Emigration

More and more people were becoming muslim

and refusing to worship the old man-made gods,

and this challenged the authority of the tribal family chiefs,

and many of them saw this challenge as

one that could be dealt with using force.

And some of the new muslims were rich enough

and powerful enough within their families

that they could stand up against the bullying

and abuse that they had to suffer.

But the poor and powerless

and those owned as slaves

could do nothing to resist.

And as the Messenger saw how much his community was suffering

at the hands of those who would not accept that God is One,

he said to some of them that they might escape their beatings

by travelling to the land of Abyssinia.

There they would find a land ruled by a just king, known as the Negus,

who was sincere in his Christian religion,

and who protected and cared for those under his rule.

So some of the new muslims

decided to try to escape.

Now if they had left all at once they would have been noticed,

so they left in small groups, meeting up when they arrived

and eventually forming a community of about eighty adults

plus all their children,

and in Abyssinia they were welcomed

and had complete freedom to worship God in the way that the Messenger had showed them.

But the family leaders of the Qureysh were not happy

that these new muslims had escaped the punishments they had in mind for them,

and they were determined to get them back.

So they chose two men,

one of them being 'Amr ibn al-'As,

to travel to Abyssinia

taking with them

a lot of expensive presents for the Negus

and his generals.

When they arrived, they approached the generals separately,

giving each a present

and saying that these refugees from Makkah were just foolish people

who had left their own religion for one they had invented,

and that the nobles of their people,

their fathers, uncles and families,

wanted them returned home.

So the generals agreed that when the matter was raised with the Negus,

they would advise him to hand over the muslims to 'Amr ibn al-'As.

They also promised to advise the Negus not to speak to these refugees,

on the basis that their own families knew what was best in the situation.

But when the matter finally came to the attention of the Negus,

he did insist on hearing what the muslims had to say for themselves,

and rejected the Qureysh demands that they be sent back to Makkah.

And with that the muslims stayed in Abyssinia

under the Negus's protection

for the next two years.

Why did the Abyssinian king give the muslims his protection?