May/June 2019

Faryal Qamar
Islamiyat
03-Dec-2020
Paper 1

Q3)
(a) Give an account of the Prophet’s migration (hijrat) from Makka to Madina. [10]
After the Pledges of 'Aqaba, when the people from Yathrib invited them to their city, an idea was born in the heart of
Prophet (S) of migration to Yathrib (now Madinah). In 622 A.D, the Quraysh met at Dar al-Nadwa and decided to kill
him while he was asleep. However, Allah had planned something else. The Prophet (S) had already gotten Allah's
permission to migrate, and so he asked Hazrat Ali (R) to sleep in his bed, while he himself came out of his house and
threw dust at the assassins, and all of them were unable to see him go. The Qur'an mentions this miracle in Surah
Yasin, "and have placed a barrier before them and a barrier behind them and covered them ˹all˺ up, so they fail to
see the truth". Hazrat Abubakar and the Prophet (S) took refuge in the Cave of Thawr, and Hazrat Abu Bakr (R) went
in first to make sure it was clean and safe. Hazrat Abu Bakr's foot was stung by an insect while the Prophet (S) was
sleeping, but he did not cry out of fear of waking up the Prophet (S). They stayed in the cave for three nights, during
which Hazrat Abu Bakr (R)' s son and daughter visited them with food and news. The Quraysh set a price of 100
camels for their capture, and some reached the mouth of the cave. However, Allah helped them and ordered a
spider to cover the mouth of the cave with a web, and a bird to make its nest near the cave. They decided not to
enter, and thought that no one could have gone inside that cave, as the spider web would not be there. This was
how Allah saved his Messenger (S). Later, the Prophet (S) stopped at tents if umm e Mu'abd, and eighty people from
Banu Aslam also accepted Islam. Then they stopped in Quba and stayed there for some days, where they established
a mosque, and Hazrat Ali joined them there. From there, they arrived in Madina and were welcomed by the people.

(b) Why was it significant that one of the Prophet’s first tasks was to construct mosques at Quba and
Madina?
Despite travelling from Makkah to Madinah, the Prophet (S) took the time to establish a mosqe at Quba, and then in
Madinah. This plays a great importance and shows the Muslims that worship of Allah was first and foremost. This
also shows that praying together as a community for the Muslims was very important aswell as beneficial, so much
so that building a mosque was done before building houses. At Quba and at Madinah, they were free to establish
prayers, so it was done as a symbol of freedom, and to show that they were now free to worship together and in the
open, unlike in Makkah.