Cool Concepts
From Issue: 660 [Read full issue]
The Hijrah
Anyone who has fled from a dangerous or threatening situation to a place of safety has made hijrah. Anyone who has courageously said "no more" or "not today" to a destructive, unhealthy habit or relationship or situation and begun a journey to something better has made hijrah. Anyone who has broken free from a cage of restriction and entrapment, where all possibilities are closed and the light of hope has been all but blocked, and set out in search of a new place of hope and possibility and freedom has made hijrah. Hijrah is the dynamic principle that animates the very foundations of lived Islam, for it represents the daily migration to a better place, a better state, leading ultimately to a blessed reunion with the One who made us and opened up the prophetic pathways for us to come home.
Hijrah also stands unshakably as the cornerstone of Islam in history, for it was only after the Prophet made his historic migration to Medina that Islam, as a complete religion and way of life, came into full realization. For the very first time, the community was free to assemble and establish the complete and comprehensive way of life. For the very first time, the Prophet was able to lay foundations for a more organized and systematic expression of monotheism, foundations that - for many - are believed to manifest the ultimate synthesis of politics and religions in Islam. For this reason, Muslims have ever regarded the year of this hijrah as the first year of the Islamic calendar.
Compiled From:
"In the Light of a Blessed Tree" - Timothy J. Gianotti, pp. 101, 102