was taken after weighing up all eventualities in order to avoid the worst dangers and in the hope of preventing them all. One should not forget that the Prophet was being directed by God, assured of His help.
The emigration of the Prophet’s companions to Abyssinia took place in the fifth year of the start of the Qur’ānic revelations. It preceded emigration to Madinah by eight years. When the last of the Prophet’s companions who went to Abyssinia came back, they joined the Prophet and his army at the conquest of Khaybar, when the battle was already over. This took place in the seventh year after the Prophet’s settlement in Madinah. In other words, Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib and some of his companions stayed in Abyssinia for 15 years. The Prophet gave the new arrivals equal shares of the spoils of the war against the Jews in Khaybar. He did not apportion any share to any one of his companions who did not take part in the battle of Khaybar, apart from those returning emigrants from Abyssinia. The Prophet would not have given them such shares had he not considered that they were on a mission which was equal to that of those who took part in the Battle of Khaybar. He valued their contribution to the welfare of Islam and considered that their stay in Abyssinia was a part of the work to establish Islam as a Divine message for all mankind.
A Second Base for Islam
Perhaps one of the clearest indications to support this was the fact that some of the emigrants to Abyssinia stayed there for 15 years. As already mentioned, there was much more to the emigration than an attempt to spare the emigrants the verbal and physical abuse by the unbelievers in Makkah. Had this been the main reason, it might have been expected that those who went to Abyssinia would come back and join the Prophet in Madinah as soon as he settled there. The Muslim community in Madinah needed the support of every individual Muslim. There were more than a hundred in Abyssinia, and it would not have been acceptable for them to stay there at a time when the newly-founded Muslim state in Madinah was threatened by the Quraysh and the rest of the Arabian tribes. We cannot visualize the settlement of those Muslims in Abyssinia as something that was left to their own discretion. Indeed, contacts were maintained between them and the Prophet throughout their stay.
In this connection one can cite the fact that ʿAmr ibn Umayyah al-Ḍamrī, who embraced Islam in the third year after the Prophet’s settlement in Madinah, went to Abyssinia three times with messages from the Prophet to Negus. The first time was to ask Negus to arrange the Prophet’s marriage with one of the emigrants, Umm Ḥabībah bint Abī Sufyān. When she left Makkah on her journey to Abyssinia, she was accompanying her first husband, ʿUbaydullāh ibn Jaḥsh, who later in Abyssinia embraced Christianity and died a Christian. Her father was the leader of the Quraysh in its wars against the Prophet after the battle of Badr. She must have felt totally isolated in her place of emigration, having lost her husband and left her family and clan. To assure her of his care, the Prophet sent ʿAmr with this message. Negus acted on behalf of the Prophet, gave her a generous dowry and arranged the marriage before sending her to the Prophet in the company of ʿAmr ibn Umayyah. ʿAmr’s last trip was to request Negus to send all those emigrants living in Abyssinia. He complied with the request, sending them in two boats. Of the original 82 men and 19 women who travelled from Makkah to Abyssinia, only 16 men and a few women came with ʿAmr. A proper analysis of the emigration to Abyssinia would not be complete unless one knew what happened to the others.
Seven died in Abyssinia, while ten came back shortly after going there, as already related. Thirty-four came straight from Abyssinia to Madinah in small groups after the Battle of Badr. That leaves between 16 and 20 people, including ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and his wife, Ruqayyah, the Prophet’s daughter, who arrived shortly after the Prophet’s emigration to Madinah.7 This suggests that the emigrants’ return was dictated by the circumstances of their mission in Abyssinia. They very much wanted to join the Prophet and his companions in Madinah, but they had tasks to fulfil in their place of abode: to establish a base for Islam in that remote land and to stress the universality of its message. This view is further confirmed by the following report by Abū Mūsā ʿAbdullāh ibn Qays al-Ashʿarī, a companion of the Prophet from Yemen:
We heard the news of the Prophet’s (peace be upon him) emigration when we were in Yemen. We set out to join with two brothers of mine, both older than me, one called Abū Ruhm and the other Abū Burdah. We were in a group of our people consisting of fifty-odd men. We went on a boat, but the boat landed us in Abyssinia, ruled by Negus. We met there Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib and his companions. Jaʿfar said to us, “God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) has sent us here and commanded us to stay. Why do you not stay with us?” We stayed with him until we returned, all of us, and met God’s Messenger after he had conquered Khaybar. He gave us shares of the spoils of war. He did not apportion a share to anyone who had not been with him at the conquest of Khaybar, with the exception of those who were in our boat with Jaʿfar and his companions. Some of the Prophet’s companions used to say to us, we have emigrated with the Prophet ahead of you. (Related by al-Bukhārī and Muslim.)
