Thereafter, people prepared to leave their homes and businesses, escaping with their faith as he ‎ﷺ had instructed. This was the first migration from Makkah consisting of a total number of ten companions, ten male and five female. They were: ʿUthmān bin ʿAffān and his wife Ruqayya daughter of the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ, Abū Salama and his wife Umm Salama, his maternal brother Abū Sabra bin Abī Ruhm and his wife Umm Kulthūm, ʿĀmir bin Rabīʿa and his wife Laylā, Abū Ḥudhayfa bin ʿUtba bin Rabīʿa and his wife Sahla bint Suhayl, ʿAbdurraḥmān bin ʿAwf, ʿUthmān bin Maẓʿūn, Muṣʿab bin ʿUmayr, Sahl bin al-Bayḍāʾ and Zubayr bin al-ʿAwām. All of them of the Quraysh. It is reported that their leader was ʿUthmān bin Maẓʿūn. They set off by the blessing of Allah ﷻ and as they reached the sea they hired a boat which transported them to their destination. They lived there safe from the harm they had endured from the polytheists. Only a few remained rooted with the Prophet ‎ﷺ.

ʿUmar, Allah ﷻ be pleased with him, embraces Islam

At that time the gallant and heroic ʿUmar bin al-Khattāb al-ʿAdawī al-Qarashī embraced Islam, after despising the Muslims and severely tormenting them. Laylā, who was one of the migrants to al-Ḥabasha alongside her husband, narrates: “ʿUmar bin al-Khattāb was from the harshest upon us because of our faith. When I mounted my ride intending to head toward the land of al-Ḥabasha when I encountered him. He asked: “Where to O mother of ʿAbdullāh?”

“You harm is for our faith, we will travel the land of Allah ﷻ where we will be harmed no more.” I replied.

“Allah be with you.”

When my husband ʿĀmir came, I told him of what I saw of ʿUmar’s softness. He retorted: “You’re welcoming him to Islam, by Allah ﷻ he will not submit before al-Khattāb’s donkey!”’ That was because of what they’d experienced of his sternness and harshness towards the Muslims. However, he received the fruits of the supplication of the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ, for he ‎ﷺ had beseeched shortly before the submission: “O Allah ﷻ strengthen Islam through ʿUmar.”

His Islam was proclaimed in the home al-ʾArqam bin Abī il-Arqam wherein the Muslims would congregate. Allah ﷻ fulfilled his ‎ﷺ hope by the proclamation. al-Bukhārī narrates from ʿAbdullāh Ibn Masʿūd, Allah ﷻ be pleased with him: “We remain honoured since the Islam of ʿUmar.” ʿUmar requested the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ allow him to perform his ritual prayers in the masjid and he did. The disbelievers were greatly demoralised when they learnt of ʿUmar’s Islam.

They planned to assassinate him with a large mob gathering outside his home awaiting his emergence. al-ʿĀṣṣ bin Wāʾil as-Sahmī, from the tribe of Banū Sahm allies of the Banū ʿAdī the tribe of ʿUmar, came to them donned in an elegant suit and a tunic with silken hem. He talked to ʿUmar: “What’s going on with you?”

“Your people think they will murder me if I accept Islam,” ʿUmar replied.

“They have no access to you for I stand by you,” al-ʿĀṣṣ assured. Thus, ʿUmar, Allah ﷻ be pleased him, was protected.

al-ʿĀṣṣ then exited and saw the valley filled with crowds. He now addressed them, “Where to?” he cried out.

“We intend to go to this son of al-Khaṭṭāb who has renegaded,” came the reply.

“You have no access to him.”

The people then returned back to their business.

Return of the al-Ḥabasha Migrants

Some three months after leaving, the migrants to al-Ḥabasha returned to Makkah as life was not easy for them there due to their small number, but mostly due to ties to kinship. Add to that, that they were nobles of the Quraysh with their wives in tow. Life in a strange land and in these circumstances was not agreeable to their ilk.

