The Muhajirun

The Muhajirun are the Muslims who left their homes in Mecca and emigrated to Medina. They left their money and houses behind, and the people of Medina — the Ansar — received them, made them brothers and shared their wealth and homes.

The Muhajirun in Islamic terminology are the Muslims who left Mecca and emigrated to Yathrib before the conquest of Mecca; the hadith books record that emigration ended with its conquest. Some emigrated secretly leaving wealth and family behind, some with family and money; among the first were Umar, Uthman, Ali, al-Abbas and others. The people of Yathrib — the Ansar — received them, and the Prophet ﷺ made a famous brotherhood between them and the Ansar, so they shared houses, palm groves and wealth. In Sunni standing they precede the Ansar by precedence, and the Qur'an mentions their faith, emigration and struggle.

The Muhajirun are the community that emigrated from Mecca to Yathrib before the conquest of Mecca, the first rank in the Sunni ordering of the Companions' degrees, superior by precedence. They emigrated in secret and open waves between the two pledges of Aqaba and the Prophet ﷺ's entry into Medina; some left family and wealth, and the Prophet established a famous brotherhood between them and the Ansar dividing houses, palms and property. The Qur'an mentions their emigration alongside faith and struggle in several verses, and the hadith books record that emigration ended with the conquest of Mecca. Among them was the early elite — Abu Bakr, Umar, Ali, Uthman, al-Zubayr, Talha, Sa'd, Sa'id, Bilal, Ammar and others — and among them men who witnessed Badr, Uhud and every event. Jurists and historians detail them: the people of the two pledges, those who emigrated before the great emigration, and questions like the ransom of the emigrant captive. Their formation is the nucleus of the Medinan society that carried the call into the era of the state.