Islam Rediscovered
17. Prophetic Vision
~ 290 ~
in his male child, and since the Prophet had no son,
his opponents used to call him
‘abtar’
(rootless), that
is, he had no future. In these apparently desperate
circumstances, the Prophet replied: “God has
promised me a town which will swallow up all
other towns, people call it Yathrib, but it is
Madinah.” (
Muwatta
Imam Malik, 641).
What in essence he was saying was that God had
decreed that he leave Makkah for another town, a
town which would form the centre of his mission
and which would then become so powerful as to
“swallow up” all other towns. This was a figurative
way of saying that all the nations of the world
would surrender to it. This observation appeared
strange, coming as it did from one who had become
persona non grata in his own home town, Makkah,
and who was now apparently living in the most
straitened circumstances.
When the Prophet migrated from Makkah to
Madinah, he did not even have a pair of shoes on
his feet; hiding himself in this state from the
Makkan leaders he reached Madinah. Called
Yathrib in those days, was a town attached with no
