document in which they undertook not to marry women from Banu Hashim and the Banu al Muttalib, or to give them women in marriage, or to sell anything to them or buy anything from them. They drew up a written contract to that effect and solemnly pledged themselves to observe it. They then hung up the document in the interior of the Kaaba to make it even more binding upon themselves. When Quraysh did this, the Banu Hashim and the Banu al-Muttalib joined with 'Abu Talib, went with him to his valley and gathered round him there; but 'Abu Lahab 'Abd al Uzza b. 'Abd al-Muttalib left the Banu Hashim and went with the Quraysh supporting them against 'Abu Talib. This state of affairs continued for two or three years, until the two clans were exhausted, since nothing reached any of them except what was sent secretly by those of the Quraysh who wished to maintain relations with them".

...These days were very hard with them and very often they had to feed on the leaves TALH or plantain"

Thus, this boycott included even Hashemites that had not accepted Islam.


Year of Sorrow

The Year of Sorrow (Aam-ul-Huzn) is an Islamic term for a Hijri year that coincided with 61 or 62 CE. It is called so since both Abu Talib and Khadija - the Islamic prophet Muhammad's uncle and wife, respectively - died that year.

In Nur-ul-Absar, the author mentions the date of demise of Abu Talib to be the first of Zilqada after the removal of economic sanctions which lasted for 8 months and 21 days.

The privations and hardships endured by the Muslims during the Meccan boycott of the Hashemites had gravely affected the health of both Khadija and Abu Talib. Khadeeja died within a few days, and Abu Talib's end came a month thereafter.


Muhammad's visit to Ta'if

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad%27s_visit_to_Ta%27if

In 620, after the Year of Sorrow when his main source of support, Abu Talib had died did the persecution increased exponentially, so he tried to seek support from the neighboring city of Tai'f


Muhammad went to the city of Ta’if and invited and invited the people there to Islam.

Previous events
Initially the preaching of Islam by Muhammad had been confined to Mecca, and his success was rather modest, limited to 170 men and women in the city during a ten year period. However, in 619, after the Year of Sorrow when his main source of support, Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib and his loving wife Hazrat Khadija had died .

Now, not just the elite of Mecca attacked Muhammad, but even young children hurled dust and insults at him. Muhammad soon realized that there was no hope left for the Meccans to accept his religion, and he thus looked to the south, to the sister city of Ta’if, for aid and support, so Muhammad and his adopted son, Zayd ibn Harithah went to Ta’if to invite the people there to Islam.

Leaders of Ta’if
Muhammad was received by the three chiefs of the local tribes of Ta’if and they let him freely have his say, however, they paid little heed to his message. After a while they even showed signs of apprehension lest his welcome in Ta’if might embroil them with the Meccans, so they left him to be dealt with by street urchins and the riff raff of the town.

Rejection
By rejecting Muhammad's religion, the people of Ta'if ordered their children to throw rocks and stones at Muhammad and Zayd to make them leave the city and never come back. Muhammad and Zayd were finally turned out by mocking and jeering crowds. The rocks that were thrown at Muhammad and Zayd by the Ta'if children caused them to bleed. Both were wounded and bleeding as they left Ta’if behind them. Muhammad bled so profusely from the stoning that his feet became clotted to his shoes.

Vineyard
Once Muhammad and Zayd were outside the city walls, Muhammad almost collapsed. They went a short distance outside of the town and stopped in a vineyard that belonged to two Meccans who were there at the time.

The owners of the vineyard had seen Muhammad been persecuted in Mecca and on this occasion they felt some sympathy toward their fellow townsman. He took Muhammad into his hut, dressed his wounds, and let him rest and recuperate until he felt strong enough to resume his journey across the rough terrain between Ta’if and Mecca. It was there that the angel Gabriel came to him with the angel of mountains and said that if Muhammad wanted would blow the mountains over the people of Ta’if.

Muhammad prayed:

“ O Allah, To Thee I complain of my weakness, my lack of resources and my lowliness before men.
O most Merciful! Thou art the Lord of the weak and Thou art my Lord. To whom wilt Thou relinquish my fate! To one who will misuse me? Or to an enemy to whom Thou hast given power over me? If Thou art not angry with me then I care not what happens to me. Thy favor is all that counts for me.

I take refuge in the light of Thy countenance, by which all darkness is illuminated. And the things of this world and next are rightly ordered. I wish to please Thee until Thou art pleased. There is no power and no might save in Thee.
”

The owners also told their Christian slave named Addas from Nineveh to give a tray of grapes to the visitors .

Muhammad took the grape and before putting it into his mouth he recited what has become the Muslim grace: "In the name of God, Ever Gracious, Most Merciful." (Arabic Bismillah ar-Rahman, ar-Raheem). Addas became curious and inquired about the identity of Muhmmad who presented himself. The conversation that ensued led Addas to declare his acceptance of Islam, so that Muhammad's journey to Ta’if did not prove entirely fruitless.

He stayed preaching to the common people for 10 days.

Return
Muhammad did not dare to return openly to Mecca because he realized that if he entered the city, he would be killed. Thus there was no other place to go to. Muhammad sent Zayd to seek asylum (Arabic: Istijarah) for him among three nobles in the city. Three of them, ‘Abd Yalil ibn ‘Abd Kalal and then Akhnas ibn Shariq and Suhayl ibn Amr, refused but the third one, Mut‘im ibn ‘Adi, responded.

Mut‘im ordered his sons, nephews and other young men of his clan to put on their battle-dress and then marched, in full panoply of war, at their head, out of the city. He brought Muhammad with him, first into the precincts of the Kaaba where the latter made the customary seven circuits (Arabic: Tawaf), and then escorted him to his home.

Views
Sunni view
Javeed Akhter writes in The Seven Phases Of Prophet Muhammad’s Life:

“ Muhammad's (S) return to Mecca from Ta’if was impossible without the renewal of tribal protection. Muhammad (S) asked and received protection from a non-Muslim man named Mut'im bin 'Adi. This surely must have been one of the grimmest periods of Muhammad's (S) mission, as nothing seemed to be going right. Two of the most important people in his life had passed away. The hostility of the tribes appeared to be reaching new crescendos all the time. Attempts to invite outside tribes appeared to be fruitless as well. The difficult period when Muhammad's (S) mission seemed to run into a series of dead ends had reached its lowest point. He didn't know that the long tunnel of despair was about to end and his mission would enter the next phase. This phase culminated in the migration to Madina.
The patience and stoicism Muhammad (S) displayed during this phase has been a source of strength to many a Muslim who has found himself beleaguered by apparently hopeless circumstances.
”

Shi'a view
Ali Asgher Razwy, a 20th century Shia Twelver, scholar writes in A Restatement of the History of Islam and Muslims

“ The application of Muhammad Mustafa, the Apostle of God, upon his return from Ta’if, to Mutim ibn Adiy, a non-Muslim, seeking his protection, raises once again, a most uncomfortable question, in a most pointed manner, on the attitude and conduct of the Muslims. Why didn’t the Apostle ask any of them to take him under his protection even though some of them were said to have been rich and influential, and some others were touted to have been the terror of the pagans? Why is it that the Apostle sought the protection of a non-Muslim but didn’t condescend even to inform the Muslims that he wanted to reenter Makkah and was in need of protection?
Or another question! Why didn’t the Muslims themselves go to the city gate and escort their Prophet to his home? Here they had a splendid opportunity to demonstrate to him that they were worthy of his trust even if he had considered them unworthy. But they missed the opportunity. They did not do anything that would show that they had any anxiety for his personal safety.

