Document Type : Research Paper
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Abstract
Hijra (lit. immigration) enjoys a special status in Islam and has in several verses of the Qur’an been regarded as a way for promoting the religion and escaping domination of tyrants and oppressors. When persecution of Muslims overwhelmingly rose in Mecca, the Prophet took up the way suggested in the Qur’an, using hijra as a tactic to extend the scope of his efforts and spread his message to Medina. Thus, having spent about thirteen years in Mecca getting his message across to people of Quraysh, the Prophet finally resolved that he had to spread it to people other than the Quraysh if he were to reinforce it. About the same time, the people of the city of Yathrib, who had found in the Prophet and in his message qualities which responded to their needs, invited him to their city, changing its name to ‘Madinah al-Nabi’ (lit. the city of the Prophet). The Prophet’s immigration from Mecca to Medina, the hijra, was the dawn of a new age of development in the religion and an age of the Muslims’ social, political and cultural growth.
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