Hijra in Islam
Maulana Wahiduddin Khan

Hijra (migration), an important principle in Islam, has played a significant  role in Islamic history. It might be described as an uninterrupted process, beginning in the very early days of Islam, and continuing right up to the  present day.  Hijra means, literally, to leave one’s homeland and settle in another place.  In Islam, this self-exile is not just a matter of moving from one place to  another. And it is not meant to serve any material interests; it is meant  rather to be undertaken for the sake of Allah: in other words, for some  higher purpose.   

Hijra has always had, and still has a great role to play in the process of da'wah. Some examples from Islamic history will demonstrate this. The first incident took place during the life of the Prophet. As is well known, the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Medina, a move which had  a far-reaching  effect upon Islamic history, for it gave Muslims the opportunity to establish an important centre there for Islam. There the work of da'wah entered upon a new and better phase, and where Mecca had been the arena for  its  early struggles,  Medina now became a great field of victory for Islam. The second incident took place after the death of the Prophet.  In his  well-known sermon  —  “The Final Sermon”  —  which he preached near the Mount of Arafat, the Prophet addressed all the Companions present, saying: “I am the final Prophet. God has sent me to mankind till the Day of  Judgement: therefore, convey my message on my behalf to all the nations of  the world.”  After the death of the Prophet, most of the Companions, the Sahabah, left  their homeland and settled in adjacent countries. (Very few graves of the  Companions are to be found in either Mecca or Medina, because they died and  were buried in the lands to which they had emigrated.)  There, and wherever  else they went, they engaged in da'wah work, and that is why there are now more than one billion Muslims spread across the globe. They intensified  their missionary activities to such an extent that they were able to  transform entire societies. Eventually whole nations changed their faith,  their culture and even their languages. Before the coming of Islam, the Egyptians spoke the Coptic language, but now their mother tongue is Arabic.

In Syria, Syriac was the lingua  franca, but this has been replaced by Arabic which has become the first language. The same happened in the case of  the Berber language in Libya. In Palestine, Hebrew was commonly spoken, but  with the great changes which took place there,  the entire populace of Palestine began to speak in Arabic (i.e. up until 1958). It was this Hijra of the Companions after the   Prophet’s death which brought into existence this vast Islamic domain, now commonly referred to as the Arab world. This process of da‘wah, of which there are many outstanding examples, took place everywhere. This brings us to the third example, that of Spain. After the collapse of Muslim rule in Spain, there was much hostility towards and oppression of the Muslims. As a result, they had to flee to the adjacent lands of North Africa. It is this Hijra from Spain which led to the Islamization of North Africa. If  North Africa is now an Islamic territory, the credit must go to those Muslims who migrated from Spain. The fourth example is that of the Indian subcontinent, to which, as is well  known, there came many Muslims who had left their own countries -- Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc.  Once there, they engaged themselves,  sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly, in da‘wah work. It is thanks to  their great efforts that approximately half of the total world Muslim  population lives on the subcontinent. There is a fifth example of Hijra, i.e. the exodus from most of the Muslim  countries to the U.S.A.,  Australia and the European countries. It has been estimated that there are at present about 20 million Muslim migrants. A  whole new phase in da‘wah work has been started by this universal migration.  Access has been gained to Western countries by the large-scale settlement of  Muslims there. Thousands and thousands of new mosques and Islamic centres are being built by these migrant Muslims.  Every day there are meetings and  conferences on Islamic subjects. There is widespread interaction between  Muslims and non-Muslims, so that wittingly or unwittingly, Islam is being  introduced into these non-Muslim  host countries. The results of this Hijra  are visible everywhere, and the local people -- both blacks and whites -- are embracing Islam day in and day out.   

All that remains to be done is  to accelerate this process by engaging in da‘wah work in a disciplined  manner.  In the early days of Islam, the Companions of the Prophet adopted a single  and natural formula -- one man, two missions. On the one hand, they  earned their livelihood, and the other hand, they undertook da‘wah work. This  “one man, two missions” formula has to be acted upon with equal zeal by  present-day Muslim migrants, so that history may repeat itself and  Islam  may once again be accorded a position of glory in the modern world. One further point must be made in this discussion. The Muslims of the early  period had to face the difficulties and hardships created for them by their  contemporaries, both at the individual and the national level. At that time,  in addition to other kinds of adversity, religious persecution was rife. But present day Muslims are living in an age of religious freedom in which  there is no hint of religious persecution. Moreover, there have been many  favourable developments, like the revolution in technology, which has so  speeded up communications that it is now possible to reach a much vaster  audience than ever before.  Now there is nothing to hinder them from doing  da‘wah work: the facilities are there for the asking, the ambience is perfect and the opportunities are endless.