Pagan Arabia, however, was not devoid of its share of chivalry and heroism. These qualities were personified in Mutim ibn Adiy, Abul Bukhtari and a few others. They were the knights of Arabia, and it was their chivalry that was to make their country famous in later centuries. Pagan Arabia never produced nobler figures than these. Even Muslims ought to acknowledge their debt of gratitude to them. After all it were they who dared the Quraysh in some of the most critical moments of the life of the Prophet of Islam. In doing so, they were inspired only by their own ideals of chivalry. They considered it their duty to defend the defenseless.

The failure at Ta’if was utterly heart-breaking for the Prophet, and he knew that but for the heroic intervention of Mutim ibn Adiy, he might not have been able to enter Makkah at all. To a casual observer it might appear that the Prophet had reached the limits of human endurance and patience. The progress of Islam had come to a standstill, and the outlook for the future could not look bleaker.

But did Muhammad give way to despair in the face of persistent failures and in the face of violent confrontations with the polytheists? It would only be natural if he did. But he did not. He never despaired of God’s boundless mercy. He knew that he was doing God’s work, and he had no doubt at all that He would lead him out of the wilderness of hopelessness and helplessness to the destination of success and felicity.

It was in one of the darkest and most dismal moments in his life that Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, was elevated by God to the highest heavens, perhaps in recognition of his refusal to accept defeat and failure in the line of duty. God honored His Messenger with Isra’ and Me’raj.



Hijra (Islam)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migration_to_Medina

This persecution ultimately provoked the Migration to Medina.

The Hijra is the migration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers to the city of Medina in 622 (Common Era). Alternate spellings of this Arabic word in the Latin alphabet are Hijrah, or Hegira in Latin.

In September 622, warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly slipped out of Mecca with Abu Bakr. By degrees, Muhammad and his followers emigrated to the city of Yathrib, 320 kilometres (200 mi) north of Mecca. Yathrib was soon renamed Madinat un-Nabi, literally "the City of the Prophet", but un-Nabi was soon dropped, so its name in English is Medina, meaning "the city". The Muslim year during which the Hijra occurred was designated the first year of the Islamic calendar by Umar in 638 or 17 AH (anno hegirae = "in the year of the hijra"). In the following chronology the city will be referred to as Medina, and the region surrounding it as Yathrib.

Day 1
Thursday 26 Safar AH 1
(9 September 622) Left home in Mecca. Stayed three days in the Cave of Thur near Mecca.
Day 5
Monday 1 Rabi' I AH 1
(13 September 622) Left the environs of Mecca. Traveled to the region of Yathrib.
Day 12
Monday 8 Rabi' I AH 1
(20 September 622) Arrived at Quba' near Medina.
Day 16
Friday 12 Rabi' I AH 1
(24 September 622) First visit to Medina for Friday prayers.
Day 26
Monday 22 Rabi' I AH 1
(4 October 622) Moved from Quba' to Medina.

The Muslim dates are in the Islamic calendar extended back in time. The Western dates are in the Julian calendar. The lunar year is about 300/309 solar year. The Hijra is celebrated annually on 8 Rabi' I, about 66 days after 1 Muharram, the first day of the Muslim year. Many writers confuse the first day of the year of the Hijra with the Hijra itself, erroneously stating that the Hijra occurred on 1 Muharram AH 1 or 16 July 622.

All dates given above may have occurred about 89 days (three lunar months) earlier. The Muslim dates may be those recorded in the original Arabic calendar and their month names may not have been changed to account for the (probably three) intercalary months inserted during the next nine years until intercalary months were prohibited during the year of Muhammad's last Hajj (AH 10).

First Hijra

Technically, the first Hijra occurred in 615 when a group of Muslims was counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca and travel to the Kingdom of Axum, which was ruled by a Christian king (see Islam in Ethiopia).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Axum

Muhammad himself did not join this emigration. In that year, his followers fled Mecca's leading tribe, the Quraysh, who sent emissaries to Axum to bring them back to Arabia. The nascent movement faced growing opposition and persecution. When Muhammad and his followers received an invitation from the people of Yathrib, they decided to leave Mecca.


# Isra and Mi'raj

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isra_and_Mi%27raj

In Islamic tradition, the Night Journey, Isra and Mi'raj (Arabic: al-Isra wal-Mirag), are the two parts of a journey that the Islamic prophet Muhammad took in one night on a winged horse, around the year 621. Most Muslims consider it a physical journey while others say it happened spiritually through a metaphorical vision. Some others say that when Muhammad ascended it was a physical journey until he reached the farthest lote tree, a tree in the Seventh Heaven beyond which no angel is allowed to cross, on the other side of which is the throne and footstool of God. Also in the Seventh Heaven there is a Ka'bah of sorts for the angels. It is said since the dawn of time 70,000 angels entered and were never seen again. The angel Ka'bah is in direct conjunction with the Ka'bah on earth. The comparison from each have to the next was said to be like a ring in the desert. But some scholars consider it a dream or vision. A brief sketch of the story is in verse 1 of one of the Quran chapters (17: Sura Al-Isra), and other details were filled in from the supplemental writings, the aḥādīth.

The Lailat al Miraj, one of the most significant events in the Islamic calendar.

The Isra begins with Muhammad resting in the Kaaba in Mecca, when the archangel Gabriel comes to him, and brings him the winged steed Buraq.The buraq was said to be larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule it was also said that each stride of the buraq would take you to the horizon. It was the traditional lightning steed of the prophets. The Buraq then carries Muhammad to the Masjid Al Aqsa the "Farthest Mosque", which many Muslims believe is "the Noble sanctuary" in Jerusalem. Muhammad alights, tethers Buraq to the Western Walland leads the other prophets such as Moses, Jesus and Adam in prayer. He then re-mounts Buraq, and in the second part of the journey, the Mi'raj (an Arabic word that literally means “ladder”), he is taken to the heavens, where he tours the circles of heaven, and speaks with the earlier prophets such as Ibrāhīm (Abraham), Musa (Moses), and `Īsā (Jesus), and then is taken by Gabriel to God. According to traditions, Allah instructs Muhammad that Muslims must pray fifty times a day; however, Moses tells Muhammad that it is very difficult for them and they could never do it, and urges Muhammad to go back several times and ask for a reduction, until finally it is reduced to five times a day.

