The Most Important Lesson from the Hijrah

The Most Important Lesson from the Hijrah

I seek refuge with Allah from the evil of our souls and the evil of our deeds. Whomsoever Allah guides, none can misguide him, and whomsoever He misguides, none can guide him. And I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and He is alone and has no partner. And I bear witness that Muhammad is His servant and Messenger.

O you who have believed, fear Allah as He should be feared, and do not die except as Muslims.

O you who have believed, fear your Lord, Who created you from one soul, and created from it a wife, and spread among them many men and women. And fear Allah, in Whom you ask for mercy, for Allah is ever watching over you.

O you who have believed, fear Allah and say the truth. Your deeds will be corrected, and your sins will be forgiven. And whoever obeys Allah and His Messenger has won a great triumph.

O servants of Allah, know that the best speech is the speech of Allah the Exalted. And the best guidance is the guidance of Muhammad, peace and blessings be upon him. And the worst of things are newly invented matters, and every newly invented matter is a misguidance.

Faith Comes Above All Else

Brothers and sisters, I want to share with you a very important lesson. The Prophetic Hijrah has a magnificent and great lesson, and that lesson is: faith comes above all else. When it comes to the aqidah and your iman, it comes above all else. My dear brothers and sisters, especially in a time like ours.

In a time like ours, we see that there is a competition. And I mentioned in a previous khutbah that in our time, the moral leadership that the West once had — the western civilization always posed, you know, for the entire world — has been exposed. It has exposed all these people, and it dropped all that morality that once called themselves the champions of freedom and human rights, and it's all gone. And as a result, people now are lost and they're looking for something to believe in. They want something solid they can hold on to in the waves of these darknesses of all these ideologies that we have today.

People are browsing and looking, and even Muslims are lost. Even many Muslims today, when they look at the condition of Islam and the Muslim ummah, they're lost. So they're looking for something to hold on to. They're looking for that path or that ideology.

Aqidah is extremely important. Faith is extremely important, especially in a time like ours when everybody is looking for something to believe in — to say, "This is going to be my compass for the rest of my life. This is how I want my life to be. This is how I want the whole world to look like." We all want to find safety in this world.

Brothers and sisters, even what we see in the Middle East right now, in the Holy Land — the geopolitical conflict that's happening over there — it's not just about oil. It's not really about political dominance. It's more than that. There's a lot of ideology that comes into it. People believe in what they do. That's what it is, and that's why the subject of faith is important.

The Hijrah: A Transformation Beyond Geography

Brothers and sisters, the greatest lesson we learn from the Hijrah is that faith comes above all else. We've seen that from the Prophet ﷺ. Al-Hijrah, for Umar ibn al-Khattab, was a decisive moment between one way of life and a completely new way of life. It was a transformation — cultural, spiritual, even national — in all aspects. That transformation made a small group of people living in a faraway land called Yathrib become a great nation.

What made them so strong? In terms of number, they were little. They were just a drop in an ocean of idolatry. SubhanAllah — the Prophet ﷺ, the moment he arrived in Medina, sometime later asked the Sahaba to count. He asked for a census. He said, "Count for me how many people have already pronounced their shahada. How many Muslims do we have?" They said, "We are between 600 and 700." Can you imagine? We're talking about 1.2, 1.4 billion Muslims today. 1,400 years ago, they counted six to seven hundred Muslims in Medina, in the midst of thousands of idol worshippers in the Arabian Peninsula. But these people changed the whole world. What made them so special? It was their faith — their strong belief in Allah.

Brothers and sisters, so we learn from that very simple fact that when it comes to the Hijrah, it's not a geographical relocation from Mecca to Medina. That wasn't the case. It's truly a journey to Allah. And because of that strong belief, they left everything behind.

Examples of Sacrifice from the Sahaba

I want to share with you some of these examples — how the Sahaba made sacrifices — to prove to us that the Hijrah wasn't really about relocating physically only. It was about relocating with their spirit and their heart and everything from one location to another.

