Islam_in_Focus_text

organized from Mecca. They were driven to a point where
they could not stand any more persecution and threats. Their
families were separated from them by force. Their properties
were confiscated. Their blood was shed. They were forced to
leave their dear hometown in three waves of migration: two
to Abyssinia and one to Medina. They endured for over thir-
teen years. With the new tactics of the Meccan enemies
there was no course for Muslims except to await their final
annihilation in a plural massacre or defend themselves agai-
nst oppression and persecution.
It must have been a paradox. Islam came to assure them
of dignity and strength, freedom and security, and to ally
them with God the Supreme Source of goodness and help,
power and peace. Yet here they were helpless and anxious,
threatened and terrified. Islam commissioned them to estab-
lish peace, to enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, to sup-
port the oppressed and emancipate the subjugated, and to
prove how reliable and helpful to His bondmen God is. But
how could they do that, if they themselves were oppressed,
subjugated to terror and projected to helplessness?
What perplexed them most of all was that the Qur'an had
been silent or the matter, and had given them no specific in-
structions as to what to do. Their perplexity did not last long,
and God relieved their grief by a Divine resolution to solve
their problems and those of any who might find themselves
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