Encyclopedia of Islam

Hijra

  

299  J

---

recently, leaders of radical Islamic movements 

have called upon their followers to abandon j

ahil

-

iyya

 society, the society of infidelity, and prepare 

for 

Jihad

 against disbelievers in imitation of the 

first Muslims of Medina. One of the most famous 

of these groups was the Egyptian Jamaat al-Mus-

limin (Muslims Group), which was known to the 

international media as Jamaat al-t

akFir

 

Wa

’

l

-h

iJra

(the Excommunication and Emigration Group). 

It was founded in the mid-1970s but quickly sup-

pressed by the Egyptian government. Hijra has 

been used in a more secular sense by Arabs and 

Muslims to describe their migrations to Europe 

and the Americas to find employment.

See also  c

hristianity

 

and

  i

slam

; 

dar

 

al

-i

slam

and

 

dar

 

al

-

harb

; J

Udaism

 

and

 i

slam

; 

reneWal

 

and

reForm

 

movements

; 

sharia

; U

sman

 d

an

 F

odio

.

Further reading: Zakaria Bashier, Hijra: Story and 

Significance (Leicester, U.K.: The Islamic Foundation, 

1983); F. E. Peters, Muhammad and the Origins of Islam

(Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994); 

W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and States-

man (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1964).

hilal

  See 

moon

.