The Prophet ﷺ Leaves Mecca

The first thing we learn is from the Prophet ﷺ himself. Although the hadith is disputable in terms of authenticity, it was reported that the Prophet ﷺ, as he was leaving Mecca, turned to Mecca and said:

(Reported by al-Tirmidhi, Hadith 3925; also referenced in Musnad Ahmad. Graded as having weakness in its chain by some scholars.)

"You are the most beloved land to me. You are the most beloved land to my heart. If it wasn't that your people are driving me out of you, I would not leave." Can you imagine the pain that the Prophet ﷺ was feeling in that moment? A lot of people today have the same feeling.

The Sahaba's Suffering Upon Arrival in Medina

Even the Sahaba, may Allah be pleased with them, made that sacrifice. When they left Mecca to Medina — keep in mind, Mecca to Medina, we think, because we go for Umrah and Hajj, SubhanAllah, we see them to be almost the same. But back in those days, and still today, it is different. Mecca was dry. Mecca was built on commerce and business. Mecca held leadership. Medina was a greater agricultural society — farmers, humble people, less conflict than in Mecca, and so on. It was different.

So when the Sahaba moved from Mecca to Medina, they were suffering from illness. Some of them almost died. Bilal was nearly dying. Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas, may Allah be pleased with him, Ali, may Allah be pleased with him, Abu Bakr as-Siddiq himself — they were all suffering from the very beginning, from their arrival in Medina. And the Prophet ﷺ was visiting each one of them and giving them good news: "It's okay. Allah is going to bring good for you." But they did all of this for the sake of Allah. They did not change their minds to go back to Mecca.

Even though Bilal would say he wished he could be back in such and such a place — even though he had been a slave in Mecca — it was still home for him. He wanted to go back to that home. See how hard it was for these people to leave that land.

Allah documented in the Qur'an the value of homeland alongside the subject of faith and life:

"And if We had decreed upon them: kill yourselves or leave your homes, they would not have done it, except for a few of them." The scholars of tafsir say Allah equates losing one's land or homeland with losing one's life. That's why many people fight for their land — it's not about the dirt. It's about the principle of it, what it represents to them. And the Sahaba, may Allah be pleased with them, left Mecca behind. But they didn't leave because they were looking for the dunya. They left all their dunya behind. They did it for the sake of Allah.

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq: Tears of Joy

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq, may Allah be pleased with him — as the Sahaba were traveling and one by one leaving for Medina, he would come to the Prophet ﷺ and say, "Ya Rasulullah, please give me permission. I want to go to Medina." And the Prophet ﷺ would say, "Wait, not yet." He kept saying, "Ya Rasulullah, is it time? Can I go right now?" And the Prophet ﷺ kept telling him, "Wait." Until the Prophet ﷺ came to him and said, "Ya Abu Bakr, it's time. Let's go."

And in that moment, Abu Bakr said, "Ya Rasulullah, as-sohbah — is that the companionship you promised me?" He said, "Yes." And Abu Bakr began to cry. Can you imagine crying out of joy? Even though he knew that they would have a ransom placed on his head. The entire Arabian Peninsula would be chasing after him. And this man was crying out of joy — because he wanted to be the companion of the Prophet ﷺ and protect him from whatever could happen to him ﷺ.

Abu Bakr as-Siddiq had already prepared two camels for that journey and brought everything he owned. When he presented everything, the Prophet ﷺ said, "What did you leave for your family?" He said, "This is everything." The Prophet ﷺ said, "What did you leave for them?" He replied, qāla: Allahu wa rasuluh — "Allah and His Messenger. Allah will take care of them." What a great sacrifice. He even sacrificed his own family's comfort.

Asma' bint Abi Bakr: Steadfastness Under Persecution

Asma', may Allah be pleased with her, his daughter, would go at night to bring them food in the mountain when they took refuge in Ghar Thawr. His son would go and bring them news about what was happening across the Arabian Peninsula and Mecca in particular. The entire family was involved.