This report is highly significant in understanding the importance of the emigration to Abyssinia. It would have been the right thing for Abū Mūsā and his group to go on from Abyssinia to Madinah without staying there. After all, joining the Prophet was their reason for leaving Yemen. Jaʿfar would not have contemplated asking the Yemeni group to stay on in Abyssinia, had it not been for the fact that he was under specific instructions to fulfil a certain task. He told them that the Prophet had ordered them to stay. Since the order was not applicable to a specific number of people, but could include any Muslim who arrived in Abyssinia, he persuaded Abū Mūsā and his group to stay on. On their part, they recognized that the task which was to be done there was important. Otherwise, they would have either gone on and joined the Prophet or returned to their home country. There was no reason for them to leave, since they were not persecuted there. Moreover, they must have explained their situation to ʿAmr ibn Umayyah on one of his visits. Had their stay been unnecessary, he would have brought them word from the Prophet to that effect on his next visit.
It is also significant that the Prophet gave them shares of the spoils of war, which were equal to the shares of those who fought in the Battle of Khaybar. This suggests that the Prophet considered them to have been on a mission of jihād. Their shares were not merely a gesture of personal generosity on the Prophet’s part. In later battles, the Prophet was keen not to give anyone who was not entitled to a share any portion whatsoever. After the Battle of Ḥunayn, he ordered all fighters to return any part of the spoils of war which they held. He did not allow any of his companions so much as a bunch of thread. Those emigrants to Abyssinia were entitled to their shares because they came from one mission of jihād and started another immediately. This is clearly indicated by the fact that they went on and joined the Prophet at Khaybar. Apparently the Prophet was aware that they did not fulfil their task in Abyssinia without problems. They must have met strong opposition. This is clear from the rest of the report quoted above:
Asmā’ bint ʿUmays, who was then Jaʿfar’s wife, visited Ḥafṣah [the Prophet’s wife and the daughter of ʿUmar]. While she was there, ʿUmar came in and asked who the woman was. Ḥafṣah said: “This is Asmā’.” ʿUmar said: “We have had the honour of emigrating with the Prophet before you. We have a better claim than yours to the companionship of God’s Messenger (peace be upon him).” Angry at what he said, Asmā’ retorted: “No, by God. You were with God’s Messenger (peace be upon him) who fed those of you who were hungry and admonished the ignorant, while we were in the land of hostile strangers, staying there only for the sake of God and His Messenger. By God, I shall not eat or drink until I have mentioned what you have just said to God’s Messenger. We were abused and we often experienced fear. I shall mention this to God’s Messenger (peace be upon him). By God. I shall not lie and shall not be guilty of distortion or exaggeration.” When the Prophet came in, she said: “God’s Messenger! ʿUmar has just said this and that.” The Prophet asked her what she said to him and she reported it. The Prophet said: “He does not have a better claim to me than you. He and his fellow Muslims have the reward of one emigration, while you, the people of the boat, shall have the reward of two emigrations.” Abū Mūsā and the people who came on the boat from Abyssinia came in groups to see Asmā’ and ask her about this ḥadīth. Nothing in this world gave them more joy and greater happiness than what God’s Messenger said to her.