After Muhammad returned to Earth and told his story in Mecca, the unbelieving townspeople regarded it as absurd. Some go to Muhammad's companion Abu Bakr and said to him, "Look at what your companion is saying. He says he went to Jerusalem and came back in one night." Abu Bakr in replies, "If he said that, then he is truthful. I believe him concerning the news of the heavens—that an angel descends to him from the heavens. How could I not believe he went to Jerusalem and came back in a short period of time—when these are on earth?" It was for this that Abu Bakr is said to have received his famous title "As-Siddiq", The Truthful.

Buraq

A Buraq is a mythological winged horse described commonly as a creature which carried the Islamic prophet Muhammad from Mecca to al-Aqsa during the Isra and Mi'raj or "Night Journey". The journey in itself was a physical ascension (from the start of the journey in Mecca to Al-Aqsa and eventually departing from Al-Aqsa to the Heavens. An excerpt from a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari describes a buraq:

I was brought by the Buraq, which is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place its hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision.


Buraq

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buraq

Al-Burāq (Arabic:‎ al-Burāq "lightning") is a mythological steed, described as a creature from the heavens which transported the prophets. The most commonly told story is how in the 7th century, the Buraq carried the Islamic prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Jerusalem and back during the Isra and Mi'raj or "Night Journey", which is the title of one of the chapters (sura), Al-Isra, of the Qur'an.

An excerpt from a translation of Sahih al-Bukhari describes a buraq:

I was brought by the Buraq, which is an animal white and long, larger than a donkey but smaller than a mule, who would place its hoof at a distance equal to the range of vision.
Another description of the Buraq:

Then he [Gabriel] brought the Buraq, handsome-faced and bridled, a tall, white beast, bigger than the donkey but smaller than the mule. He could place his hooves at the farthest boundary of his gaze. He had long ears. Whenever he faced a mountain his hind legs would extend, and whenever he went downhill his front legs would extend. He had two wings on his thighs which lent strength to his legs.
He bucked when Muhammad came to mount him. The angel Jibril (Gabriel) put his hand on his mane and said: "Are you not ashamed, O Buraq? By Allah, no-one has ridden you in all creation more dear to Allah than he is." Hearing this he was so ashamed that he sweated until he became soaked, and he stood still so that the Prophet mounted him.

The journey to the Seventh Heaven

According to Islam, the Night Journey took place 12 years after Muhammad became a prophet, during the 7th century. Muhammad had been in his home city of Mecca, at his cousin's home (the house of Ummu Hani' binti Abu Thalib) in Isha'a prayer. Afterwards, Muhammad went to the Masjid al-Haram. While he was resting at the Kaaba, the angel Jibril (Gabriel) appeared to him followed by the Buraq. Muhammad mounted the beast, and in the company of Gabriel, they traveled to the "farthest mosque". The location of this mosque was not explicitly stated, but is generally accepted to mean Al-Aqsa Mosque (Temple Mount) in Jerusalem. At this location, Muhammad dismounted from the Buraq, prayed, and then once again mounted the Buraq and was taken to the various heavens, to meet first the earlier prophets and then God. Muhammad was instructed to tell his followers that they were to offer prayers 50 times per day. However, at the urging of Moses (Musa), Muhammad returns to God and it was eventually reduced to 10 times, and then 5 times per day as this was the destiny of Muhammad and his people. The Buraq then transported Muhammad back to Mecca.

In the Quran's sura, Muhammad's mystic travel to the Heavens is quoted as:

Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).
—Sura, Al-Isra 17:1 (Translated by Yusuf Ali)
All the other details were filled in from the supplemental writings, the hadith.

Abraham
The Buraq was also said to transport Abraham (Ibrahim) when he visited his wife Hagar and son Ishmael. According to tradition, Abraham lived with one wife in Syria, but the Buraq would transport him in the morning to Mecca to see his family there, and take him back in the evening to his Syrian wife.

Western Wall
Following the destruction of the Second Temple the Western Wall was traditionally referred to as El-Mabka (the place of weeping) for the Jewish people who gathered there weekly. In the 1920s, with the rise of Arab-Jewish tension, a part of the Western Wall, which is the only remaining part of the Second Temple in the Old City of Jerusalem, began to be referred to as the Al-Buraq Wall. It was given this name because it was said that Muhammad had tied the Buraq to that wall during his Night Journey.

Cultural impact
In Turkey, Burak is a common name given to male children. Burak is also a surname in Bosnia and Turkey.
Two airlines have been named after the Buraq: Buraq Air of Libya, and the former Bouraq Indonesia Airlines of Indonesia (closed in 2006).
The name has been used in fiction: "el-Borak" is a pirate in the novel The Sea Hawk by Rafael Sabatini; "El Borak" is a character in several short stories by Robert E. Howard. Both are named for their speed and reflexes.


Masjid al-Aqsa, the farthest mosque

The term "the farthest mosque" (Arabic: al-Masğidu l-Aqsà), from sura Al-Isra, is traditionally interpreted by Muslims as referring to the site at the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem. This interpretation is agreed with by even the earliest biographer of Muhammad—Ibn Ishaq—and is supported by numerous aḥādīth. The term used for mosque, "masjid", literally means "place of prostration", and includes monotheistic places of worship, which in verse 17:7 (in the same sura) is described as a masjid.

Many Western historians, such as Heribert Busse and Neal Robinson, agree that Jerusalem is the originally intended interpretation. It is also true that initially Muslims used to pray while facing towards bait-ul-moqaddas which was always a mosque during the Prophet Muhammad's lifetime. Later on this direction, the Qibla, was changed to Mecca while prayers were in progress.

The Al-Aqsa mosque was indeed present during Muhammad's lifetime and this 'farthest mosque' is referred to in the Quran. Umayyads built an extended new mosque on the Al Aqsa compound.

Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).
—Qur'an, Sura Al-Isra
Modern observance
This celebrated event in Islam is considered to have taken place before the Hijra and after Muhammad's visit to the people of Ta’if. It is considered by some to have happened just over a year before the Hijra, on the 27th of Rajab; but this date is not always recognized. In Shi'a Iran for example, Rajab 27 is the day of Muhammad's first calling or Mab'as.

The Lailat al Miraj (Arabic: لیلة المعراج‎, Lailätu 'l-Mi‘rāğ), also known as Shab-e-Miraj (Persian: شب معراج, Šab-e Mi'râj) in Iran, Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, and Miraç Kandili in Turkish, is the Muslim festival celebrating the Isra and Mi'raj. Some Muslims celebrate this event by offering optional prayers during this night, and in some Muslim countries, by illuminating cities with electric lights and candles. The celebrations around this day tend to focus on children and the young. Children are gathered into a mosque and are told the story of the Isra and Mi'raj. The story focuses on how Muhammad's heart was purified by an archangel (Gabriel) and filled him with knowledge and faith in preparation to enter the seven levels of heaven. After prayer (Salat, where the children can pray with the adults if they wish) food and treats are served. Not all Muslims commemorate the event with festivities, as there is no evidence it was celebrated at the time of Muhammad and neither celebrated by his companions after his death. This mainstream view reflects the principle of Islam that there are only 2 days of celebration - being the 2 Eids. Esoteric interpretations of Islam emphasise the spiritual significance of Mi'raj, seeing it as a symbol of the soul’s journey and the potential of humans to rise above the comforts of material life through prayer, piety and discipline.

