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ity.
Today we will talk about the demographics of Madinah. Who lived there etc. We al
l know there were two major ethnic groups living in Madinah. The jewish tribes a
nd the arab tribes. The first question is, where did these jews come from? What
are they doing in the middle of Arabia? Secondly, which arabs are these? Whats t
he relationship between them and arabs in Mecca etc.
This issue is a publicised one. This is because one of the accusations against I
slam is that Islam is antisemetic. And the prophet PBUH had inclinations to disr
egard jews. And the way the three jewish tribes, the Banu Qaynuqa, the Banu Qura
yza, and Banu Nadir. were treated one after the other is the basis for this accu
sation. From this, this is a key dawah question asked by people to us. We will s
ee exactly what happened. Our basis is not political correctness.
Where did these jews come from? And what are our sources for the Madinah period?
One of the biggest problems is that non Islamic references have no record of je
wish tribes. There are references to jews in Arabia in other sources, but from t
he Islamic sources we get all of the details. This is problematic for non muslim
s because they say these sources are biased to defend the prohpet PBUH at all co
sts. They think anyone who opposes the prophet PBUH will be painted in a negativ
e light. So much so, they think the leader of the munaafiq a noble man. The same
applies to the other story aswell.
We begin by saying there are major theories as to where these jews came from.
1. These tribes were sent by Musa AS himself. That Musa AS sent a small group to
this land as he knew the prophet PBUH would be coming to Arabia - but why would
he send his people to such a land when Musa AS is the current prophet himself.
Also Isa AS came next.
2. Another theory is that the jews of Madinah settled in Madinah after they were
expelled in Jeresullam. Sulayman AS was the king and prophet all the jews were
in Jeresullam - and he built the big temple of Sulayman. Over the next 100, 1000
years the power of that collapsed; the roman came into charge, then the christa
ins and then the sassanids etc. So it was controled by different groups at diffe
rent times until Umar RA conquered. There were two major expulsions of the jews;
and according to scholars they consider these two to have been the two referenc
ed in surah Isra. Some modern scholars say this reference in surah Isra is to a
future event and not a past one. Majority of scholars have understood it to be h
istory i.e. the two expulsions:
2a) 587BC: Nebucant Neza surrounded Jeresullam and for the first time in the his
tory of the jewish empire, he destroyed the actual temple of Sulayman. It was a
structure the likes of which man had never been. It was one of the seven wonders
of the ancient world. One of them was reputed to be the haykal of Sulayman - an
d the reason was the jinn built it for him. Allah says in the Quran, the jinn we
re 'architects' and 'diving deep into the water' to get pearls and treasure. All
ah tells us Sulayman was given this, thus the temple of Sulayman was an amazing
structure. But then Allah willed the first destruction occured, when the origina
l temple was destroyed. And this was the first time the jews had to flee: its ca
lled a diaspere and since this time they have never had a unified land (until 19
47). We know for a fact the majority of them went to Iran until finally a king a
llowed them to come back. But alot of them still stayed in Iran, thus Iranian je
ws are the most ancient of jews. Also they went to areas of Iraq: early Ummayads
was full of jews (as was Kufa and Baghdad). Its also mentioned some jews went t
o Yemen, but some scholars say they went to Yemen only during the second expulsi
on. In any case there is one theory a small group went to Hejaz (Arabia). But th
is is doubtful as it seems far too early for the entrance of the jews. This was
How many people in Yathrib? Total population of the three jewish tribes seems to
be 2000 men. Adding the women and children, we can say roughly 6000 jews. We al
so know in the conquest of Mecca, the Ansar had 4000-5000 men participating, so
that's around 15,000 Arabs. So they were far more in number but the jews had the
power because they had the money, land and fortresses. So roughly around 20,000
people in Yathrib.
We conclude by talking about the prophet PBUH's arrival into Madinah. We discuss
ed the Hijrah and the various stories that happened along the way. So now the ne
ws has spread the prophet PBUH is about to arrive. Every single day the Ansar wo
uld go outside the city towards Kuba waiting for the prophet PBUH to come. Every
day they would go in the morning and wait until around 11AM until the son got t
oo hot. One day they waited for him, but went back to their houses as nothing ha
ppened. However in the distance the prophet PBUH appeared but there was no Ansar
there. It so happened on the jews was on the top of the tree plucking the dates
- so he was the first to see in the distance the prophet PBUH was coming. And t
he excitement of seeing the prophet PBUH he shouted out "Our Arabs your king has
arrived". Notice he says "your" - why? From the beginning they never expected t
he prophet PBUH to be their king, let along a ruler. The Ansar rushed out in hoa
rds hundreds of them. The prophet PBUH entered on a Monday in the 14th year of t
he dawah which is the 1st year of the Hijrah on the 2nd or 12th of Rabbi Awwal.
Al Bara ibn Azim narrates in Muslim "I saw the Ansar all dressed up and coming o
ut. Over 500 men came outside; all of them armed and dressed to accompany the pr
ophet PBUH. The women climbed up on the hosues. The prophet PBUH are surrounded
by hundreds of people all believing in him. For the first time we get a glimmer
of hope that change is in the air. There is a freshness happening that people in
the thousands are throwing themselves at him. And that we can sense the blessin
gs of Allah will flourish a new era.