belonged to no fewer than 15 clans of the Quraysh. Before Islam, these lines of separation could be very prominent. When they went out on their long trip to Abyssinia, every single one of them had in his mind only one tie of allegiance, which required him to give all his loyalty to the nation of Islam. When they faced the threat of extradition, their unity was complete.
These same ties of allegiance were also strengthened among those Muslims who remained in Makkah. Now that their number had been much reduced, they were even more keenly aware of their weakness. They were concerned for the safety of their brethren who went on their hazardous journey, and they were worried about their own safety. They trusted to the wisdom of the Prophet in encouraging his companions to leave for Abyssinia. They were now weaker than ever before, and it was only natural that their weakness brought them closer together. Thus the emigration to Abyssinia made the feelings of unity among Muslims even stronger, whether they were among the emigrants or those who stayed behind.
Establishing a New Muslim Community
When the first Muslim emigrants started on their journey to Abyssinia, the Prophet had been preaching the message of Islam in Makkah for five years, three of which were characterized by the secret approach. Although the new message went public with the proclamation made by the Prophet as he stood on the top of the hill of al-Ṣafā, Islam was still largely confined to Makkah, almost unknown to people outside. Only those Arab individuals who went to Makkah for pilgrimage or to visit the Kaʿbah, came to know about it. In the overwhelming majority of cases, such people could not take a decision without first referring to their own tribes. Moreover, those who heard of Islam did not pay much attention to it, considering it an internal matter which concerned only the Quraysh tribe. It was necessary, therefore, for Islam to break out of this imposed confinement and broaden the scope of its efforts of advocacy.
The emigration to Abyssinia gave the adherents to the new faith a chance to carry their message further afield. The Muslims in Abyssinia were able to establish a close community which conducted its affairs on the basis of Islamic teachings which they had learnt from the Prophet. Its life was the best advertisement for Islam on the world stage. The keen sense of unity among its members gave that Muslim community a real sense of confidence and reassured it that it followed the truth. The Muslim community in Abyssinia did not entertain any thoughts of establishing a separate entity in its new place of abode. No group of Muslims could establish such an entity when God’s Messenger lived with another group of Muslims in a different city. Enjoying their life of freedom and ease, the Muslims in Abyssinia were all the time thinking of their brethren in Makkah and of the Prophet, who continued his struggle and never despaired of winning the Quraysh people over to Islam.
Moreover, it became Abundantly clear to Muslims of that generation and of all subsequent generations, that it was possible to establish a Muslim society which implemented Islam without the presence of God’s Messenger to supervise that society and conduct its affairs. When the Prophet completed his mission and conveyed his message in full, establishing the model Muslim state which made submission to God its own foundation, his life on earth was over. His companions followed his guidance and continued along the road he mapped out. None of them ever entertained any thought that the absence of the Prophet could rule out the implementation of Islam, as is sometimes claimed by ignorant people or by tyrants who happen to rule over parts of the Muslim world. The Prophet’s companions provided a practical example of what human life could be like when Islam was implemented, and of the magnitude of the blessings that are enjoyed by mankind when they adopt Islam as a code of living. The emigration to Abyssinia provided practical training during the Prophet’s lifetime for the establishment of a Muslim society in which the Prophet does not live.
Perhaps some leaders of the Quraysh could see some of the benefits which this emigration to Abyssinia could bring to Islam. At least they realized that the emigration was bound to make Islam well known to people far beyond the boundaries of Arabia. Hence, their attempt to have the emigrants extradited.
Creating an Impression of Weakness
Important as the aforementioned reasons were, the Prophet might have preferred not to send his companions on such a trip had the atmosphere in Makkah been somewhat less hostile to Islam. He might have preferred to have all his followers near him in Makkah, had he felt that the Quraysh’s hostility to Islam could weaken, or had he felt that he could widen the geographical area in which he was able to preach his message. One can see clearly that the Quraysh imposed a tight siege on Islam and effectively prevented its message from going beyond the valley of Makkah. Worse still, the Quraysh, or the hard-line elements in it, were able to heighten the conflict and increase its polarization. The struggle against Islam was the subject of every conversation in the traditional social gatherings around the Kaʿbah. As the Prophet reviewed the situation, he could clearly detect the danger that could threaten the very existence of the Muslim community. As he rejected every offer of compromise which required him to abandon some Islamic principles, the position of the hardliners was inevitably strengthened. The voice of moderation in the Quraysh ranks was becoming weaker all the time. The question which needed a well considered answer was whether the extremists could persuade the chiefs of the different clans that an all-out strike for a final solution was necessary. It certainly was not beyond Abū Jahl to advocate that course of action. He was assured of enough supporters at the beginning to make it worth considering. If he could carry one or two of the influential chiefs with him, the balance could easily be tilted in his favour. If Islam could be seen to get stronger and stronger, Abū Jahl could plausibly argue that such a final solution was needed there and then. He was no different from many an extremist leader who lends temporary support to conciliatory efforts in order to show that moderation cannot bring the desired results. Once he had done that, he could easily win support for his extreme line.
As already mentioned, the fact that the Muslims belonged to most, if not all, the clans of the Quraysh was a negative factor working against this extremist way of thinking. Most Muslims were young men who were valued by their clans for their strength. No clan would readily sacrifice its young men to remove a danger of whose presence they were not utterly convinced. Hence, the hard-liners in Makkah were aware that they needed to work hard in order to have matters their way. They were of course able to argue that their approach of exterminating Islam altogether would weaken all clans to more or less the same degree. When these clans inflicted torture on the vulnerable elements in their ranks who followed the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him), their action did not strengthen any single one of them at the expense of any other. Similarly, a radical effort against those in their ranks who followed Muhammad would maintain their relative strength.
The Prophet always tried to gather intelligence of what the enemies of Islam were planning. He was also keenly aware that the early period in the life of any new faith or creed was also the most dangerous, because it would not be difficult physically to kill such a new creed when its following was small. In the fifth year of the start of Islamic revelation, Islam faced a real danger of extermination.
Forestalling such danger was perhaps paramount in the Prophet’s thinking when he advised his companions to emigrate to Abyssinia. When the numbers of Muslims in Makkah were drastically reduced, the problem presented by Islam appeared to be a very simple one which could not warrant radical solutions, let alone extermination. The Prophet remained in Makkah surrounded by a small number of his companions, most of whom belonged to the weaker and more vulnerable elements in society. As such, Islam could not be seen to present a real danger to the social order in Makkah or Arabia as a whole. The Quraysh were sure to feel that they continued to hold the initiative and could strike at any moment. Moreover, the emigration of the Muslims made it clear to the Quraysh that a radical solution required unanimous support from all clans. It was not enough for two or three to agree to it, even though these might have been the strongest.
The emigration to Abyssinia was therefore a shrewd tactical move, calculated to make the Quraysh tend to dismiss Islam as representing little or no danger to its supremacy. Giving the enemy an impression of weakness could be a decisive factor in wars. Ten years later, when the Muslims fought their first major battle against the Quraysh in Badr, God Himself intervened to give the Quraysh the impression that the Muslims were a weak force: “God made you, when you met in battle, see them as small in number and made you appear few to them, so that God might accomplish a definite purpose