Islam Guidance

2. Bi‘that to Hijrat

2. Bi‘that to Hijrat

 A few years later, when the Prophet was endowed with the Divine gift of prophecy and for the first time received the Divine revelation in the cave of Hira’, after Khadijah, ‘AlÄ« was the first to declare his faith in the Prophet’s mission. In the same sermon quoted above, ‘AlÄ« said, “Every year he used to go in seclusion to the hill of Hirā’, where I saw him but no one else saw him. In those days Islam did not exist in any house except that of the Prophet of Allah and Khadijah, while I was the third after these two. I used to see and watch the effulgence of divine revelation and message, and breathed the scent of prophethood.”

 For the first three years of the mission, Prophet Muhammad had not been ordered to invite people to his message openly. When finally the order came, first the Prophet was asked to invite his relatives. In that gathering, the Prophet said that the first person to support his call would be his brother (akhi), inheritor (wasiyi) and vicegerent (khalifati). The only person to rise from his place and accept the call was ‘AlÄ« and the Prophet accepted his declaration of support and faith. Therefore ‘AlÄ« was the first man in Islam to accept the faith and is the first among the followers of the Prophet to have never worshipped other than the One God.

 ‘AlÄ« was always in the company of the Prophet until the Prophet migrated from Mecca to Medina. On the night of the migration to Medina (hijrah) when infidels had surrounded the house of  the Prophet and were determined to invade the house at the end of the night and cut him to pieces while he was in bed, ‘AlÄ« slept in place of the Prophet while the Prophet left the house and set out for Medina. This sacrifice on the part of ‘AlÄ« was so much appreciated by Allah that He revealed the following verse in his praise: “And there is one among the people who sells (i.e., sacrifice) his life to seek the pleasure of Allah; and Allah is kind to people.” (2:207) When the infidels entered the house and found ‘AlÄ« in the Prophet’s place, they asked “Where has Muhammad gone?” ‘AlÄ« replied, “Who said that I was in charge to look after Muhammad?!” The Prophet had safely left the house and was on his way to Medina.

 After the departure of the Prophet, according to the Prophet’s wish, ‘AlÄ« gave back to the people the trusts and charges that they had left with the Prophet. Then he went to Medina with his mother, the daughter of the Prophet, and two other women.

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