Abyssinia (al-Ḥabasha), the first land of refuge for the Muslims

In brief Eight years before the Hijra to Medina, a small group of Muslims persecuted in Mecca crossed the Red Sea to take refuge in al-Ḥabasha, the ancient kingdom of Aksum, on the lands of present-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. They were protected there by the Negus (an-Najāshī), a Christian king who came to believe in the message of the Prophet ﷺ. Islam found its first land of refuge in Africa. Why Abyssinia? Around the fifth year of prophethood, the persecution of the weakest Muslims by Quraysh became unbearable.

The Prophet ﷺ advised his companions to leave for Abyssinia. The biographers report that he described its king as a ruler under whom no one is wronged (Ibn Isḥāq, reported by Ibn Hishām, as-Sīra an-nabawiyya). The two emigrations The first emigration In Rajab of the fifth year of prophethood (around 615), eleven men and four women left Mecca in secret, among them ʿUthmān ibn ʿAffān and his wife Ruqayya, daughter of the Prophet ﷺ. They boarded two merchant ships and arrived safely. Having heard that Quraysh had embraced Islam, several returned: the news was false.

The second emigration The persecution intensified, and a larger group left in turn: more than eighty men according to Ibn Isḥāq, not counting women and children. Jaʿfar ibn Abī Ṭālib, the Prophet's ﷺ cousin, was among them. Before the Negus: Jaʿfar's speech Quraysh sent ʿAmr ibn al-ʿĀṣ and ʿAbd Allāh ibn Abī Rabīʿa, laden with gifts, to obtain the extradition of the refugees. The Negus refused to hand anyone over before hearing them. Jaʿfar spoke: he described the life of his people before Islam (idol worship, severing family ties, oppression of the weak), then the message of the Prophet ﷺ: to worship Allah alone, to speak the truth, to return trusts and to honour family ties.

At the king's request he recited the opening of Sūrat Maryam, and the Negus wept. The next day, ʿAmr tried to turn the king against them by asking what the Muslims say about Jesus. Jaʿfar answered: هُوَ عَبْدُ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولُهُ وَرُوحُهُ وَكَلِمَتُهُ أَلْقَاهَا إِلَى مَرْيَمَ الْعَذْرَاءِ الْبَتُولِ "He is the servant of Allah, His messenger, His spirit and His word which He cast into Mary, the chaste virgin." (Aḥmad, al-Musnad, no. 1740, narrated by Umm Salama) The Negus picked up a twig from the ground and declared that Jesus did not exceed what Jaʿfar had said by even the thickness of this twig.

He sent back the envoys of Quraysh and returned their gifts. Umm Salama testified: "We found in him the best of neighbours." (Aḥmad, no. 1740; chain judged good, ḥasan, by specialists) A land of safety The Muslims practised their religion there in peace for many years. It was in Abyssinia that the marriage of the Prophet ﷺ to Umm Ḥabība bint Abī Sufyān was contracted; the Negus paid the dowry on his behalf (Abū Dāwūd, no. 2107). Jaʿfar and his companions only joined Medina in year 7 AH, at the time of the conquest of Khaybar.

The Prophet ﷺ said to these "people of the ship": وَلَكُمْ أَنْتُمْ أَهْلَ السَّفِينَةِ هِجْرَتَانِ "And you, people of the ship, you have two emigrations." (al-Bukhārī, no. 4230) The death of the Negus and the prayer in absentia Abū Hurayra (may Allah be pleased with him) reported: أَنَّ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ ﷺ نَعَى النَّجَاشِيَّ فِي الْيَوْمِ الَّذِي مَاتَ فِيهِ، خَرَجَ إِلَى الْمُصَلَّى، فَصَفَّ بِهِمْ وَكَبَّرَ أَرْبَعًا "The Messenger of Allah ﷺ announced the death of the Negus on the very day he died.

He went out to the prayer ground, lined the people up in rows and said four takbīrs." (al-Bukhārī, no. 1245; Muslim, no. 951) Jābir reported that the Prophet ﷺ said that day: قَدْ تُوُفِّيَ الْيَوْمَ رَجُلٌ صَالِحٌ مِنَ الْحَبَشِ، فَهَلُمَّ فَصَلُّوا عَلَيْهِ "Today a righteous man from Abyssinia has died: come and pray over him." (al-Bukhārī, no. 1320) The Negus's name was Aṣḥama (al-Bukhārī, no. 1334). The prayer in absentia according to the four schools Ḥanafīs: the funeral prayer over an absent person is not prescribed, since the presence of the deceased before the imam is a condition.

The prayer over the Negus was specific to the Prophet ﷺ (ad-Durr al-mukhtār, with Ibn ʿĀbidīn's Radd al-muḥtār). Mālikīs: the same position: one prays only over a deceased person who is present (al-Qarāfī, adh-Dhakhīra). Shāfiʿīs: it is prescribed for any deceased person outside the town, by intention, facing the qibla (an-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ). Ḥanbalīs: it is prescribed, but only within a month of the death (Ibn Qudāma, al-Mughnī). Other scholars, including Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn al-Qayyim, retain it only for a deceased person over whom no one has prayed, as was the case for the Negus.

What is less certain The description of the Negus as a king "under whom no one is wronged" comes from the Sīra narratives (Ibn Isḥāq); its chain does not have the solidity of the authentic collections. The exact number of emigrants varies according to the sources (ten, eleven or twelve men for the first emigration). Some exegetes link verses 82-83 of Sūrat al-Māʾida to Christians who came from Abyssinia; this link is not established with certainty. The year of the Negus's death is debated; year 9 AH is the most cited.

What this story teaches us Islam was welcomed in Africa even before it was established in Medina. The justice of a non-Muslim king protected the believers: acknowledging this justice is part of fidelity to the facts. Several great figures of the first community were themselves from Abyssinia, such as Bilāl and Umm Ayman. Sources al-Bukhārī, Ṣaḥīḥ, nos. 1245, 1320, 1334 and 4230; Muslim, Ṣaḥīḥ, no. 951. Aḥmad, al-Musnad, no. 1740 (Umm Salama's account); Abū Dāwūd, Sunan, no. 2107. Ibn Hishām, as-Sīra an-nabawiyya (after Ibn Isḥāq); Ibn Ḥajar, Fatḥ al-Bārī.

Ibn ʿĀbidīn, Radd al-muḥtār; al-Qarāfī, adh-Dhakhīra; an-Nawawī, al-Majmūʿ; Ibn Qudāma, al-Mughnī.