Quote · As the Prophet ﷺ approached Yathrib
O Arabs, your king has arrived!
withMuhammad ﷺ
Called out from atop a date palm on sighting the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr RA approaching Yathrib in the distance.
~First week of Rabi' al-Awwal, September 622 CEDate debatedThe precise date of the Hijrah is not established; the popular 12 Rabi' al-Awwal date is not certain. It was most likely the first week of Rabi' al-Awwal (September 622 CE).
Dating debated
The precise date of the Hijrah is not established; the popular 12 Rabi' al-Awwal date is not certain. It was most likely the first week of Rabi' al-Awwal (September 622 CE).
In the days before the arrival, the Ansar, the Muslims of Madinah, went out every morning toward Quba to wait for the Prophet ﷺ. Quba was the outermost settlement of Madinah on the side facing Makkah. Each day they waited until the midday heat forced them back home. One day, just after they had gone home, the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr RA appeared in the distance. A Jewish man picking dates at the top of a palm tree was the first to see them. He shouted, "O Arabs, your king has arrived!"
The Prophet ﷺ entered on a Monday in the 14th year of the dawah, which became the first year of the Hijrah. Hundreds of the Ansar rushed out to receive him. Al-Bara' ibn Azib RA, one of the Ansar, recalled that over 500 men came out armed and dressed up. The women climbed onto the rooftops and the children crowded around to see.
The Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr RA waited about a week at Quba for Ali RA, Aisha RA, and Asma RA to arrive. Then they all entered central Madinah together, reportedly on a Friday. Every companion wanted the Prophet ﷺ to stay with him. The Prophet ﷺ let his camel walk freely and said, "Let the camel be, because Allah has taken charge of it." Wherever it sat down would be the site of his mosque and his house. It sat on an open piece of ground used for drying dates.
The Prophet ﷺ asked which of his relatives lived closest, since his great-grandmother had come from the Banu al-Najjar clan of Madinah. Khalid ibn Zayd, known as Abu Ayyub al-Ansari, came forward and said he was from the Banu al-Najjar. This made him roughly the Prophet ﷺ's sixth cousin. So the Prophet ﷺ chose to stay with him until his own house was built.
The poem Tala'a al-badru alayna is popularly said to have greeted him on this arrival. Sh. Yasir Qadhi argues that this cannot be so, because Thaniyat al-Wada', the pass named in the poem, lies on the road north of Madinah, not on the road from Makkah. If the singing happened, it was on his return from Tabuk.
The arrival marks the formal beginning of the Madani era and, as the seerah describes it, the seed of the first Islamic nation in the Ansar's joyous welcome; the site where the camel knelt became the location of Masjid al-Nabawi and the Prophet ﷺ's house.
Other events recorded around the same time. Their order within the year is not established; use the storyline above for the sequence.
O Arabs, your king has arrived!
Called out from atop a date palm on sighting the Prophet ﷺ and Abu Bakr RA approaching Yathrib in the distance.
I saw the Ansar all dressed up and coming out. Over 500 men came outside, all of them armed and dressed to accompany the Prophet ﷺ. The women climbed up on the houses. The children thronged around to see. The Prophet ﷺ was surrounded by hundreds of people, all believing in him.
An eyewitness account of the Ansar's reception of the Prophet ﷺ as he entered Yathrib.
Whose house of our family members is the closest to us?
The Prophet ﷺ had distant relatives in Madinah through his great-grandmother, of Banu Adi ibn al-Najjar.
O Messenger of Allah ﷺ, I am from the Banu al-Najjar.
Let the camel be, for Allah has taken charge of it.
Is he the one?
As later recounted by Safiyyah bint Huyayy: her father and uncle went to see the Prophet ﷺ, and were afterward so struck that they paid her no attention, unlike their usual fondness for her.
By the Lord of Moses, he is the one.
What will we do?
We will oppose him as long as he lives.
I was a young girl, favored by my father and my uncle Abu Yasir: they would play with me and talk with me. One day, they came back very depressed. I went up to them running, but they completely ignored me, their shoulders dragging.
Safiyyah's own later recollection of her father Huyayy and uncle Abu Yasir's reaction on returning from seeing the Prophet ﷺ.
As soon as I saw him ﷺ, I knew this face cannot be the face of a liar.
Abdullah ibn Salam, chief rabbi of the Jews of Madinah, went to see the Prophet ﷺ for himself on the day he arrived in Madinah.