THE VANGUAD OF MIGRATION (in the Cause of Allâh)
After the endorsement of the Second ‘Aqabah Pledge and the establishment of a petite Muslim state in  a vast desert surging with disbelief and ignorance — the most serious gain in terms of Islam —, the
Prophet (Peace be upon him) gave his leave for the Muslims to migrate to Madinah, the nascent
Muslim  state.
Migration to Madinah, in terms of personal interests, was no more than material waste and sacrifice of  wealth, all in return for personal safety only. Even here, the migrant could not expect full security; he  was liable to be robbed or even killed either at the beginning or end of his departure. The future was  foggy, pregnant with various unpredictable sorts of sorrows and crises.
Bearing all this in mind, the Muslims began to migrate, while the polytheists spared no effort in  hindering and debarring them, knowing beforehand that such a move implied unimaginable threats  and  unthinkable destructive dangers to their whole society:
1. The first one to migrate was Abu Salamah, a year before the Great ‘Aqabah Pledge. When he had  made up his mind to leave Makkah, his in-laws, in a desperate attempt to raise obstacles,  detained his wife and snatched his son and dislocated his hand. Umm Salamah, after the  departure of her husband and the loss of her son spent a year by herself weeping and lamenting.
A relative of hers eventually had pity on her and exhorted the others to release her son and let  her join her husband. She then set out on a journey of 500 kilometres with no help whatsoever.
At a spot called At-Tan‘im, ‘Uthman bin Talhah came across her and offered to give her a ride to
Madinah. She, along with her son, joined Abu Salamah in the village of Quba’, a suburb of
Madinah.
2. Another instance of the atrocities of the polytheist Makkans, as regards migration, is Suhaib. This  man expressed his wish to migrate and of course this was a source of indignation to the  disbelievers. They began to insult him claiming that he had come into Makkah as a worthless  tramp, but their town was gracious enough and thanks to them he managed to make a lot of  money and become wealthy. They gave orders that he would not leave. Seeing this, he offered  to give away all his wealth to them. They eventually agreed to release him on that condition. The
Prophet heard this story and commented on it saying:
“Suhaib is the winner, after all.”
3. Then, there was the story of ‘Umar bin Al-Khattab, ‘Ayyash bin Abi Rabi‘a and Hisham bin Al-‘Asi,  who agreed to meet at a certain place one morning in order to leave for Madinah; ‘Umar and
‘Ayyash came but Hisham was detained by the Makkans.
Shortly afterwards Abu Jahl, and his brother Al-Harith came to Madinah to see their third brother
‘Ayyash. They cunningly tried to touch the most sensitive area in man, i.e. his relation with his  mother.
They addressed him claiming that his mother had sworn she would never comb her hair, nor shade  herself off the sun unless she had seen him. ‘Ayyash took pity on his mother, but ‘Umar was  intelligent  enough to understand that they wanted to entice ‘Ayyash away from Islam so he cautioned him  against  their tricks, and added “your mother would comb her hair if lice pestered her, and would shade herself  off if the sun of Makkah got too hot for her.” These words notwithstanding, ‘Ayyash was determined to  go and see his mother, so ‘Umar gave him his manageable docile camel advising him to stick to its  back  because it would provide rescue for him if he perceived anything suspicious on their part. The party of  three then set forth towards Makkah. As soon as they covered part of the distance, Abu Jahl  complained  about his camel and requested ‘Ayyash to allow him to ride behind him on his camel. When they knelt  down to the level of the ground, the two polytheists fell upon ‘Ayyash and tied him. They rode on into
Makkah shouting at people to follow their example with respect to ‘fools’
These are just three self-explanatory models of the Makkans’ reaction towards anyone intending to  migrate. Nevertheless, the believers still managed to escape in successive groups and so rapidly that  within two months of the Second ‘Aqabah Pledge, entire quarters of Makkah were deserted. Almost all  the followers of Muhammad had migrated to their new abode, except Abu Bakr, ‘Ali, the Prophet
(Peace  be upon him) himself, and those helpless noble souls who had been detained in confinement or were  unable to escape. The Prophet (Peace be upon him) , together with Abu Bakr and ‘Ali, had made all