Qur'an and hadith
The event of Isra and Mi'raj are referred to in the Quran. For greater detail, they have been discussed in supplemental traditions to the Qur'an, known as hadith literature. Within the Qur'an itself, there are two verses in chapter 17, which has been named after the Isra, and is called "Chapter Isra" or "Sura Al-Isra". There is also some information in Sura An-Najm, which some scholars say is related to the Isra and Mi'raj.

Qur'an
Glory to (Allah) Who did take His servant for a Journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the farthest Mosque, whose precincts We did bless,- in order that We might show him some of Our Signs: for He is the One Who heareth and seeth (all things).
—Qur'an, Sura Al-Isra
Behold! We told thee that thy Lord doth encompass mankind round about: We granted the vision which We showed thee, but as a trial for men,- as also the Cursed Tree (mentioned) in the Qur'an: We put terror (and warning) into them, but it only increases their inordinate transgression!
—Qur'an, Sura Al-Isra
For indeed he saw him at a second descent,
Near the Lote-tree beyond which none may pass:
Near it is the Garden of Abode.
Behold, the Lote-tree was shrouded (in mystery unspeakable!)
(His) sight never swerved, nor did it go wrong!
For truly did he see, of the Signs of his Lord, the Greatest!
—Qur'an, Sura An-Najm
Hadith
Of the supplemental writings, hadith, two of the best known are by Anas ibn Malik, who would have been a young boy at the time of Muhammad's journey.

The following hadith, which have all been authenticated by Muslims, also clarify that Masjid al-Aqsa (the farthest mosque) is indeed located in Jerusalem:

Narrated Ibn 'Abbas: (regarding the Verse) "And We granted the vision (Ascension to the heavens "Miraj") which We showed you (O Muhammad as an actual eye witness) but as a trial for mankind.' (17.60): Allah's Apostle actually saw with his own eyes the vision (all the things which were shown to him) on the night of his Night Journey to Jerusalem (and then to the heavens). The cursed tree which is mentioned in the Qur'an is the tree of Az-Zaqqum.
Narrated Abu Huraira: On the night Allah's Apostle was taken on a night journey (Miraj) two cups, one containing wine and the other milk, were presented to him at Jerusalem. He looked at it and took the cup of milk. Gabriel said, "Praise be to Allah Who guided you to Al-Fitra (the right path); if you had taken (the cup of) wine, your nation would have gone astray."
Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah: That he heard Allah's Apostle saying, "When the people of Quraish did not believe me (i.e. the story of my Night Journey), I stood up in Al-Hijr and Allah displayed Jerusalem in front of me, and I began describing it to them while I was looking at it."


# Second pledge at al-Aqabah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_pledge_at_al-Aqabah

The Second pledge at al-Aqabah was an important event that preceded the Migration to Medina.

Converts to Islam came from nearly all Arab tribes present in Medina, such that by June of the subsequent year there were seventy-five Muslims coming to Mecca for pilgrimage and to meet Muhammad. Meeting him secretly by night, the group made what was known as the "Second Pledge of al-`Aqaba", or the "Pledge of War" . Conditions of the pledge, many of which similar to the first, included obedience to Muhammad, "enjoining good and forbidding evil" as well as responding to the call to arms when required.




List
A list of those included:

Abu Umamah
Nusaybah bint Ka'ab, from the Banu Najjar
From Banu Khazraj:

`Abd Allah ibn Rawahah
Sa'd ibn Ubadah
As‘ad bin Zurarah bin ‘Ads
Sa‘d bin Ar-Rabi‘ bin ‘Amr
Rafi‘ bin Malik bin Al-‘Ajlan
Al-Bara’ bin Ma‘rur bin Sakhr
‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin Haram
‘Ubadah bin As-Samit bin Qais
Al-Mundhir bin ‘Amr bin Khunais
From Banu Aws:

Usaid bin Hudair bin Sammak
Sa‘d bin Khaithamah bin Al-Harith
Rifa‘a bin ‘Abdul Mundhir bin Zubair
Arranging the meeting
The following year on the twelfth and last Islamic month (Dhu al-Hijjah) of 1 BH (June 622 CE), during the season of the pilgrimage (Arabic: Hajj) , 73 new Muslims converts from Medina were among that year's polytheist pilgrims to Mecca. The oft-repeated question amongst them was "Isn’t it high time we protect Muhammad instead of leaving him forsaken, deserted and stumbling in the hillocks of Makkah?"

Shortly after arriving to Mecca, they secretly contacted Muhammad and decided to have a meeting at night in mid Tashreeq Days on last year’s meeting place .

Pledge

A narration attributed to Ka'b ibn Malik reports:

“ We set out for pilgrimage and struck a rendezvous in mid Tashreeq Days. We were accompanied by a celebrity and a notable of ours called ‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin Haram, who was still a polytheist. We disclosed to him our intention of meeting Muhammad and exhorted him to join our ranks and give up polytheism lest he should serve as wood for Hell in the Hereafter. He promptly embraced Islam and witnessed the serious meeting at Al-‘Aqabah.
That very night we slept with our people in our camps. After a third of the night had elapsed, we began to leave stealthily and met in a hillock nearby. We were seventy three men and two women Nusaibah bint Ka‘b from the Najjars and Asma’ bint ‘Amr from Bani Salamah. We waited for the Messenger of Allâh until he came in the company of his uncle Al-‘Abbas bin ‘Abdul Muttalib who (though himself not a Muslim yet) adjured us not to draw his nephew away from the protection of his own kindred unless we were fully prepared to defend him even at the risk of our lives. He was the first to speak:

"O you people of the Khazraj — the Arabs used to call the Ansâr (Helpers) Khazraj, whether from Khazraj or Aws — you all know the position that Muhammad holds among us. We have protected him from our people as much as we could. He is honoured and respected among his people. He refuses to join any party except you. So if you think you can carry out what you promise while inviting him to your town, and if you can defend him against the enemies, then assume the burden that you have taken. But if you are going to surrender him and betray him after having taken him away with you, you had better leave him now because he is respected and well defended in his own place."

