Hijrah as the Line Between Belief and Disbelief

Hijrah represents the manifestation of the conflict between good and evil. Going back to the first days of daʿwah, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was for the first time exposed to revelation, and he just knew that he had become a prophet, he came down from the cave and he was very terrified and worried, so he went to his wife Khadījah, may Allah be pleased with her, and told her to wrap him in a garment — that is when the verses of yā ayyuhā al-muzzammil and yā ayyuhā al-muddaththir were revealed. So Khadījah, may Allah be pleased with her, told Muḥammad (peace be upon him), "Why don't we go to my uncle and consult him?" Waraqah ibn Nawfal was a wise old man who was literate, and he studied the early scriptures and read the books of the Jewish and the Christian faith, so he was a knowledgeable man, relatively speaking, in the environment of Arabia. So they went to Waraqah ibn Nawfal and talked to him, and Waraqah asked Muḥammad (peace be upon him), "What do you see?" The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) explained to him what happened. Waraqah ibn Nawfal said, "This was the angel Jibrīl, who used to come down to Mūsā. How I wish I were a young man again! I hope I am still alive when your people exile you."

It was a shock to Muḥammad (peace be upon him): "My people will exile me? How would that happen?" Muḥammad (peace be upon him) was the most beloved man in Quraysh. So what would cause them to drive him out of Makkah? Plus, in the tribal society, the tribe is everything, and the tribe does not forsake any of its members. So how could it happen that Quraysh, the noble tribe of Arabia, would drive out one of its members? So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) asked Waraqah and said, "Are they going to exile me?" Waraqah replied, "Yes. No one has ever brought what you have without being treated as an enemy. If I am alive when your time comes, I will give you every help." So Waraqah ibn Nawfal is speaking about a reality of the history of daʿwah: when a person comes up with the truth of Islam, this is what happens — people split into two camps. Allah (swt) says about the people of Thamūd:

So Ṣāliḥ, who was in a similar position to the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), very respected in his people, but when he started preaching the truth to them, when he started preaching Islam, when he started preaching the oneness of Allah (swt), they split into two conflicting camps. And that is why the Qurʾān is called al-Furqān. Al-Furqān is the criterion; it separates between good and evil; it splits the society into two. And the Battle of Badr is also called al-Furqān for the same reason. Thirteen years later, what Waraqah ibn Nawfal predicted did happen. Allah (swt) says:

So every prophet has enemies. That is the sunnah, the way of Allah (swt).