Migration to Abyssinia (615 CE)

Part onePermission to leave

By the fifth year of the call, c. 615 CE, the pressure on the believers had grown heavy. The Prophet ﷺ could not shield all of them in Makkah. He told them that across the sea, in the land of Abyssinia, there was a king under whom nobody was wronged. They could go there and worship in peace until Allah opened a way for them.

That land was the kingdom of Aksum, a Christian state on the African side of the Red Sea, in the region we now call Ethiopia and Eritrea. It had been one of the great trading powers of the age, with ports on the sea and a Christian court for nearly three centuries. Quraysh traded with it, so the name was not unfamiliar to Makkans. Its ruler held the title of Negus. It was a wise choice: a ruler known for justice, a faith that honoured Jesus and the earlier prophets, and a sea between the believers and those who were harming them.

A first group set out quietly, about a dozen men and several women. Among them were Uthman ibn Affan and his wife Ruqayyah (may Allah be pleased with her), the Prophet's ﷺ daughter, and Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, Mus'ab ibn Umayr, Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf, and Abu Salamah with his wife Umm Salamah (may Allah be pleased with them). Accounts give slightly different numbers. They crossed the Red Sea by boat, and Quraysh could not stop them.

This is called the first hijrah, the migration. It was an act of faith. People who loved their homes, their families and the city of the Kaaba chose to leave them so that they could keep their religion. They left behind homes, relatives and everything familiar, and they went to a country that none of them knew well.

Not everyone went. Many believers stayed in Makkah by choice or because they had no way to leave, and the Prophet ﷺ stayed with them. He would not leave the city while his followers there still needed him.

Part twoBefore the Negus

In Abyssinia the Muslims found what they had hoped for. They lived safely and prayed freely. Soon a larger group followed, more than eighty men along with women and children. The Prophet's ﷺ cousin Ja'far ibn Abi Talib (may Allah be pleased with him) became their spokesman.

Quraysh would not leave it there. A safe home across the sea gave the believers somewhere to go, and it gave them a possible friend with power. So they sent two envoys, Amr ibn al-As and Abdullah ibn Abi Rabi'ah, to the court of the Negus. Both were still opposed to Islam at that time, though Amr would become a Muslim years later (may Allah be pleased with him). They brought gifts for the king and for his advisers and asked that the Muslims be returned to Makkah. The envoys said that these people had abandoned the religion of their ancestors and invented a new one.

The Negus would not decide without hearing both sides. He sent for the Muslims and asked what this religion was. Ja'far spoke for them. He said that they had been a people of ignorance, worshipping idols, mistreating the weak and cutting family ties. Then a messenger had come from among them, whose honesty and character they knew well, and he called them to worship Allah alone, to speak the truth, to keep their promises, to look after relatives and neighbours and to stop shedding blood. Quraysh had harassed them for following him, and so they had come to the king's land.

Next, the king asked whether Ja'far could recite something of what they had received. Ja'far recited from the opening of Surah Maryam, which tells of Maryam and of Isa (peace be upon him). The king wept until his beard was wet, and the bishops around him wept too. He said that what Ja'far had recited and what Isa had brought came from the same source. He told the envoys to go. The Muslims would not be handed back.

From the Quran

كٓهيعٓصٓ ۝١ ذِكْرُ رَحْمَتِ رَبِّكَ عَبْدَهُۥ زَكَرِيَّآ ۝٢ إِذْ نَادَىٰ رَبَّهُۥ نِدَآءً خَفِيًّا ۝٣ قَالَ رَبِّ إِنِّى وَهَنَ ٱلْعَظْمُ مِنِّى وَٱشْتَعَلَ ٱلرَّأْسُ شَيْبًا وَلَمْ أَكُنۢ بِدُعَآئِكَ رَبِّ شَقِيًّا ۝٤

¹Kãf-Ha-Ya-’Aĩn- Ṣãd. ²˹This is˺ a reminder of your Lord’s mercy to His servant Zachariah, ³when he cried out to his Lord privately, ⁴saying, “My Lord! Surely my bones have become brittle, and grey hair has spread across my head, but I have never been disappointed in my prayer to You, my Lord!