Even Asma', may Allah be pleased with her — when Abu Jahl came looking for her father, he said, "Where is your father?" She said, "I don't know." And he knew, of course, that she wasn't telling the truth. He said, "You're going to tell me where your father is, or I'm going to slap you." And she stood firm. He slapped her so hard that he cut her ear and her earring fell to the ground, and she was bleeding. May Allah be pleased with her and grant her His pleasure. And all of this was done for the sake of Allah.

Suhaib al-Rumi: The Greatest Bargain

Suhaib al-Rumi, may Allah be pleased with him, was a craftsman in Mecca. He had made a fortune. But as he was leaving, when the Quraysh caught him, instead of fighting them he said, "Look — if you come at me, I will shoot every arrow until I run out, and then you can kill me. But if you let me go, I will tell you where all my wealth is buried. Go and take it." They agreed. He left the location of his treasure, and they went and dug it up. He arrived in Medina with nothing but the clothes on his back.

The moment the Prophet ﷺ saw him, he said:

(Ibn Hisham, Al-Sirah al-Nabawiyyah; also referenced in Ibn Kathir's Al-Bidayah wa al-Nihayah)

"The bargain has been accepted, O Abu Yahya! The bargain has been accepted!" — meaning, Allah had accepted his sacrifice and he had made a great deal with Allah.

The Hijrah Is Continuous Until the Day of Judgment

Brothers and sisters, that Hijrah — the migration from Mecca to Medina — was a geographical journey for some. But the principle of the Hijrah still exists today until the Day of Judgment. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ, when he conquered Mecca, said:

(Sahih al-Bukhari, Hadith 3900; Sahih Muslim, Hadith 1864)

"There is no need for you to travel to Medina anymore. We are done." But you always have that intention to be migrating to Allah — every step of the way — sacrificing and striving for the sake of Allah azza wa jal. And that continues until the Day of Judgment.

Today we are on a Hijrah. While you are sitting here, you are on that journey to Allah. That's part of the Hijrah. What we learn from the Hijrah is not, again, a matter of just a geographical movement or moving with your body. It's not about rituals that you practice. Rather, it's all about that faith in your heart — that you travel to Allah in every aspect of your life.

Do Not Be Deceived by Comfort

Brothers and sisters, what we learn from the Hijrah is that just having comfort of life is not always good for you. Be careful with that. Alhamdulillah, we live in a society of much prosperity and much comfort. And we get deceived by that comfort. Be careful. Don't let this take you away from the purpose of your life — the purpose of why you're here, what you've been created for. Don't let that take you away from this.

The Sahaba had so much comfort in Mecca. Many of them were wealthy and rich, but they left everything behind and went to Medina for the sake of Allah azza wa jal.

Making Faith the Compass of Our Lives

Brothers and sisters, that Hijrah, like I said, is still continuous with us until this day. Make sure, as you start thinking about the new Hijri year and think about all the events — as you listen to every talk that goes about the Hijrah — remember that the greatest lesson we learn from the Hijrah is that your faith and your iman will always come first and above everything else.

My dear brothers and sisters, how can we put this principle into our practical life? How can I do this? The way you do it is by making faith the priority above everything in your life. The superiority of iman and faith above everything — whether you're getting married, looking for a job, trying to travel, building a house, whatever matters of the dunya you're trying to accomplish — ask yourself: Would this be pleasing to Allah? Am I going to be doing it for the sake of Allah first and foremost? How is this going to bring me closer to Allah? Ask yourself this question before anything else. Otherwise, if that's not your moral compass, then something else will be the incentive for whatever you do in this dunya.

Brothers and sisters, a lot of people will be under pressure. But with strong iman, alhamdulillah, we'll be like the mountain. And always ask yourself: if I were in the place of the Sahaba, what would I do? Because I know a lot of people say, "I wish I lived at the time of the Prophet ﷺ." Well, you know what? The Prophet ﷺ said that your time might be more difficult than the time of the Sahaba. At least they had the Messenger of Allah to go back to. We have nobody — but we have the Qur'an and the Sunnah of the Prophet ﷺ, and these beautiful examples we learn from the Seerah, such as the example of the Hijrah. So always remind yourself that you are in a position like the Sahaba. Make your faith a priority in every aspect of your life.p>