Hyrahbelieved him. (Abraham] said: " I wiUleave home for me sake of my Lord
tinni muluyinm ila Rabbi], for H e is almighty and wise.""87Hijrah is the exile of the conscience and of the heart from false gods,
from alienation o f all sorts, from evil and sins. Turning away from the
idols of o ne's time (power, money, the eult of appearances, etc.); emigrat-
ing from lies and unethical ways of life; liberating: o!H:~dr, Llnough the
experience of breaking away, from all the appearances of freedom para-
doxically reinforced by our habits-such is the spiritual requirement of
bijrah. Later on, questioned by a Companion about the best possible hijrall,
the Prophet was to answer: "It is (0 exile yourself [to move away] fro m
evil [abominations, lies, sins]."IZ This requirement o f spiritual exile was to
be repeated in different forms.
Thus, the J\'luslims who perfonned hijrah, emigrating fro m j"lecca to
f..l edjna, in effect experienced th e cyclical dimension of Islam's teachings,
since they had to achieve a new rerurn to th emselves, an emigration o f th e
heart. Their physical journey to Medina was a spiritual exile toward their
inner selves; in leaving mei r city and their roots, they came baek to th em-
selves, to their intimacy with God, to the meaning of their lives beyond
historical contingencies.
Physical hijrall, the founding act of the first Muslim community's and
the axis of its experience, is now over and will not happen again, as
Aishah forcefully explained to th ose in Med ina who wanted to relive th e
experience. Umar ibn al-Khauab was later to decide that th is unique event
\-'ould mark the beginning of me Islamic em, which begins in 622. \'Uhat
remains, and is open to everyone through the ages and for eter nity, is the
experience of spiritual exile, which brings tbe individual back to him-or
herself and frees him or her from (he illusio ns o f self and of the world.
Exile for th e sake of God is in essence a series of questions that Gml asks
each individual being: 11700 are )'Oul 117 hat iJ tbe meaning oj JOlfr life? Il7herr art
)'011 going? Accepting the risk of such an exile, trusting the One, is to
answer: Throllgh YOI/, I return to 1I1}1e![ amll am free.
Settlement and Covenants
The Prophet'S first words on arriYing at Quba informed the 1\'luslims of
their basic responsibilities: "Spread peace [JalamJ, feed the hungry, honor