So what if I told you that the origin story of
Islam I mean the literal moment the religion
went from just a handful of persecuted people
to a real functioning community relied entirely
on the protection of a Christian king. And then
what if I follow that up by saying the religions.
political foundation was built in a predominantly
Jewish city, mostly thanks to a partnership with
Jewish tribes. I'd say that sounds like a version
of history that conveniently gets left out of
the modern news cycle. Right. But it raises a
fascinating point right away. The story of Islam's
survival isn't this, you know, isolationist story.
It's fundamentally a story about interfaith reliance.
That is exactly the angle we are digging into
today. We're looking at a stack of sources, some
sermons, some historical analyses titled Lessons
from the Hijrah and the Hijrah, a foundation
of interfaith sanctuary and pluralism. And hijrah
is a word most people have probably heard. Sure.
They hear hijrah. They think Islamic calendar.
You know, it's the migration that starts the
clock. 622 CE. That's the standard date everyone
kind of memorizes. But our sources are arguing
that just, you know, seeing it as a date on a
calendar completely misses the point. In fact,
the Hydra, it actually happened twice. Wow. Okay.
And these two migrations, they establish a blueprint,
really a precedent for religious pluralism, for
civic duty, and specifically for the protection
of refugees that just feels incredibly relevant
right now. It's not just ancient history then.
It's more like a case study in how different
communities can, well... managed to live together
without killing each other. So let's unpack this.
We have to go back to the beginning to really
get why they had to leave in the first place.
The sources paint a pretty horrific picture of
Makkah around 615 CE. It was grim. You have the
Prophet Muhammad and this small group of early
followers, and they are a persecuted minority
in every sense of the word. And when the sources
say persecuted, they don't mean like mean tweets?
No, no. We are talking physical torture, public
beatings, and eventually... A total social and
economic boycott. People were being killed just
for saying, Allah is our Lord. Okay, so put yourself
in that situation. You're the leader of this
group. You're watching your people get crushed.
The logical move, you know, historically, is
to find a hideout. Right. A cave in the desert,
maybe. Or you send them to a friendly Arab tribe
nearby that owes you a favor. That would be the
standard tribal play out. To protect your own
kind. Exactly. But the prophet does something
completely counterintuitive here. And this is
where the sources really highlight his strategic
thinking. He tells his followers to leave Arabia
entirely. OK. He points them across the Red Sea
toward Abyssinia, what we call modern day Ethiopia.
Which is a massive risk. You're sending your
most vulnerable people across a sea to a continent
they don't know, a culture they don't share.
And crucially, Abyssinia isn't Muslim. It's not
even pagan Arab. It's a devout Christian kingdom.
This is the part that always gets me. The prophet's
reasoning, according to the sources, is, well,
it's profound. Yeah. He describes the ruler there,
the Nagus or Najashi in Arabic, as a Christian
king under whom no one is oppressed. But let
me play devil's advocate for a second. The prophet's
establishing a new faith, one that, you know,
claims to correct previous errors. So why send
his followers to a staunchly Christian kingdom?
Wasn't there a risk they'd just be converted?
Or that the king would just hand them back to
the Quraysh to keep trade relations smooth. Exactly.
That's the strategic brilliance the sources point
to. The prophet saw Christianity not as an enemy,
but more like a sibling faith. It was closer
to Islam than the idol -worshipping paganism
of Mecca. So he wasn't looking for theological
agreement? No, he was looking for ethical alignment.
He gambled that a just Christian was a much safer
bet than an unjust relative. So about a dozen
men and women make this trek. And the sources
mention this was an escape. They slip out at
night. They head to the coast. They find a boat.
I mean, if the Quraysh catch them, they're dead.
It's a desperate refugee crisis. They arrive
in Aksum with literally nothing. no money no
political leverage they're throwing themselves
entirely on the moral character of this king
and the drama just ramps up from there because
the quorash the ruling tribe and maka they don't
just let this go they send these high -level
emissaries to the king with you know expensive
gifts bribes really demanding he deport these
rebels and this leads to this incredible courtroom
drama scene you have the hrush emissaries telling
the king look these people are troublemakers
they've abandoned our religion they've split
our families send them back the political pressure
must have been immense oh for sure Just say yes
and keep your trade partners happy. But the king,
he turns to the Muslims and asks for their defense.
And this sets up one of the most famous speeches
in Islamic history from Jafar ibn Abi Talib.
I have the text here. And what strikes me is
that Jafar doesn't start with theology. He reads
the room perfectly. He starts with sociology.
He says, oh, king, we were a people in a state
of ignorance and immorality. We mistreated our
neighbors. The strong among us exploited the
weak. He's painting. a picture of just chaos.
He's contrasting the lawlessness of Macca with
the order of the king's court. Very smart. Then
he pivots. He says the prophet taught them truth,
mercy, and this is key to honor our trusts and
respect the rights of neighbors. And then he
drops the hammer. When they oppressed us beyond
limit, we fled to your country, choosing you
above others, hoping that here we would find
justice. Choosing you above others? That's a
diplomatic masterstroke, but it also sounds sincere.
