The Hijrah (hijra): what happened and why it matters

What does Hijrah mean?

Ibn Hajar, in Fath al-Bari, defines hijrah as leaving, and hijrah to a thing as moving to it from something else. He says it took two forms in Islam. The first was a move from a land of fear to a land of safety, as in the emigrations to Abyssinia and the start of the emigration from Makkah to Madinah 6.

With a capital H, the Hijrah means that emigration of the Prophet to Madinah. This page tells its history; it gives no ruling on moving country today.

Why did the Prophet leave Makkah?

'Aisha, may Allah be pleased with her, the Prophet's wife, tells it in Sahih al-Bukhari 3905 (graded sahih). When the Muslims of Makkah were put under trial, Abu Bakr set out towards Abyssinia before turning back, and others had emigrated there. The Prophet then told the Muslims he had been shown the land they would emigrate to, a place of palm trees between two lava tracts, and Muslims emigrated towards Madinah.

Then the Prophet was given permission to leave, and Abu Bakr went with him.

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3905

What happened on the Hijrah journey?

These four steps follow 'Aisha's account in Sahih al-Bukhari 3905, graded sahih, in its own order.

1. Permission to leave. At midday the Prophet came to Abu Bakr's house and told him he had been given permission to leave. Abu Bakr asked to go with him, and he said yes.
2. Food for the road. 'Aisha says: we made the two ready quickly and put food for them in a leather bag. Asma bint Abi Bakr, may Allah be pleased with her, cut a piece from her waistband to tie its mouth, and so was called Dhat al-Nitaq, she of the waistband.
3. Three nights in the cave. The two reached a cave in Mount Thawr and stayed hidden there for three nights. 'Abdullah ibn Abi Bakr, may Allah be pleased with him, spent the nights with them and brought news of Quraysh after dark. 'Amir ibn Fuhayrah, may Allah be pleased with him, Abu Bakr's freed slave, grazed sheep near them so they had milk.
4. The guide and the coast road. A guide they had hired brought their two camels to the cave after three nights. 'Amir and the guide went with them, and the guide took them by the coastal road.

1AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3905

Arrival in Madinah

The Muslims of Madinah went out every morning to wait for him. He stopped among the clan of Banu 'Amr ibn 'Awf on a Monday in Rabi' al-Awwal, according to 'Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, a successor (of the generation after the companions), in Sahih al-Bukhari 3906, graded sahih. The mosque "founded on piety" was founded there, and he prayed in it. Al-Mubarakpuri's al-Rahiq al-Makhtum names this stop Quba 9.

Anas ibn Malik, may Allah be pleased with him, says he stopped in the upper part of Madinah among Banu 'Amr ibn 'Awf. He then rode on, with Abu Bakr behind him on his camel and the leaders of Banu al-Najjar around him. He dismounted in the courtyard of Abu Ayyub, may Allah be pleased with him, and later ordered the mosque to be built (Sahih al-Bukhari 3932, graded sahih).

What happened in the cave?

Abu Bakr himself said that while he was in the cave he told the Prophet that if one of them looked beneath his feet, he would see them. The Prophet answered: "What do you think, Abu Bakr, of two whose third is Allah?" (Sahih al-Bukhari 3653, graded sahih).

2AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3653

The Quran speaks of the moment "when they two were in the cave, when he said to his comrade: Do not grieve. Indeed, Allah is with us." (At-Tawbah 9:40).

The verse does not name the cave; the name Mount Thawr comes from Sahih al-Bukhari 3905. Neither 3653 nor 3905 mentions a spider's web or a dove. This page has not checked the other narrations that tell of them, so it makes no claim about them either way.

Which places does the Hijrah pass through?

There is no route map here: the sources give place names, not a line on a map. These are the places, in the order the reports give them.

Al-Mubarakpuri adds that the two took the road south of Makkah, towards Yemen, for about five miles to Mount Thawr, because Quraysh would watch the main road north 7.

When did the Hijrah happen?

Sahih al-Bukhari 3905 gives no date for the departure; 'Urwa's report in 3906 gives only "a Monday in Rabi' al-Awwal" for the arrival. The days and years below come from two seerah works, each named. The Common Era dates are the ones al-Mubarakpuri gives; we have not converted any date ourselves.

Al-Mubarakpuri cites Rahmatan lil-'Alamin for the departure and Quba dates, and notes that he counts the years of the prophethood from Muharram; counted from the month of the first revelation, the same Safar falls in year 13 7.

Why does the Islamic calendar start from the Hijrah?

They counted the years neither from the Prophet's mission nor from his death, only from his arrival in Madinah, said Sahl ibn Sa'd, may Allah be pleased with him (Sahih al-Bukhari 3934, graded sahih). That is a companion's report of what they did; it gives no reason.

5AuthenticSahih al-Bukhari 3934

The reason comes from reports gathered by Ibn Hajar in Fath al-Bari. He calls a report from al-Zuhri, that the Prophet himself ordered the dating, "mu'dal", a chain with links missing, and says the well-known view is that it began under 'Umar, may Allah be pleased with him 11.

Among the reasons given, Ibn Hajar cites the account of al-Sha'bi, a successor: Abu Musa, may Allah be pleased with him, wrote to 'Umar that his letters arrived undated. 'Umar gathered the people; some said to count from the mission, some from the Hijrah. 'Umar said the Hijrah separated truth from falsehood, so date by it, in the year seventeen. When some proposed Ramadan, he chose Muharram, the month people return from Hajj 11. Ibn Hajar gives no grade for this account in the passage.

Ibn Hajar's own explanation of Muharram: the pledge fell in Dhu al-Hijjah, so the resolve to emigrate began with the next new moon, Muharram 11.

Where do the sources differ?