Full
Moon Has Shone

Waraqah: I wish I would be still alive at the time when
your people would turn you out.

Muhammad r:
Will they turn me out?

Waraqah: Yes, never did a man come with the like of what
you have come with but he was treated with hostility. If I were to live until
your day (when you shall be turned out), I would support you strongly.1

This was the way with all his fellow Prophets from Ibrahim r to ‘Isa r; they were treated with
hostility. They suffered persecution while preaching the Message. Their towns
rejected them, and they emigrated from them.

The infidels of Quraish were unremitting in their hostility to
the Messenger of Allah r.
They conspired to kill him, expel him, or imprison him. Therefore, the Divine
Command of Hijrah to Al-Madinah was revealed with Words of comfort, assurance,
and support; a supplication for an honorable entrance to Al-Madinah and an
honorable exit from Makkah2:

(Say,
‘O my Lord, let my entry be by the gate of truth and honor, and my exit by the
gate of truth and honor, and grant me from Yourself a supporting authority.’)3

Upon hearing the news of the departure of the Messenger of
Allah r from Makkah (towards
Al-Madinah), the Muslims of Al-Madinah started going to the Harrah (a
rocky land in Al-Madinah) every morning to keep watch for him r until the blazing noon
heat forced them to return home.

One day, after waiting for a long time, they returned home. After
they had entered their houses, a Jew who ascended to one of the forts of his
people looking for something saw the Messenger of Allah r and his Companion
dressed in white clothes, dispelling the mirage.

The Jew could not help shouting at the top of his voice, “O
you Arabs! Here is your grandfather whom you have been waiting for.” The
Muslims rushed to pick up their weapons and received the Messenger of Allah r on the summit of Harrah. He r
led them to the right and alighted with
them at the quarters of Banu ‘Amr bin ‘Awf, on Monday Rabi‘ I.

Abu Bakr t stood up and received
the people while the Messenger of Allah r
sat silent. Some of the Ansar who came and had not seen the Messenger of
Allah r before began greeting
Abu Bakr, but when the sunshine fell on the Messenger of Allah r and Abu Bakr came forward and shaded him with his
garment, the people recognized him as the Messenger of Allah r.4

‘Abdullah bin Salam t,
the learned Jewish rabbi,
narrated, “The people hurried quickly to meet the
Messenger of Allah r when he arrived in Al-Madinah.
They cried, ‘The Messenger of Allah has arrived! The Messenger of Allah has
arrived!’ I came out along with the people to see him. When his face was
clear to me, I realized that his face was not that of a liar. The first thing I
heard him saying was, ‘O people, spread Salam (the greeting of peace: peace
be upon you), give food, join the ties of the wombs, and pray (at night) while
people are sound asleep (negligent), and you will enter Paradise
in peace.’”5

Al-Bara’ t said, “I
never saw the people of Al-Madinah so happy with anything as they were with his
arrival. I even saw the little boys and girls saying, ‘Here is the Messenger
of Allah; he has come!’”6

Anas bin Malik t said, “When the
Messenger of Allah r arrived in
Al-Madinah, the Abyssinians played out of joy for his coming. They played with
spears.”7

He t further said, “I was
running among the boys who were repeating, ‘Muhammad has come!’ I ran
but saw nothing. Again, they called out, ‘Muhammad has come!’ so I ran
but still I saw nothing until the Messenger of Allah r
and his Companion, Abu Bakr, truly arrived. We were then at some rocky ground
in Al-Madinah, so we sent a man from Al-Madinah to inform the Ansar.
Nearly five hundreds of the Ansar went out to receive them. The Ansar
said, ‘Go ahead, safe and obeyed.’ Thus surrounded by them, the
Messenger of Allah r
and his Companion drew near, whereupon (all) the people of Al-Madinah came out,
to the extent that even the maidens were on the housetops trying to catch sight
of him, wondering, ‘Which of them is he? Which of them is he?’ Truly, we
have never before seen a sight like the one we saw on that day.”8

Dressed in their best clothes and filled with longing, every
part of Al-Madinah was colored with joy for the arrival of Prophet Muhammad r, and the Ansari girls happily sang:

The full moon has shone
on us from the paths of Wada’

And thanking became due
on us as long as callers invite to Allah

O Messenger sent to us,
you have come with the command to obey9

The Ansar were not wealthy people, yet every one of them
wished that the Messenger of Allah r
would be his guest. Every house of the Ansar by which the Messenger of
Allah r passed gripped the
reins of his camel and said, “O Messenger of Allah, stay with us to have
company, provision, and protection.” He r
kindly said to them, “Release it (i.e. the camel), for it is commanded (by
Allah).”

The camel moved onward until it reached the site that is today Al-Masjid An-Nabawi [the Mosque of the Prophet r] and knelt down. The
Prophet r did not dismount
until it rose up again, walked a little further, turned back, and then returned
to kneel down at the very same spot.10

The Messenger of Allah r said, “This, by the
Will of Allah, is the landing place.”11 A most blessed place: (And
say, ‘My Lord, cause me to land at a blessed landing place. You are the Best of
those who bring to land.’)12

The Prophet r alighted in a quarter
inhabited by Banu An-Najjar, his maternal uncles. The people again began
inviting him to stay with them, but Abu Ayub Al-Ansary t hurried to take the
Prophet’s luggage inside his house; so the Prophet r gently excused
himself by saying to the people, “The man should be with his luggage.”
‘As‘ad bin Zurarah t
then stepped forward and took the reins of the Prophet’s camel and lodged it in
his place.13

From that day Al-Madinah became the City of the Prophet
r,
a new Muslim world having the mercy that Allah has sent to mankind on its land.
By his presence every corner of Al-Madinah became blessed, every corner of it
just shone.

Anas bin Malik t said,
“On the day (Monday) the Messenger of Allah r entered Al-Madinah,
every part of it shone; and on the day (Monday) the Messenger of Allah r died, every part of it darkened.”14