Emigrants are Commended and Promised a Reward while Non-emigrants are Threatened
The blessed Prophetic Hijrah (emigration) from Makkah to Madeenah is the most important incident in the history of the Islamic Da‘wah (call). It was a turning point in Islamic history. Before Hijrah, Muslims were a nation of Da‘wah, which communicated the Divine Call to people without having a political entity to protect the callers or fend off the enemies’ harm.
After Hijrah, the state of Da‘wah was formed and it shouldered the spread of Islam inside and outside the Arabian Peninsula by means of sending callers to countries and protecting them from any harm or aggression that might befall them, even if that led to war.
Moreover, the Prophetic Hijrah is a basis to understand the Quran and its sciences, for scholars differentiated between the Makkan and Madeenite revelation of the Quran. The Makkan Quran was revealed before Hijrah even if it was revealed in a place other than Makkah, and the Madeenite Quran was revealed after Hijrah even if it was revealed in a place other than Madeenah. The following are two of the most important benefits resulting from this:
1. This helps the individual to sample the styles of the Quran and benefit from them in the way of giving Da‘wah.
2. It also helps to learn the prophetic biography from the Quranic verses. Due to the importance of Hijrah, the Noble Quran urges the believers to emigrate in the cause of Allah, using different styles. In some places, it praises the emigrants and attaches commendable attributes to them. In other places, it promises the emigrants with a reward, and elsewhere it threatened those who lag behind.