Ka‘b replied: "We have heard your words, and now O Messenger of Allâh, it is for you to speak and take from us any pledge that you want regarding your Lord and yourself."
”

A narration attributed to Jabir ibn Abd-Allah reports:

“ The Ansâr (Helpers) asked the Messenger of Allâh about the principles over which they would take a pledge. The Prophet answered:
To listen and obey in all sets of circumstances.
To spend in plenty as well as in scarcity.
To enjoin good and forbid evil.
In Allâh’s service, you will fear the censure of none.
To defend me in case I seek your help, and debar me from anything you debar yourself, your spouses and children from. And if you observe those precepts, Paradise is in store for you.
”


In another version:

A narration attributed to Ka'b ibn Malik reports:

“ The Prophet began to speak, recited some Qur’ânic verses, called people unto Allâh, exhorted them to enter the fold of Islam and concluded saying: "I give you my pledge that you debar me from whatever you debar your women and children from." Here Al-Bara’ bin Ma‘rur, caught him by hand, and said: "Oh yes, we swear by Allâh, Who sent you as a Prophet in Truth, that we will debar you from whatever we debar our women from. Have confidence in us, O Messenger of Allâh. By Allâh, we are genuine fighters and quite reliable in war, it is a trait passed down to us from our ancestors."
Then ‘Abul Haitham At-Taihan interrupted and said: "O Prophet of Allâh! Between us and the Jews, there are agreements which we would then sever. If Allâh grants you power and victory, should we expect that you would not leave us, and join the ranks of your people (meaning Quraish)?" The Prophet smiled and replied:

"Nay, it would never be; your blood will be my blood. In life and death I will be with you and you with me. I will fight whom you fight and I will make peace with those with whom you make peace."

After the negotiations concerning the conditions of allegiance had ended, and all of the audience were unanimously agreed to ratify it, two men of the early generation of converts who had embraced Islam in the eleventh and twelfth years rose to their feet to apprise the others of the serious step they were about to take so that they could give their pledge fully aware of the whole affair and consequently be ready for the sacrifice they were expected to make. Al ‘Abbas bin Ubada bin Nadlah, in this context, remarked: "O you people of Khazraj! Do you know the significance of the pact that you are entering into with this man? You are in fact avowing that you will fight against all and sundry. If you fear that your property will be at stake or the lives of your nobles will be endangered, then leave him now, because if you do this after the pledge, it will be degrading for you both in this world and the world to come. But if you think that you can carry out what you are called upon to do in spite of the loss of precious lives and property, then undertake this heavy responsibility, and I swear by Allâh, that herein lies the good of this world and that of the next."

They replied, "We have already considered the loss of property and the murder of our notables, yet we pay him allegiance. But what is our reward if we observe all the items of this pact?" The Prophet replied: "Paradise is in store for you." Then they asked him to stretch out his hand, and they all stretched out their hands and took the pledge. Only at that time did As‘ad bin Zurarah come to realize the people’s readiness for sacrifice in the cause of Allâh.
”




A narration attributed to Jabir ibn Abd-Allah reports:

“ When we started to pay allegiance to the Prophet , As‘ad bin Zurarah stood up and gave the following short address: "Take it easy people of Yathrib! We have not covered that long distance except because we have had deep belief that he (Muhammad ) is the Messenger of Allâh. We are already convinced that following him entails departure from the pagan Arabs even if it were at the risk of our life. Should you preserve in this course, holdfast to it, and your great reward is placed in the Hand of Allâh, but if you are caught in fear, I admonish you to give it up just now, and then you would be more excusable by Allâh. ”

Muhammad took the pledge of the two women - Nusaybah bint Ka'ab and Nusaybah and Umm Munee Asma bint Amr bin 'Ad - orally, rather than clasping hands with them, considering that they were not Mahram with him .

Deputies
Muhammad asked those involved to appoint twelve deputies to preach Islam in Medina and taking responsibility in matters relating to the propagation of Islam regarding the people of their own tribe. Those elected were:

From Banu Khazraj:

`Abd Allah ibn Rawahah
Sa'd ibn Ubadah
As‘ad bin Zurarah bin ‘Ads
Sa‘d bin Ar-Rabi‘ bin ‘Amr
Rafi‘ bin Malik bin Al-‘Ajlan
Al-Bara’ bin Ma‘rur bin Sakhr
‘Abdullah bin ‘Amr bin Haram
‘Ubadah bin As-Samit bin Qais
Al-Mundhir bin ‘Amr bin Khunais
From Banu Aws:

Usaid bin Hudair bin Sammak
Sa‘d bin Khaithamah bin Al-Harith
Rifa‘a bin ‘Abdul Mundhir bin Zubair
Once again, those twelve men were sworn to act as surety over the affairs of their people, and the Prophet would act as surety over his people, meaning all the Muslims .

At this point were the secret meeting discovered by an inhabited in Al-‘Aqabah. Al-‘Abbas bin Nadlah said "By Allâh, Who has sent you in Truth, we are powerful enough to put the people of Mina (the Quraishites) to our swords tomorrow, if you desire." Muhammad said "We have not been commanded to follow that course. Now, back to your camps." They went back to sleep till morning .

Meccan protests
The following day, a large delegation that included the Meccan leaders set out for the camp of the Medinan to protest severely against the treaty: "O people of Khazraj, it transpired to us that you have come here to conclude a treaty with this man (Muhammad) and evacuate him out of Makkah. By Allâh, we do really hold in abhorrence any sort of fight between you and us." .

The Medinan polytheists were not aware of the secret meeting and swore by God that no truth in the report. ‘Abdullah bin Ubai bin Salul, a Medinan polytheist, refuted their allegations denouncing them as null and void, claiming that his people would never initiate anything unless he gave them clear orders.

The Medinan Muslims did not speak and the Meccans became convinced by the arguments of the Medinan polytheist. However, they did were not fully satisfied and keep investigating the matter. It was not after that the Medinan pilgrims had left the city that they realized the truth of the matter. In a fit of rage, they pursued the pilgrims .


After much effort, they arrested al-Mundhir bin Amru but he broke away from them. Sa'd ibn Ubadah was also captured. They tied his hands to his neck and dragged him by his hair. Heavily beating him, they brought him to Mecca. But, luckily, Al-Mut‘im bin ‘Adi and Harith ibn Harb saved him, due to business relation they had with him.



# Pledge of the Tree

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_the_Tree

The Pledge of the Tree (Arabic: bayat al-shajarah) or Pledge of Pleasure (Arabic: بيعة الرضوان bayʻat al-riḍwān) was a pledge that was sworn to the Islamic prophet Muhammad by his Sahaba (companions) prior to the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (6 AH, 628 CE). The pledge, sworn under a tree, was to avenge the rumoured death of Uthman ibn Affan.

In March of 628 CE (6 AH), Muhammad set for Mecca to perform the ritual pilgrimage of Hajj. The Quraysh denied the Muslims entry into the city and posted themselves outside Mecca, determined to offer resistance even though the Muslims did not have any intention or preparation for battle. Muhammad camped outside Mecca at Hudaybiyyah and sent Uthman ibn Affan as his envoy to meet with the leaders of Quraysh and negotiate their entry into the city. The Quraysh caused Uthman to stay longer in Mecca than he originally planned and refused to inform the Muslims of his whereabouts. This caused the them to believe that Uthman had been killed by the people of the Quraysh. On this occasion, Muhammad gathered his nearly 1,400 Sahaba and called them to pledge to fight until death and avenge the death of Uthman. This pledge took place under a tree and was thus known as the Pledge of the Tree. During the process of pledging, each Sahaba came before Muhammad and pledged, with his hand on top of Muhammad's, to fight until death and avenge the death of Uthman. It is reported that Muhammad placed one hand on top of the other and pledged on behalf of Uthman as well.

