The Muslim calendar does not begin with the birth of the Prophet ﷺ. Nor with the first revelation. It begins with a move. For more than fourteen centuries Muslims have counted the years from an event that looks modest on a map — a journey of about 400 kilometers from Mecca to a small oasis town called Yathrib. This journey is called the Hijra, and it changed the course of history so much that it became the starting point of an entire civilization.
Why a move, rather than the birth of a prophet or the beginning of prophethood? A deep meaning is hidden in that choice, and we will return to it at the end. For now, let’s go through it in order: what forced the Muslims to leave, how the migration itself unfolded, and why it turned a persecuted community into a full-fledged society.
To understand the Hijra, you have to understand what they were fleeing. For thirteen years in Mecca, the Prophet ﷺ and the first Muslims lived under mounting pressure. First mockery, then boycott, then outright persecution: torture, exile, an economic blockade of an entire clan. Weak Muslims with no protection were tormented; some had to seek refuge as far away as Abyssinia.
To this were added personal losses — the “Year of Sorrow,” when the Prophet’s wife Khadijah and his protective uncle Abu Talib died almost at the same time. Mecca left no room for Islam to live. A land was needed where the community would not be destroyed.
That land turned up unexpectedly. People from Yathrib — a city worn out by years of feuding between its tribes — used to come to Mecca during the pilgrimage season. A few of them embraced Islam, returned home, and the message began to spread.
A year later a group from Yathrib met the Prophet ﷺ secretly at a place called Aqaba and gave him a pledge — the first Pledge of Aqaba. A year after that a larger delegation came, and the second pledge took place: the people of Yathrib committed to receiving the Prophet ﷺ, to protecting him as they protected their own, and to giving the community a home. In essence it was an invitation: come and be ours.
The Quraysh sensed the threat. If the Muslims grew strong in Yathrib, which sat on a trade route, Mecca would lose its leverage. And then, by the tradition, the tribal chiefs drew up a plan to assassinate him: so that the blame would not fall on one clan and trigger a blood feud, the blow was to be struck by representatives of different clans at once — collective responsibility diluting the retribution. The Quran mentions this scheme (Surah Al-Anfal, 8:30).
But the plan was made known. And then begins what may be the most tense night in the history of Islam.
On the night of the assassination, the Prophet ﷺ asked his cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib to lie on his bed, covered with his cloak — so that the conspirators watching the house would think he was inside. Ali agreed, putting himself at risk. It was an act of enormous trust and courage.
The Prophet ﷺ himself slipped out unseen and made his way to the house of Abu Bakr, his closest friend, who had long been preparing for migration and kept camels ready. The two of them slipped out of the city and headed not north, toward Yathrib, as the pursuers expected, but south — to throw the chase off their trail.
They took shelter in a cave on Mount Thawr and spent three days there, by the tradition, until the search died down. The Quraysh announced a reward for their heads and combed the surroundings. By one account, the pursuers came right up to the mouth of the cave. Abu Bakr was afraid — not for himself, but for the Prophet ﷺ. And then came the words the Quran preserved: “Do not grieve, for Allah is with us” (Surah At-Tawba, 9:40).
Here it is honest to say: the widely known and beautiful detail — a spider weaving its web across the entrance, and a dove building a nest, to create the impression that no one had entered the cave in a long time — appears in later reports that are weak in authenticity. So scholars treat it with caution. The fact of sheltering in the cave, and the verse about the words of support, are a firm part of the story. It is more mature to separate the solid core from later embellishments.
When they continued on their way, Suraqa ibn Malik set after them, tempted by the reward. By the tradition, his horse stumbled and sank into the ground several times as he drew near. Realizing something unusual was at work, Suraqa turned back — and later, years afterward, embraced Islam. In the tradition this episode is read as a sign: the protection lay not in swords but from above.
Reaching the outskirts of Yathrib, the Prophet ﷺ stopped at the village of Quba. There he laid the foundation of the first mosque in the history of Islam — Masjid Quba. It was not just a house of prayer but a symbol: the community finally had a place of its own, openly and without fear.
When the Prophet ﷺ rode into Yathrib, the people came out to meet him with joy — words of gladness were composed about that welcome that are remembered to this day. Every clan wanted the Prophet ﷺ to stay with them. So as not to offend anyone, by the tradition, he let go of his camel’s reins and said the place would be chosen wherever she stopped. The camel knelt on an open lot — and it was there that the Prophet’s Mosque (Masjid an-Nabawi) was built, around which the center of the city began to grow.
From this moment Yathrib received a new name — Madinat an-Nabi, “the City of the Prophet,” shortened to Medina.
Then came what turned the move into the foundation of a society. Those who arrived from Mecca were called Muhajirun — “those who made the hijra”; the locals who received them, Ansar — “the helpers.” Many of the Muhajirun came with nothing, having left their homes and property in Mecca.
The Prophet ﷺ established mu’akhah between them — a bond of brotherhood: each of the Ansar took a “brother” from the Muhajirun, sharing with him shelter, food, and means, helping him get back on his feet. This was more than charity — it was a new model of society, in which the bonds of faith proved stronger than those of clan and tribe. The generosity of the Ansar entered history as a model.
Not only Muslims lived in Medina: there were Jewish tribes and other groups. The Prophet ﷺ concluded an agreement — a document often called the Sahifat al-Madinah, the “Constitution of Medina.” In it the various communities of the city were recognized as a single body in matters of common security, while the Jews kept their faith and internal affairs.
This was an early example of the contractual ordering of a composite society: different groups, shared rules of coexistence, protection against external threat. The Hijra gave Islam not only refuge but its first experience of statehood.
Let’s return to the question from the start. The calendar was established later, under the caliph Umar, when a unified system of dating was needed. And the choice fell not on the birth of the Prophet ﷺ, nor on the first revelation, but on the Hijra.
There is a whole worldview in this. Birth and revelation are a gift that a person receives. The Hijra is a deed, a choice, an action: people left their homes, their property, their familiar lives for the sake of faith and to build something new. Islam counts its time not from what happened to people, but from what people did themselves. The era begins not with a miracle, but with resolve.
If the topic caught you, here is where to dig:
By comparing several biographies, it is easier to see where the sources agree, and where a detail belongs to later and less reliable reports.
May Allah help us to make our own hijra — to leave what hinders faith for the sake of what strengthens it.
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