Some historians have been hellbent on manipulating a certain narrative as the cause of the return of the migrants from al-Ḥabasha. It is that they had heard their kinsfolk embraced Islam when the Messenger ‎ﷺ had recited the Chapter of the Star, Sūrat un-Najm, to them wherein there is praise of their false deities. They hypothesised that the verses

“Have you thought upon al-Lāt and al-ʿUzza. And Manāt, the third, the other”

[an-Najm – 53:19-21]

spoke of grand angelic aviating bodies whose intercession is sought. So, in reverence and jubilation they all fell into prostration. This is a veiled account except for the inane who narrate anything they find without substantiating it. Here we will present to you narrated and rational evidence falsifying what is related.

As for the narration, its chain of transmission and text is problematic. Regarding the chain al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, Allah ﷻ have mercy on him, writes in ash–Shifāʾ that no reliable source has documented it, nor has any sound chain of narrators relayed it. As for the text, neither the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ‎ﷺ nor the polytheists are credulous enough to hear praise amidst ridicule and then accept it for themselves. For after the mention of the idols it is stated:

“They are but names which you have named, you and your fathers, for which Allah has revealed no warrant.”

[an-Najm – 53:23]

The narrative is disorderly. If it had actually occurred the disbelievers would have taken it up as a contentious point in times of argument. We know of their obstinacy in far weaker evidence, so how would it be for the likes of this? This narrative is not less than the relocation of the direction of prayer to the Kaʿba. They were vociferous regarding it until Allah ﷻ called them foolish and revealed about them:

“The foolish of the people will say: What has turned them from the qiblah which they formally observed?”

[al-Baqara – 2:142]

But not one of their men or the opposing voices amongst them was heard complaining: what is wrong with you? You ridiculed our deities after praising them. This was more of a reason to unsheathe their swords and to expend the lives of their men.

Moreover, historians who relate this text and posit it as the cause of the return of the migrants of al-Ḥabasha also state within their narrative that the migration was in the month of Rajab and the return was in the month of Shawwāl. The revelation of the Chapter of the Star was in the month of Ramaḍān. Consequently, the period between the revelation of the chapter and the return of the migrants was one month. Even the ever so slightly reasonable one can see that one month was insufficient at that time to leave Makkah for al-Ḥabasha and then to return, as there was no steamship to facilitate navigation of the sea, nor was there the telegraph to transmit news of the alleged Islam of the Quraysh to those in al-Ḥabasha.

After this, it is not misplaced when we say that this fiction is a fabrication of the fanciful who are a trial from Allah ﷻ to this religion. All praise is for Allah ﷻ Who blessed us with the preservation of our majestic Book that judges between us and the concocting liars. In the very same chapter is:

“Nor does he speak of (his own) desire.”

[an-Najm – 53:3]

What Satan inoculates is the worst of narratives, so how can he ‎ﷺ cast what brings doubt to the revelation or it even passes his tongue? Blessings, peace and salutations be upon him.

What the foolish intend is thwarted by Allah ﷻ and the tables turned. As for what is authentic about this prostration, it is as ʿAbdullāh bin Masʿūd, Allah ﷻ be pleased with him, who reports that the Prophet ‎ﷺ recited the Chapter of the Star and prostrated. Those with him also prostrated except one man who took a fistful of rubble and rubbed it on his forehead and proceeded to say: “That will suffice me.” Thereafter he was seen dying as a disbeliever.

There is no indication in this narration of anyone of the prostrators being polytheists, rather the fact that one man was witnessed dying as a disbeliever later shows he was a Muslim and later was seen apostatising. This is what happened to many with weak hearts who could not endure the torment. They apostatised, like ʿAlī bin ʾUmayya bin Khalf.

When the migrants to al-Ḥabasha returned to Makkah only those people could enter who could find a protector. ʿUthmān bin Maẓʿūn entered under the protection of al-Walīd bin al-Mughīra, but the protection was revoked when ʿUthmān saw how al-Walīd had treated the Muslims. He was not content with ease whilst his brothers were persecuted.