The pledge was successful in demonstrating to the Quraysh the determination of the Muslims. They soon released Uthman and sent down an ambassador of their own, Suhayl ibn Amr to negotiate the terms of a treaty that later became known as the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah.

Significance
The people who took the pledge, also known as the People of the Tree (اصحاب الشجرة aṣḥāb al-shajarah) are held in high regard by Muslims in general and Sunnis in particular. After the pledge, verses were revealed in the Qur'an commemorating and appreciating the pledge and those who made it:

Certainly Allah was well pleased with the believers when they swore allegiance to you under the tree, and He knew what was in their hearts, so He sent down tranquillity on them and rewarded them with a near victory.
—Sura Al-Fath, Ayah 18, Qur'an 48:18 (Translated by Shakir)
Due to this verse, the pledge is also known as the Pledge of Pleasure as it was said to be a cause for God's pleasure.

The Tree
The tree under which the pledge was carried out remained at its site until the second Rashidun Caliph, Umar, cut it down during his reign on the grounds that people had started attaching religious significance to it to the point of reverence.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_the_Tree"


# Treaty of Hudaybiyyah

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Hudaybiyyah

The Treaty of Hudaybiyyah (Arabic: is the treaty that took place between the state of Medina and the Quraishi tribe of Mecca in March 628CE (corresponding to Dhu al-Qi'dah, 6 AH).

In 628 AD, a group of 1,400 Muslims marched towards Mecca, in an attempt to perform battle but were fought with the might of Allah. They were forced to perform an Umrah (small pilgrimage). The group was prepared with animals of sacrifice, as they hoped that the Quraish made them honor the Arabian custom of allowing converts to enter the city. According to Lewis, Muhammad felt strong enough to attempt an attack on Mecca; but on the way, it became clear that the attempt was premature and the expedition was converted into a peaceful pilgrimage. Andrae disagrees, writing that the Muslim state of ihram (which restricted their freedom of action) and the paucity of arms carried indicated that the pilgrimage was always intended to be pacific. The Quraish intercepted the Muslim party well outside Mecca. By this time, all of Arabia was aware of the military strength of the Muslims.[citation needed] Muhammad wanted to avoid bloodshed in or near the holiest city of worship.[citation needed] He said: (Bukhari B3V50H891)

We have not come to fight anyone, but to perform the 'Umra. No doubt, the war has weakened Quraish and they have suffered great losses, so if they wish, I will conclude a truce with them, during which they should refrain from interfering between me and the people, and if I have victory over those infidels, Quraish will have the option to embrace Islam as the other people do, if they wish; they will at least get strong enough to fight. But if they do not accept the truce, by Allah in Whose Hands my life is, I will fight with them defending my Cause till I get killed, but (I am sure) Allah will definitely make His Cause victorious.
The two parties decided to resolve the matter through diplomacy rather than warfare. Hence the Quranic reference to the Sakina. "He it is Who sent down As-Sakinah (calmness and tranquillity) into the hearts of the believers that they might add faith unto their faith" (48:4).

A treaty was drawn up.

Treaty
The outline of the treaty was as follows:

In the name of almighty Allah. These are the conditions of Peace between Muhammad, son of Abdullah and Suhayl ibn Amr the envoy of Mecca. There will be no fighting for ten years. Anyone who wishes to join Muhammad and to enter into any agreement with him is free to do so. Anyone who wishes to join the Quraish and to enter into any agreement with them is free to do so. A young man, or one whose father is alive, if he goes to Muhammad (saww) without permission from his father or guardian, will be returned to his father or guardian. But if anyone goes to the Quraish, he will not be returned. This year Muhammad (saww) will go back without entering Mecca. But next year he and his followers can enter Mecca, spend three days, perform the circuit. During these three days the Quraish will withdraw to the surrounding hills. When Muhammad and his followers enter into Mecca, they will be unarmed except for sheathed swords which wayfarers in Arabia always have with them. (Sahih Muslim, 19:4401)

Controversy
The treaty was quite controversial for many reasons. Originally, the treaty referred to Muhammad as the Messenger of God which was unacceptable to the Quraish ambassador Suhayl ibn Amr. Muhammad ordered Ali to strike it out, but Ali replied that he would not as it would be false, after which Muhammad himself rubbed out the words. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:49:62, Sahih Muslim, 19:4404).

The Muslims objected over a clause of the treaty that said that any citizen from Mecca entering Medina is eligible to be returned back to Mecca (if they want), while any Muslim from Medina entering Mecca is not eligible to be returned to the Muslims, even if Muhammad requested. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:50:874)

After the signing of the treaty, there was still great fury among the Muslims because they did not like the stipulations of the treaty. Muhammad, binding onto the Islamic ethic "fulfill every promise" ordered that Muslims do exactly as the treaty says. A few Muslims, especially Umar bin Khattab, strongly objected to the treaty, and even went on as far as regarding Muhammad's decision to be wrong. Many Muslims thereafter objected, when Muhammad told them (thrice) to perform their rites there and then. (Sahih al-Bukhari, 3:50:891)

Muhammad insisted that Muslims had been victorious and was supported in this by new revelation: "Verily we have granted thee a manifest victory" (Qur'an 48:1). He promised much spoils in the near future: "...and He sent down peace of reassurance on them, and hath rewarded them with a near victory, and much booty that they will capture". (Qur'an 48:18-19)

The treaty's stipulations on the movement of persons gave rise to later controversy, when the Quraysh woman Um Cultum went to Medina and joined the Muslims, and her brothers demanded her return from Muhammad, as they interpreted the treaty to mean. Muslim commentator Abdullah Yusuf Ali considers that the treaty had already been violated, probably by an attack by the Quraysh-allied tribe of Banu Bakr upon the Muslim tribe of Banu Khuza'a. Thus he believed that divine instruction was needed on what was to be done with migrants from Mecca. Other Muslim sources state that the treaty's restrictions only applied to free men, and not to slaves or women. Ultimately, Muhammad refused on the basis of revelation from God: "When there come to you believing women refugees, examine and test them... if ye ascertain they are believers, send them not to the unbelievers" (Qur'an 60:10). If the woman married a Muslim, the Muslims would pay the Meccan refugee's ex-husband a sum equal to the dower he had paid upon marriage to her". (Qur'an 6:10)

Aftermath

In 629 AD, the Muslims made The first pilgrimage. The next year, the Banu Bakr, allied with the Quraish, attacked the Bedouin Khuza'a, allied with Mohammed in response to a pre-treaty attack by the Khuza'a. Mohammed considered the Banu Bakr attack a breach of the treaty, citing one of the clauses of the treaty: "an attack on an ally of the party, will be considered an attack on the party itself". This is despite the fact that Muslims had been attacking Quraish traders repeatedly[citation needed, but the Quraish did not seek a war against Mohammed they had the right to pursue. Mohammed offered the Quraish three alternatives:

Dissolve their alliance with the Banu Bakr
Compensate by paying blood money
Dissolve the treaty
The Quraish chose the third alternative. Muhammad decided to march on to Mecca. With the 10,000 men of his army, he marched on to Mecca where he ordered his troops not to harm women, children, old people, those who surrender, those who are sick, those who are weak, not to destroy houses, and destroy trees or gardens. Thus, there was no bloodshed in the conquest of Mecca.

