Arrival at Qubāʾ

The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr were traveling in the desert at the peak of the summer season. It was very hot. The guide then took them down the valley, and so to Qubāʾ, to the Banū ʿAmr ibn ʿAwf. It was now Monday, the twelfth of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, and the heat was extreme, the sun almost having reached its zenith. So it was in the middle of summer, very hot, when the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq, may Allah be pleased with him, made hijrah.

The Anṣār would go out of Madīnah every day in the morning in anticipation of meeting the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and greeting him, but when the heat became too extreme, they would go indoors. So one day they went early in the morning, waiting for the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), and when he did not show up, they went back in. There was a Jew who was climbing on one of their high buildings, and he saw Muḥammad (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr approaching. They were dressed in white. The reason they were dressed in brand new white clothes is because the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr met with al-Zubayr ibn al-ʿAwwām, who was coming back from a business trip to Syria, and he had just brought with him some new clothes, so he gave the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and Abū Bakr gifts, and these are the clothes that they put on when they went into Madīnah. So this Jew saw Muḥammad (peace be upon him) approaching, so he called out at the top of his voice, he said, "O Arabs, here is your man, arrived." So the Anṣār rushed toward their weapons and marched out to meet the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him).

One might wonder how it was that they were not already dressed in their weapons, or putting their weapons on. The reason could be that this was the tradition, that when meeting somebody or greeting him, one goes out carrying one's weapons, and this is still a tradition in some tribal societies, that when they would meet an important guest, they would take their rifles with them to greet that guest. The other reason could be that the bayʿah that the Anṣār gave the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was a bayʿah of protection. They were offering him protection, so they were carrying their weapons with them to show him that they were ready and prepared to serve him and protect him. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) arrived, and people started greeting him.

Now they had arrived at the outskirts of Madīnah, which is Qubāʾ, and the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stayed there in Qubāʾ for fourteen days. And that is when he built Masjid Qubāʾ, the first masjid in Islam. This masjid is special: if one makes wuḍūʾ at home and goes to Masjid Qubāʾ and prays two rakʿahs, it counts as if one has made ʿumrah. That is a special virtue to praying in the masjid of Qubāʾ. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stayed in a house called the House of Bachelors, because all of the men in there were bachelors, the house of Saʿd ibn Khaythamah. The Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) stayed there because all of the guests were coming in and out of the house, so he did not want to stay with a family and burden them with all of these people coming to meet him, so he stayed in this bachelors' house. And while he was there, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) sent messengers to Madīnah asking them permission to come in. So they sent him a large delegation, and they came and met the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) and said, udkhul āminan muṭāʿan — come in, and you are safe, and you will be obeyed. So the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him) was not coming to Madīnah as a guest, he was coming to lead the people of Madīnah. And they came and told him, "You will be obeyed." And Allah (swt) says:

Every prophet that Allah sent, or every messenger that Allah sent, He sent them to be obeyed. So the people should follow the messengers of Allah.