On Hijrah 1447 and the semiotics of its celebration (II)

There is a chapter in the Quran titled The Cave (Qur’an 18), but it does not celebrate the cavernous as it appertains to the odyssey of the Prophet of Islam and his companion inside the cave of Hira that day. There is another chapter named after the Spider, but alas! not the Spider which was […]

There is a chapter in the Quran titled The Cave (Qur’an 18), but it does not celebrate the cavernous as it appertains to the odyssey of the Prophet of Islam and his companion inside the cave of Hira that day. There is another chapter named after the Spider, but alas! not the Spider which was said to have hung its web at the entrance of the cave in which the Prophet and Abu Bakr Siddiq hid such that the unbelievers who were hitherto in their pursuit eventually became discouraged and dissuaded from exploring its hidden “treasures”. As far as the Qur’an is concerned, it is not the events that make up the story of life that matter, but what the story implies for humanity. 

In the realm of the spiritual, the Hijrah was all about duty and sacrifice; in the realm of the material and the human, it was an adventure. The first precedes the second both in importance and sequence. The Hijrah was also all about forsaking and repossessing. This is evidenced in the individual and communal realities of those men and women who left what they treasured most in life behind in Makkah for them to become the most treasured generation humanity has ever witnessed. 

In other words, the Hijrah essays that fact that to be deprived of the world is not the same thing as forsaking the world. The event figures the world as operating on a scale: it is either you are deprived of the world or you are made to forsake the world. In both instances, the world is meant to be forsaken, not coveted. But the irony lies in the fact that those who forsake the world usually have the world come to them pleading that it be possessed; those who covet the world might or might never gain it; those who excessively covet the world are more likely to lose it and lose their souls. 

Further, the Hijrah had to do with the departure from a space: the departure from Makkah. The Prophet and his companions not only left Makkah in person, but also left Makkah behind. To leave Makkah behind meant leaving the city with its insuperable odour of greed, covetousness, self-conceitedness, oppression of the poor, and sexploitation of women. By leaving Makkah, the Prophet was indirect calling attention to the existence of the “Makkahs” of today: the “Makkah” in the North and South of Nigeria; the “Makkahs” in Africa and Asia; the “Makkahs” which are awaiting the emigration of humanity; the “Makkahs” of corruption in the various houses of assembly and the corporate world; the “Makkah” in the Stock Exchange Markets where sharp practices are the order of the day; the Makkah in the banking sector where directors feast on the meagre deposits of pauperized Nigerians; the “Makkah” in local government areas where council allocations are “cancelled” on a monthly basis.

• Makkah Grand Mosque Friday sermon to be translated into 35 languages today
• Canadian Muslims demand action after attack on hijab-wearing woman

But the Hijrah of the Prophet from Makkah to Madinah did not and could not even have taken place the way it did without the resolution of matters which directly hinged on the personality of the other Muhammad. Yes. Two types of Muhammad were known to the Makkans before the Hijrah: the Muhammad who claimed to be a Prophet and the Muhammad who was an embodiment of virtue and trustworthiness. The “first” Muhammad was hated for his declaration that there is no god but the Almighty; the second was loved for being virtuous, kind and a peace-maker; the first Muhammad was the one the Makkans believed had to be fought; the second was the one in whom the Makkans would entrust their loftiest treasures. But in reality, there was no separation between Muhammad, the Prophet of the Almighty and the Muhammad who was an epitome of the highest moral character. In other words, contrary to the wish of the Makkans, it was not possible for the Muhammad, son of Abdullah to have emerged as a Prophet ab initio if he did not measure up to the minimum standard of probity, honesty, and trustworthiness.

Thus, on the night of his departure from Makkah, he asked his cousin to help him return the treasures which the Makkans had kept with him while they were relating to him as Muhammad son of Abdullah, not as Muhammad the Prophet of the Almighty. To emigrate for the sake of the Almighty, therefore, meant to be free of all obligations which are capable of rendering the Hijrah a nugatory; that even in a state of oppression, the religion of Islam demands equity from the oppressed to the oppressor even if the latter does not and would not come to equity with open hands. By ensuring that Ali b. Abi Talib stayed behind to assist him in returning the trusts put under his care to their owners, the Prophet was leaving behind a patrimony: that even in a state of attrition, the Islamic timeless values of honesty and trustworthiness cannot be sacrificed on the altar of spiritual vocation. In essence, to take what belongs to the unbelievers or the masses in an unjust manner is the very antithesis of the spirit of emigration.  

Thus, the journey to Madinah became an open track with unknowable and inestimable possibilities. The Prophet began the journey in the full knowledge that he was leading humanity to the service of the Almighty. The Hijrah essays the importance of the emergence of a global leader who would emigrate with humanity from the heinous theatre of ethnicity and profanity to the Eldorado of religiosity and equality. The distance between Makkah and Madina was strewn with fear and uncertainty, but Madinah, the destination, was a paradise awaiting those who were ready to overcome the temporary and empty ministrations of Shaytan.

Put differently, the distance between Makkah and Madinah was like an open space and one in which the enemy was ready to appropriate, but it was also a closed space for those who had an unshakeable faith in the Almighty. Face to face with the enemies, the Prophet told his friend and companion, ‘Don’t grieve! He is with us” Quran 9: 40. Face to face with the challenges of life, and in between the Makkah of our lives and the Madinah awaiting us, are we also ready to tell our companions: ‘don’t grieve! He is with us?’. Face to face with the challenges of life and in-between our ‘Makkah’ of today – the ‘Makkah’ that is represented in yet to be fulfilled earthly desires- are we ready to look our spouses, friends, kith and kin in the eyes and say: ‘don’t grief! He, the Almighty, is with us”?