Islam spread widely and quickly during the two years that the treaty was in effect. While Muhammad had 1,400 followers when he signed the treaty in Hudaybiyya, he had well over 10,000 for his conquest of Mecca two years later.


--

# Year of the Elephant

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Elephant

The Year of the Elephant (in Arabic,Am al-Fil) is the name in Islamic history for the year approximately equating to 570 AD. According to Islamic tradition, it was in this year that Muhammad was born. The name is derived from an event said to have occurred at Mecca in which Abraha, the Pagan (or possibly Christian) ruler of the principality of Saba' in Yemen (although differing accounts make him either a viceroy of the Kingdom of Axum or as having broken away and styled himself King of Saba'), marched upon the Kaaba with a large army, which included one or more elephants, intending to demolish it. However, the elephant is said to have stopped at the boundary around Mecca, and refused to enter. The year came to be known as the Year of the Elephant, beginning a trend for reckoning the years in Arabia which was used until it was replaced with the Islamic calendar during the rule of Umar.

Recent discoveries in southern Arabia suggest that Year of the Elephant may have been 569 or 568, as Persians overthrew the Abyssinian regime in Yemen around 57. However, historians today believe that this event occurred at least a decade prior to the birth of Muhammad.[verification needed]

The year is also recorded as that of the birth of Ammar ibn Yasir.

----

# Hanif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanif

Hanīf is an Arabic term that refers to pre-Islamic non-Jewish or non-Christian Arabian monotheists. More specifically, in Islamic thought it refers to the people during the (pre-Islamic) period known as the Jāhiliyya or "Ignorance", who were seen to have rejected Shirk (polytheism) and retained some or all of the true tenets of the monotheist religion of Ibrahim (Abraham) that, according to Islamic view, has preceded Judaism and Christianity.

The term is from the Arabic root ḥ-n-f meaning "to incline, to decline" (Lane 1893) from the Syriac root of the same meaning. The ḥanīfiyyah is the law of Abraham; the verb taḥannafa means "to turn away from (idolatry)", with a secondary and subsequent meaning of "to become circumcised". In the verse 3:27 of the Quran it has also been translated as "upright person" and outside the Quran as "to incline towards a right state or tendency". It appears to have been used earlier by Jews and Christians in reference to 'pagans' and applied to followers of an old Hellenized Syro-Arabian religion and used to taunt early Muslims.

Others maintain that “The Hanaf is straying from the right way.” Jawad Ali quotes many old Islamic authors who maintained this was the meaning of hanif at the time of Mohammed.

Use of the term 'hanif' by pre-Islamic Arabs
The term has been used synonymously with the term Muslim in reference to a historical Islam, extending upon the belief of Islam being a restoration of the pure monotheistic religion of Abraham - this pure religion Muslims considered to be related to the Jewish and Christian religions- by stating that they followed the "...religion of Ibrahim, the hanif, the Muslim..." It has been theorized by Watt that the verbal term Islam; arising from the participle form of Muslim (meaning: surrendered to God); may have only arisen as an identifying descriptor for the religion in the late Medinan period. Muslim scholars took the term hanif and its abstract noun haniffiya in two senses: as a synonym for historical Islam in the sense it was revealed to Muhammad and practiced by Muslims, and the other as natural state of monotheism of which Ibrāhīm was a significant but not the sole practitioner.

Use of the term 'hanif' In the Qur'an
2:135-136 They say, "Become Jews or Christians, and you will be rightly guided." Say, "No! We follow the religion of Ibrahim (Abraham), the hanif, and he was not one of the polytheists." Say: "We believe in Allah and that which has been sent down to us and that which has been sent down to Ibrahim, Ismail (Ishmael), Ishaque (Isaac), Yaqoob (Jacob), and the tribes, and that which has been given to Musa (Moses) and Isa (Jesus), and that which has been given to the Prophets from their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them, and to Him we have submitted."
3:67 Ibrahim was neither a Jew nor a Christian, but he was a true hanif, who surrendered to Allah, and he was not of those who ascribe partners with Allah (the polytheists).
3:95 Say: "Allah has spoken the truth; so follow the religion of Ibrahim the hanif, and he was not of the polytheists."
4:125 And who can be better in religion than one who submits completely to Allah, and does good to others, and follows the religion of Ibrahim the hanif? For Allah did take Ibrahim for a friend.
6:161 Say, "My Lord has guided me to a straight path, an upright religion, the faith of Ibrahim, a hanif. He was not a polytheist."
10:105 Direct your face entirely towards religion as a hanif, and never be one of the polytheists.
16:120 Truly, Ibrahim was a nation, obedient to Allah, hanif in faith, and he was not one of the polytheists.
16:123 Then, We revealed to you, "Follow the religion of Ibrahim the hanif, and he was not of the polytheists.
22:31 Be hanif in religion towards Allah, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to Allah, is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had thrown him into a distant place.
30:30 So set your face steadily to religion as a hanif. Establish Allah's work according to the natural disposition of which He has made mankind. There can be no change in the work wrought by Allah. This is the proper religion, but most people know it not.
98:5 And they have been commanded no more than this: To worship Allah, offering Him sincere devotion, being hanif in faith; to establish regular prayer; and to practise regular charity; and that is the right religion.
Pre-Islamic Arab views
At the time before Muhammad received his first revelations of Islam, the city of Mecca was mainly polytheistic. Many Muslim traditions point to a small group of Meccan men and women that detested the use of the Kaˤaba by the polytheists and kept their practice of religion monotheistic as was taught by earlier prophets in the region. One such earlier prophet was Ibrāhīm (Abraham), who is also believed to have built the Kaˤba, and he is the ancestor of the Arabs according to the Jewish Bible and Old Testament, and the ancestor of the Muslim believers through his faith, according to the Quran. According to Islamic belief, these people regularly spent some of their time away from the polytheist environment and made many retreats to nearby hills to pray. One such hill was Ḥirā' which is believed to be the location where Muhammad received his revelations from the Archangel Gabriel (Jibreel) which were later recorded as the Qur'an. The only ḥanīf mentioned by name in the Qur'ān is Ibrāhīm. Other Islamic sources such as the sīrat, aḥadīth, and tafsīr go into further detail on the ħunafā. They are said to be Arabs who held to the "pure" religion of Ibrāħīm and were not seduced into polytheism. This includes the followers of Ibrāhīm and of his sons Ismā'īl (Ishmael) and Isḥāq (Isaac). Muslims are far from unanimous as to who was a ḥanīf and how many ḥunafā' there were.