He's framing their presence as a testament to
the king's own reputation. So then the king asks
the million dollar question. Do you have anything
your prophet brought from God? Now, if I'm Jafar,
maybe I pick a verse about, you know, fighting
evil or the oneness of God. Something assertive.
Right. But he recites Surah Maryam, the chapter
of the Quran about Mary and Jesus. Wow. That's
incredibly bold. He recites the Quranic account
of the virgin birth right there in the Christian
court. He's basically saying, we love who you
love. We honor who you honor. And the sources
describe the king and his bishops actually weeping
when they hear this. They recognize the common
source. It resonated. And the king's reaction
is just decisive. He refuses the bribes. He tells
the Muslims, you have complete freedom. The source
calls this the birth of freedom of belief for
Muslims. It really was. And if you connect this
to the bigger picture, it proves that from day
one, Islam survived because of the protection
of a Christian. The religion didn't survive in
a vacuum. It survived in a sanctuary provided
by another faith. So that first migration proved
coexistence was possible. But Abyssinia was a
refuge. It wasn't a home. They were guests. And
meanwhile, back in Makkah. Things were just getting
worse. The persecution had gone on for 13 years.
The prophet himself was barely surviving assassination
attempts. Right. The status quo was untenable.
They needed more than a hideout. They needed
a base, a place to actually build a society.
Which brings us to the second migration, the
big one that starts the calendar. In 622 CE...
The prophet migrates to Yathrib, which we now
know as Medina. Now, I always pictured Medina
as this sort of empty slate, you know, broad
desert, a few palm trees, and the Muslims show
up and start from scratch. That's a common misconception.
Medina was actually a bustling agricultural oasis.
And crucially, it was extremely diverse. Not
just Arab tribes. Not at all. It was inhabited
by two major Arab tribes, the Oz and Khazraj,
who were constantly fighting, but also three
major Jewish tribes. So the city was effectively
a collection of forts and farms with a very strong
Jewish cultural presence. Predominantly Jewish
in terms of, you know, economic infrastructure
and theology, yeah. So the prophet arrives. He's
not a king conquering a city. He's actually been
invited in as a mediator to stop the civil war
between the Arab tribes. And what does he do?
He drafts a document. The Constitution of Medina.
Right. Now, the sources describe this as one
of history's earliest written constitutions.
But is that just hype? I mean, how does it compare
to, say, the Magna Carta or Roman law? Well,
it predates the Magna Carta by six centuries.
And it's different from Roman law because it's
a social contract between distinct groups. Before
this, Arabia operated on tribal lawblood feuds.
You kill my guy, I kill your guy. Vengeance.
Total vengeance. The Constitution of Medina replaced
that with the rule of law. It established a state
where the government, not the tribe, had the
authority to resolve disputes. And what makes
it so revolutionary for our discussion is how
it handled that diversity we just mentioned.
This wasn't a theocracy where minorities were
just tolerated. Or second class citizens. No,
it created a political partnership. I want to
read this clause because it blew my mind. The
document says, the Jews of Banu Af are one community,
one Ummah with the believers. The Jews have their
religion and the Muslims have theirs. That is
massive. That word ummah is usually reserved
just for the Muslim community today. But here,
in the founding political document of Islam,
the prophet includes the Jewish tribes within
the political ummah. They are partners in the
state. And it wasn't just live and let live.
It was a mutual defense pact, right? Exactly.
The Constitution stated that if Medina was attacked,
Jews and Muslims would defend it together. They
shared the cost of war. They shared the responsibility
of civic safety. It was a model of what one source
calls covenantal pluralism. And the sources list
all these specific ways the prophet honored the
Jewish community to build that trust. For example,
for the first 16 or 17 months in Medina, the
Muslims didn't pray facing Mecca. No, they prayed
facing Jerusalem. Al -Quds. Which is the ultimate
symbolic connection. You're physically orienting
your worship toward the same sanctuary as your
Jewish neighbors. A huge sign of respect. And
then there's the fasting. The prophet arrived
and saw the Jews fasting for Yom Kippur. When
he asked why, they told him it was the day God
saved Moses from Pharaoh. And the prophet's response
was... We are closer to Moses than you are, meaning
we honor him just as much. And he instructed
the Muslims to fast in solidarity. That became
the fast of Asherah. He even gave permission
to eat kosher food. And there's this heavy quote
in the sources where the prophet warns his followers,
whoever wrongs a person under covenant. meaning
a non -Muslim protected by this treaty, will
not smell the fragrance of paradise. That is
a stark warning. But we have to be real about
this. It didn't end in a fairy tale. A few years
later, there is war. And those specific Jewish
tribes are expelled or punished. Yes. And critics
often point to that to say, see, coexistence
failed. This constitution was just paper. Right.
