By the fifth year of the Prophet Muhammad’s
mission, conditions in Mecca had become
intolerable for many of the Muslims, as persecution
by the Quraysh intensified. At this time the Prophet
advised his companions to emigrate to Abyssinia.
This is called the first emigration of Islam; it
preceded by some eighty years the mass emigration
of Muslims to Medina.
This was part of the advice which the Prophet
imparted to his followers on the occasion of the
emigration to Abyssinia:
“Disperse in the land; surely God will gather
you once again.”
How meaningful these words of the Prophet are!
What they amount to is an exhortation by the
Prophet to his followers that they should avoid
confronting the enemy for the present, but rather
remove themselves from the line of fire. God would
then provide them with the means to vanquish the
enemy; He would gather them together so that they
could come into their own once again.
Emigration is indeed a great test of patience. It is
those who pass this test who will receive the reward
of God. As the Prophet said: “You should know that
succour comes with patience; there is ease with
hardship.”
Patience, then, is the ladder by which one ascends
to the Lord’s favour and succour. It is with patience
that we should react to the difficulties of life, for it is
on the field of human patience that divine succour
descends. Our ability to face hardship with patience
is a great portent, for it means that we are leaving
our cause to God. That is a signal for the swift
ending of our plight, and the conversion of our
hardship into ease.
Real paradise lies on the other side of the divide of
patience. Any paradise that one finds without
crossing that divide can only be an illusion.
Ref - The Moral Vision
- by Maulana Wahiduddin Khan