List of hanifs
[citation needed]

the prophet Abraham
his son Ishmael
Hashim ibn Abd al-Manaf
Abdul Muttalib
‘Abd Allah ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
Abu Talib ibn ‘Abd al-Muttalib
Muhammad
Ali
Said ibn Zayd
The four friends in Mecca from Ibn Ishaq's account:

Zaid ibn Amr ibn Nufail: rejected both Judaism and Christianity
Waraqah ibn Nawfal: converted to Christianity
Uthman ibn Huwarith: travelled to the Byzantine Empire and converted to Christianity
Ubayd-Allah ibn Jahsh: early Muslim convert who emigrated to Abyssinia and then converted to Christianity.
Hanif opponents of Islam from Ibn Ishaq's account:

Abu Amir Abd Amr ibn Sayfi: a leader of the tribe of Banu Aus at Medina and builder of the "Mosque of the Schism" mentioned in the Quranic verse 9:107 and later allied with the Quraysh then moved to Taif and onto Syria after subsequent Muslim conquests.
Abu Qays ibn al-Aslat
The hanafiyya are seen as the followers of the religion of Abraham who venerated the Kaaba and differed with the Quraysh and having differed over the "association" of the Lord of the sacred precinct in Mecca with other gods. Some of the "devotional practices" of Islam attributed to them include the veneration of the Kaaba, the pilgrimages of the Hajj and umra, the standing at Arafat and Muzdalifa and the sacrificing of camels.

The hanīfiyya have been the subject of academic controversy and accounts of natural "Arab" monotheist have not been universally accepted by Western scholars, with some instances being generally ascribed to special pleading, such as for Waraqa, while G.R. Hawting rejects the Muslim explanations believing that they are later distortions.[citation needed]

As a name
Ḥanīf, capitalized, can also be a common Arabic proper name used for its more literary and poetic definition, "true believer" or "righteous one". The name is used throughout the Muslim world including non-Arabic speaking cultures.

-----------

# Urmonotheismus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Original_Monotheism

Urmonotheismus, the German for "primeval monotheism", is the hypothesis of a monotheistic Urreligion first defended by Austrian anthropologist, Catholic priest and member of the Divine Word Missionaries Wilhelm Schmidt (1868–1954) in his Der Ursprung der Gottesidee appearing from 1912, opposing the "Revolutionary Monotheism" approach that traces the emergence of monotheistic thought as a gradual process spanning the Bronze and Iron Age Religions of the Ancient Near East and Classical Antiquity.

Alleged traces of primitive monotheism were located in the deities Assyrian Ashur and Marduk, and Hebrew Yahweh. Monotheism in Schmidt's view is the "natural" form of theism, which was later overlaid and "degraded" by polytheism.

Schmidt's hypothesis was controversially discussed during much of the first half of the 20th century. In the 1930s, Schmidt adduced evidence from Native American mythology in support of his views (High Gods in North America, 1933). By the 1950s, the hypothesis was effectively refuted, and its proponents of Schmidt's "Vienna school" rephrased it to the effect that while ancient cultures may not have known "true monotheism", they at least show evidence for "original theism" (Ur-Theismus, as opposed to non-theistic animism), with a concept of Hochgott ("High God", as opposed to Eingott "Single God"). Christian apologetics in the light of this have moved away from postulating a "memory of revelation" in pre-Christian religions, replacing it with an "inkling of redemption" or virtuous paganism unconsciously anticipating monotheism.

Abandoned as it was, at least in its strict form, by its original proponents, the hypothesis continues to be defended in pious circles outside academia, in particular in Biblical literalism and creationism, and e.g. Mormon fundamentalism which considers black skin a curse of God for nations that fell away from original monotheism. Thus, Norman Geisler of the Southern Evangelical Seminary defends "Primitive Monotheism" in the sense of Romans 1:19-23,

Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. (KJV)

like Schmidt locating vestiges of original monotheism in primitive religion

"In all these [primitive African] societies, without a single exception, people have a notion of God as the Supreme Being." This is true of other primitive religions as well, many of which have a High God or Sky God which reflects a basic monotheism."

References
^ Norman L. Geisler, Primitive Monotheism, Christian Apologetics Journal, Volume 1, No.1 (Spring 1998)., p. 4, quoting J. S. Mbiti, Concepts of God in Africa, New York: Praeger Publishers, 1970.
Raffaele Pettazzoni, Das Ende des Urmonotheismus, Numen (1958).

--------

# Urreligion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urreligion

Urreligion ("primeval religion", "proto-religion" or "primitive religion") is a notion of an "original" or "oldest" form of religious tradition. The term contrasts with organized religion, such as the theocracies of the early urban cultures of the Ancient Near East or current world religions. The term originates in German Romanticism. The Oeconomische Encyclopädie of J. G. Krünitz (1773 - 1858) defines it as

"the oldest natural religion of mankind, in particular the religion of Adam and Eve, which according to the dogmatists is supposed to have been revealed"
The notion of a monotheistic primeval religion was forwarded by Friedrich Creuzer (1810) and taken up by other authors of the Romantic period, such as J. J. Bachofen, but decidedly opposed by Johann Heinrich Voss. Goethe in a conversation with Eckermann on 11 March 1832 discussed the human Urreligion, which he characterized as "pure nature and [pure] reason, of divine origin". The final scene of his Faust Part Two has been taken as evoking "the 'Urreligion' of mankind".

Often used in the sense of "natural religion" or indigenous religion, the religious behaviour of pre-modern tribal societies such as shamanism, animism and ancestor worship (e.g. Australian aboriginal mythology), the term has also been used by adherents of various religions to back up the claim that their own religion is somehow "primeval" or "older" than competing traditions. In the context of a given religious faith, literal belief in a creation myth may be the base of claim of "primality" in the context of creationism (e.g. Biblical literalism, or literal belief in the Hindu Puranas).

In particular, Urmonotheismus is the historical claim that primeval religion was monotheistic. This hypothesis was forwarded in the early 20th century and is now widely discredited[citation needed], although still defended in certain Christian apologetics circles.

In 19th century Germanic mysticism, there were claims that the Germanic runes bore testimony of a primeval religion. Some more recent new religious movements that claim to restore primeval religion include Godianism and Umbanda.

In the context of organized religion, especially monotheism, claims of an "oldest religion" may also be attached to a positive dating claim of a founding figure rather than a notion of absolute "primality". Thus, Vyasa, the "splitter of the Vedas" is dated to the remote Dvapara Yuga in the Pauranic Hinduism. Rishabha is dated to similarly remote dates in Jainism. Zoroaster is dated as early as "6000 years before Plato" in some classical sources, or Abraham is dated to ca. 1800 BCE in Jewish tradition following Maimonides.

--