But that's the easy reading. The sources argue
we need to look closer. The breakdown wasn't
because of theology. The Constitution wasn't
scrapped because the prophet decided he didn't
like Jews anymore. The alliance broke because
of specific acts of political treason during
wartime. So the argument is that the conflict
was geopolitical, not religious persecution.
Precisely. The sources emphasize that the Constitution
itself remains the model. The later conflict
was a breach of the treaty, but the principle
established at the start. that you can have a
multi -faith state where Jews and Muslims are
one political community, that remains valid.
It showed what is possible when the covenant
is honored. So we have the first migration to
a Christian sanctuary based on justice, the second
to a Jewish partnership based on a constitution.
What does this all mean for us today? This is
the so wet moment. Right, because our mission
statement here is to see how this resonates in
our polarized world. The sources argue that we
need to adopt a hedra mindset. And for Muslims
specifically, or really any minority group, that
mindset has two sides, the muhajir, the refugee,
and the ansar, the helper. Okay, let's start
with the refugee. The sources argue Muslims should
have this deep, visceral empathy for refugees.
And why? Because their prophet was a refugee.
He was forced out of his home. He had to cross
deserts to find safety. When you see a family
at the border or someone fleeing a war zone,
that is the Hydra story playing out in real time.
But then you have the other side, the Ansar,
the helpers. And Medina, these weren't people
who just, you know, tweeted support. No, they
literally split their homes in half to house
the refugees. It was radical hospitality. The
lesson there is that you have a duty to be the
helper. The sources talk about volunteering,
supporting resettlement agencies, advocating
for humane immigration policies. It's not just
a nice thing to do. It's a religious obligation
modeled on the faith's founding moment. If you
aren't the refugee, you must be the helper. There's
no third option. There's also this idea of civic
engagement. One of the articles uses this great
analogy about the Prophet Joseph Yusuf. Yeah,
Yusuf served in the Egyptian government. He wasn't
Egyptian. He wasn't of their religion. But he
served the society to save it from famine. The
analogy is that modern Muslims should be fully
Muslim and fully American or whatever their nationality
is. Contributing to society is an act of faith.
You don't isolate yourself. You improve the neighborhood.
Right. And that includes protecting everyone,
not just your own. I found this verse cited in
the source fascinating. It's from Quran chapter
22, verse 40. That is a crucial verse. It explains
why God allows defense or fighting. And it lists
who needs to be protected. Monasteries, churches,
synagogues, and mosques. Notice the order there.
Mosques are listed last. Exactly. The source
highlights that priority. It implies a duty for
Muslims to protect the places of worship of others.
If a synagogue is under threat, the hijra mindset
says a Muslim should be standing guard. That
is a powerful image. And it leads into the antidote
to Islamophobia that the sources suggest. It's
not just about PR campaigns. No, it's about knowing
one another. Quran 49 .13. We made you into peoples
and tribes so that you may know one another.
The source argues that prejudice survives in
isolation. The early Muslims won over hearts.
the Christian king, the people of Medina, through
their character and engagement. You dismantle
stereotypes by being a good neighbor. Before
we wrap up, there's one last type of migration
the sources mention, and this one is a bit of
a plot twist. It suggests that even if you never
leave your hometown, you are still expected to
perform a hijrah. The hijrat al -qawb, the migration
of the heart. How does that work? It comes from
a teaching where the prophet defined a true migrant
not just as someone who travels, but as one who
leaves behind what Allah has forbidden. So it's
redefining migration from a physical act to a
moral one. Exactly. And this bridges the gap
between history we just discussed and our daily
lives. You perform a hijrah by migrating from
hate to justice, from greed to generosity, from
sin to obedience. From isolation to partnership.
Yes. In a polarized world, the hardest migration
isn't crossing a border. It's crossing the divide
between us and them. It's migrating away from
the comfort of your own tribal bubble to actually
engage with someone different. That is the internal
hijrah. And that brings us full circle. We started
by asking about the origin story of Islam. And
I think the sources have shown that the Hedra
isn't just a trip from point A to point B. It's
a story where the survival of the faith depended
on a Christian king's justice. Its political
foundation depended on a constitution with Jewish
tribes. It really challenges the narrative we
hear so often today, that religions are these
competing fortresses that have always been at
war. That's the narrative of conflict. The Hedra
offers a narrative of covenant. It shows that
justice is a universal human value, not a tribal
one. The prophet didn't say, go to the Abyssinian
king because he's Muslim. He said go to him because
he's just. And that distinction. It changes everything.
It asks us to look for allies based on values,
not just labels. It does. So here is the final
thought for you, the listener, to chew on. We've
looked at how the prophet found refuge under
a Christian king and built a society with Jewish
partners. In our world today, we talk so much
about borders and security and walls. But the
question the sources leave us with is this. Are
we building sanctuaries or are we just building
taller walls? And on a personal level, that migration
of the heart is available to everyone. religious
or not. So what is the thing, the prejudice,
the habit, the fear that you need to migrate
away from today? That's it for this deep dive
into the Hijrah. Thanks for listening, and we'll
catch you on the next journey.