Chapter One: The Nature of the Land to Which the Prophet, Peace Be upon Him, Emigrated

The character of the land to which the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him, emigrated

What, then, was the land like to which the Messenger of Allah ﷺ emigrated, and in which he founded the first state of Islam?

Imam Ahmad, the two Shaykhs al-Bukhari and Muslim, and Ibn Ishaq relate that Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said: "When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ came to Medina, it was the most fever-ridden land on Allah's earth, and its valley ran with najl, meaning stale, fetid water. His Companions were struck by affliction and sickness there, but Allah turned it away from His Prophet."

In the Muwatta', Abdullah ibn Amr ibn al-As (may Allah be pleased with him) is reported to have said: "When we came to Medina, we were struck by a severe epidemic of its fever. The Messenger of Allah ﷺ came out while the people were praying their voluntary prayers sitting down, and he said: 'The prayer of one who sits is worth half the prayer of one who stands.'"

Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) also reported, as recorded in the Sahih, that when Bilal was stricken with fever he would say: "O Allah, curse Shaybah ibn Rabi'ah, Utbah ibn Rabi'ah and Umayyah ibn Khalaf, as they drove us out of our land into the land of pestilence." Then the Messenger of Allah ﷺ said: "O Allah, make Medina as dear to us as Mecca, or dearer. O Allah, bless us in our sa' and our mudd, make it healthy for us, and carry its fever away to al-Juhfah." She said: "We came to Medina when it was the most pestilent land on Allah's earth." And she said: "Buthan used to run with najl," meaning stale, fetid water.

Hisham said: Its pestilence was well known in the Jahiliyyah. Whenever a valley was pestilent and a man came upon it from the heights, he would be told: Bray like a donkey. If he did, the pestilence of that valley would not harm him. A poet had this custom in mind when he looked down upon Medina and said:

By my life, if dread of death should make me sound ... the donkey's tenfold bray, then I am a coward indeed

Imam Malik (may Allah have mercy on him) relates in the Muwatta', from Yahya ibn Sa'id, that Aisha said: Amir ibn Fuhayrah used to say:

I have seen death before I tasted it ... the coward's doom comes down on him from above

Ibn Battal (may Allah have mercy on him) said: "When the Messenger of Allah ﷺ saw the fever and pestilence that had befallen his Companions, he feared they would come to loathe the town, for souls find whatever they dislike a heavy burden. So he prayed to Allah to lift the pestilence from them and to make Medina as dear to them as Mecca, or dearer."

Such was the fever of Medina that struck the Companions of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. It struck so hard that Aisha (may Allah be pleased with her) said of her father and of Bilal: "I said, 'O Messenger of Allah, they are raving, out of their minds with the fever.'" Some of those who emigrated there even turned back on their heels because they could not bear its pestilence. It is established in the two Sahihs, in Muslim's wording, that a party of eight men from 'Ukl came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and pledged allegiance to him on Islam, but they found the land unwholesome and their bodies fell sick. In al-Bukhari's version, they found the climate of Medina disagreeable. In Ahmad's, they came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ, told him that they were herdsmen who lived on milk and not people of settled farmland, and complained of the fever of Medina.

And in the Sahih, Jabir ibn Abdullah reports that a Bedouin pledged allegiance to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ on Islam and then fell ill with fever in Medina. He came to the Messenger of Allah ﷺ and said: "O Messenger of Allah, release me from my pledge," but the Messenger of Allah ﷺ refused.

All this makes clear that the land Allah chose for His Prophet's emigration and for the establishment of His religion was a land of grievous pestilence and fetid water. Its affliction was so heavy that even senior Companions such as Bilal (may Allah be pleased with him), whose endurance of hardship was beyond question, found it overwhelming and invoked Allah against the disbelievers who had driven him there. And yet neither this pestilence nor that affliction could ever make it permissible for anyone to abandon the Abode of Emigration and turn back on his heels, as the stories of the men of 'Ukl and the Bedouin above make plain.

Patience in the face of Medina's hardships remained a mark of a person's felicity even after the death of the Messenger of Allah ﷺ. In Sahih Muslim: (Abu Sa'id, the freedman of al-Mahri, came to Abu Sa'id al-Khudri at the time of the events of al-Harrah and sought his counsel about leaving Medina. He complained to him of its high prices and his many dependants, and told him that he could no longer endure the toil and hardship of Medina. Abu Sa'id said: "Woe to you! I will not advise you to do that, for I heard the Messenger of Allah ﷺ say: 'No one endures its hardship patiently and then dies but that I will be an intercessor or a witness for him on the Day of Resurrection, if he is a Muslim.'")

After this hadith, al-Bukhari, al-Nasa'i and Imam Malik recorded the saying of the Messenger, peace and blessings be upon him: "Medina is like a bellows: it drives out its impurities and makes its good shine pure." And Imam al-Bukhari recorded in his Sahih the saying of the Messenger ﷺ: (I was commanded to go to a town that will devour other towns. They call it Yathrib, but it is Medina. It drives people out as the bellows drives out the dross of iron.)