On the next day the envoys tried again, hoping to turn the king against the Muslims by saying that they held an offensive view of Isa. The Negus asked Ja'far again, and Ja'far replied plainly that Isa is the servant of Allah, His messenger, His spirit and His word. The king said that this was close to what he himself believed. The Muslims remained under his protection. He ordered the envoys' gifts to be handed back, saying that Allah had taken no bribe from him when He gave him his kingdom, so he would take none against these people. The envoys went home empty-handed.

From the hadith

Narrated by Umm Salamah, wife of the Prophet ﷺ:

[…] When they came to him, the Negus had gathered his bishops, who spread their scriptures around him. He asked them, “What is this religion for which you have separated from your people, yet you have not entered into my religion nor the religion of any other nations?”

She said: It was Ja‘far ibn Abi Talib who spoke to him and said, “O King, we were a people of ignorance. We worshipped idols, ate carrion, committed vile acts, severed family ties, mistreated our neighbors, and the strong among us consumed the weak. We remained in that state until Allah sent to us a Messenger from among ourselves, whose lineage, truthfulness, trustworthiness, and chastity we knew well. He called us to Allah, that we might worship Him alone and abandon what we and our fathers had worshipped besides Him of stones and idols. He commanded us to speak the truth, fulfill trusts, maintain family ties, show good treatment to neighbors, and refrain from the unlawful and from bloodshed. He forbade us from immorality, false speech, consuming the wealth of orphans, and slandering chaste women. He commanded us to worship Allah alone, associating nothing with Him, and he commanded us to pray, give zakah, and fast.”

He said: “So he listed for him the matters of Islam. We believed him, trusted him, and followed him in what he brought. We worshipped Allah alone without associating anything with Him. We declared unlawful what he forbade us and lawful what he permitted us. Then our people rose against us, tortured us, and sought to turn us away from our religion to return us to idol worship and to permit for us the abominations we had once permitted. When they oppressed us, wronged us, and restricted us, coming between us and our religion, we fled to your land. We chose you above all others, desiring your protection and hoping we would not be wronged in your presence, O King.”

The Negus said to Ja‘far: “Do you have anything with you of what has come from Allah?”

Ja‘far replied: “Yes.”

The Negus said: “Then recite it to me.”

So Ja‘far recited to him from the opening verses of Kāf Hā Yā ‘Ayn Sād (Surat Maryam 19). By Allah, the Negus wept until his beard was wet, and his bishops wept until their scriptures were soaked by their tears, when they heard what was recited to them. Then the Negus said: “Indeed, this and what came with Moses both come from the same lamp. Go, for by Allah I will never hand them over to you, nor will I conspire against them.” […]

Many of the migrants stayed in Abyssinia for years. Some returned to Makkah earlier, and others stayed until the Prophet ﷺ had settled in Madinah. A large group, led by Ja'far, joined him around the time of Khaybar in 7 AH. When the Negus died, the Prophet ﷺ told his Companions in Madinah on that very day that their brother had died, and he led a funeral prayer for him, though he was far away.

The migration also left something lasting. The Muslims had proved that their faith could live under another ruler's roof, and that a Christian king could recognise the truth of what he heard. Makkah had expected the exiles to be sent home in disgrace. Instead, the first Muslims abroad were treated with respect, and word of it travelled back across the sea.

People who loved their homes chose to leave them so that they could keep their religion.

More on How to Muslim

• guide.howtomuslim.orgJesus in IslamWhat Muslims believe about Isa, as Ja'far told the Negus.
• guide.howtomuslim.orgHow to pray JanazahThe funeral prayer, which the Prophet ﷺ prayed for the Negus.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 3: Hamza and Umar Become Muslims (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceFirst Hijra: Migration To Africa (Seerah of Muhammad, part 30) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Makkah
• the Red Sea coast
• the Red Sea
• the Kingdom of Aksum

This map is a simple sketch to help you picture where events took place. Positions, distances and borders are approximate, so please use it for reference only, not as an accurate map.

SourcesSources for this chapter