Arrival in Madinah

Part oneFriday in Ranuna

On Friday morning the Prophet ﷺ left Quba and rode towards the heart of Yathrib. When the time for the midday prayer came, he was in the valley of Ranuna, in the area of the Banu Salim ibn Awf. He stopped there and led the first Friday prayer in Yathrib, and he spoke to the people.

From there he rode on. People lined the road. Men, women and children came out of their houses, and some climbed onto rooftops to catch a glimpse of him. Al-Bara ibn Azib (may Allah be pleased with him) recalled that he had never seen the people of Yathrib so happy as on that day. The children ran through the streets, calling that the Messenger of Allah had come.

The leaders of each clan stepped out and took hold of the rope of his camel, pleading with him to stay with them. They were willing to offer him their houses, their protection and their wealth. He thanked them and refused them all gently. He told them to let her go, for she was under orders.

From the hadith

Narrated Anas bin Malik:

"On the day in which the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ) entered Al-Madinah, everything in it was illuminated. Then, on the day in which he died, everything in it was dark. And we did not remove our hands from the Messenger of Allah (ﷺ), while we were burying him because our hearts felt so estranged."

Part twoWhere the camel knelt

Among those escorting him were the Banu an-Najjar, his maternal relatives, who had come with their swords. He rode with Abu Bakr behind him and the Banu an-Najjar around them, with the rope loose, and the camel walked through the lanes. As they passed, one family after another took hold of her reins and begged him to stay with them. It is reported that he answered each of them kindly and told them to let her go, for she was under command. She slowed, and knelt at an open yard where dates were dried, among their houses. His great-grandfather Hashim had married a woman of that clan, and his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib had spent his early boyhood among them. The Prophet ﷺ was returning to his own family's roots.

The camel got up, walked a little, and then came back to the same spot and knelt again. He got down. The yard belonged to two orphan boys, and the Banu an-Najjar offered to give it. He insisted on paying the full price. On that ground he would later build his masjid.

Abu Ayyub al-Ansari (may Allah be pleased with him), whose name was Khalid ibn Zayd, was the first to reach the saddle of the camel. He picked it up and carried it into his house, and the Prophet ﷺ followed. The house had two floors. Each man wanted the other to live upstairs, and in the end the Prophet ﷺ stayed on the ground floor, because so many people came to see him. He stayed there for several months until his masjid and rooms were built. Until then, he prayed wherever the time of prayer found him, even in the pens of sheep.

From the Quran

وَٱلَّذِينَ تَبَوَّءُو ٱلدَّارَ وَٱلْإِيمَـٰنَ مِن قَبْلِهِمْ يُحِبُّونَ مَنْ هَاجَرَ إِلَيْهِمْ وَلَا يَجِدُونَ فِى صُدُورِهِمْ حَاجَةً مِّمَّآ أُوتُوا۟ وَيُؤْثِرُونَ عَلَىٰٓ أَنفُسِهِمْ وَلَوْ كَانَ بِهِمْ خَصَاصَةٌ ۚ وَمَن يُوقَ شُحَّ نَفْسِهِۦ فَأُو۟لَـٰٓئِكَ هُمُ ٱلْمُفْلِحُونَ ۝٩

As for those who had settled in the city and ˹embraced˺ the faith before ˹the arrival of˺ the emigrants, they love whoever immigrates to them, never having a desire in their hearts for whatever ˹of the gains˺ is given to the emigrants. They give ˹the emigrants˺ preference over themselves even though they may be in need. And whoever is saved from the selfishness of their own souls, it is they who are ˹truly˺ successful.

Part threeA city with a new name

Soon after he arrived, a learned man of the Jewish community named Abdullah ibn Salam (may Allah be pleased with him) came to see him. He later said that he had looked at the face of the Prophet ﷺ and knew it was not the face of a liar. The first words he heard from him were an instruction to spread the greeting of peace, to feed people, to keep family ties and to pray at night while others sleep. After asking him several questions, he accepted Islam, and in time he became a respected Companion.

He then asked the Prophet ﷺ to question the Jewish leaders about him before they learned of his conversion. They spoke of him warmly, as the best of them and the son of the best. When he came out and declared that he had accepted Islam, they turned and spoke against him.

In the months that followed, the families of the Prophet ﷺ and of Abu Bakr made the same trip from Makkah to join them.

From then on, Yathrib was called Madinah, the city of the Prophet ﷺ. The Muslims count their calendar from the Hijrah. It was fixed a few years after his death, when Umar ibn al-Khattab and his advisers chose the Hijrah, rather than his birth or the first revelation, as the starting point, because it was the moment the community was founded.

For thirteen years the message had been refused by most of Makkah. Now it had a place to live. The Prophet ﷺ was about fifty-two. What came next was the work of building a community, and the next stage of the story takes it up: a masjid on that dusty plot of ground, a brotherhood between the Muhajirun and the Ansar, and a charter for the peoples of the city.

For thirteen years the message had been refused by most of Makkah. Now it had a place to live.

WatchLectures for this chapter

Lecture Towards EternityO Messenger, Ep. 5: The Hijrah (opens on YouTube)

Lecture Islamic GuidanceThe Prophet Enters Madinah (Seerah of Muhammad, part 48) (opens on YouTube)

The mapWhere it happened

• Quba
• Ranuna valley
• the quarter of the Banu an-Najjar
• the house of Abu Ayyub

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