In the name of Allah
1-Arrival at Madinah.
When
the people of Yathrib heard that the Prophet (pbuh) had left Mecca and was on
his way to their city, they anxiously awaited his arrival. Each morning they
would go to the edge of the city to see if he were coming. Finally, on Monday,
September 27, in the year 622 A.D., someone saw him in the distance and shouted
to everyone, ’Here is Muhammad! (pbuh) the Messenger of Allah has arrived!’ All
the Muslims went out to greet him, shouting, .Allahu Akbar.! Allah is Great!
Muhammad the Messenger of Allah has arrived!’ The women and children sang songs
to show how glad they were to see him. The Prophet (pbuh) entered the city with
his friend Abu Bakr. Most of The people there had not seen him before and as
they gathered around they did not know which of the two was the Prophet (pbuh),
until Abu Bakr got up to shield him with his cloak from the burning sun.
Yathrib would now be called al-Medina, which means, The City.
How strange are the contrasts in life
and the difference among people! The one whom Makkah sought but failed to kill
is warmly received be Madinah, and its citizens offer him protection, arms and
numerous supporters. One noteworthy point was that most of the people of
Madinah had never seen the prophet (Pbuh) before. So when he arrived they could
not at first distinguish him from Abu Bakr .
The prophet (Pbuh) stayed as the
guest of Banu Amir Ibn Auf for fourteen nights, during which he laid the
foundations for the Quba Mosque, the first mosque ever to be built in Islam.
The Messenger of God (pbuh) stayed in
Quba’, which is a place at the entrance of Medina. On the first Friday after
his arrival the Prophet led the congregation in prayer. After this many of the
wealthiest men invited him to come and live with them and share their riches.
But he refused and, pointing to his she-camel, Qaswa’, said, ’Let her go her
way’, because he knew that his camel was under Allah’s command and would guide
him to the spot where he should stay.
They let the camel go until she finally
knelt down beside a house belonging to the Bani an-Najjar, the tribe to whom
the Prophet’s mother was related. This house was used as a drying-place for
dates and belonged to two young orphan boys named Sahl and Suhayl. They offered
to give it to the Prophet (pbuh) but he insisted on paying them for it, and so
their guardian, As.ad the son of Zurarah, who was present, made the necessary
arrangements. The Prophet (pbuh) ordered that a mosque and a place for him to
live be built on the site. All the Muslims worked together to finish it quickly
even the Prophet (pbuh) joined in. It was here that the Muslims would pray and
meet to make important decisions and plans. The building was quite plain and
simple. The floor was beaten earth and the roof of palm leaves was held up by
tree trunks. Two Stones marked the direction of prayer. At first worshippers
faced Jerusalem, but Soon after the direction of prayer was changed towards the
Ka.bah in Mecca.
After the building of the mosque, the
Prophet (pbuh) wanted to strengthen the relationship between the people called
the Muhajirah or
Emigrants, who
had left Mecca with him, and the people of Medina, who
were known as the Ansar, or Helpers. Each
man from Medinah took as his brother a man from Mecca, sharing everything with
him and treating him as a member of his own family. This was the beginning of
the Islamic brotherhood. In the early days of Islam, the times for prayer were
not announced and So the Muslims would come to the mosque and wait for the
prayer so as not to miss it. The Prophet (pbuh) wondered how to tell the people
that it was time for prayers. He discussed it with his friends, and at first
two ideas were put forward; that of blowing a horn as the Jews did, and that of
using a wooden clapper like the Christians.
Then a man called .Abd Allah ibn Zayd came
to the Prophet (pbuh) and told him he had had a dream in which he had seen a
man dressed all in green, holding a wooden clapper. He had said to the man,
’Would you sell me your clapper in order to call the people to prayer?’ The man
had replied, ’A better way to call the people to prayer is to Say: "Allahu
Akbar, Allah is Most Great!" four times, followed by "I bear witness
that there is no divinity but Allah, I bear witness that Muhammad is the
Messenger of
Allah, Come to prayer, come to prayer, Come to salvation, come to salvation.
Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar! There is no divinity but Allah!"’
When the Prophet (pbuh) heard this, he
said it was a true vision from Allah. He sent for Bilal, who had a beautiful,
strong voice, and ordered him to call the people to prayer in just this way.
Bilal did so and soon after ’Umar came out of his house and told the Prophet
(pbuh) that he had seen exactly the same vision himself.
The Prophet (pbuh) replied, ’Allah be
praised for that.’ The adhan, or call to prayer, which came to ’Abd Allah ibn
Zayd in his dream and was performed by Bilal on the instruction of the Prophet
(pbuh), is the one we still hear today being called from the minarets of
mosques all over the world.
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