Answer:
Like Mecca, Yathrib was experiencing demographic problems: several tribal groups coexisted, descendants of its Arab Jewish founders as well as a number of pagan Arab immigrants divided into two tribes, the Aws and the Khazraj. Unable to resolve their conflicts, the Yathribis invited Muhammad to perform the well-established role of neutral outside arbiter (ḥakam). In September 622, having discreetly sent his followers ahead, he and one companion, Abū Bakr, completed the community’s second and final emigration, barely avoiding Quraysh attempts to prevent his departure by force. By the time of the emigration, a new label had begun to appear in Muhammad’s recitations to describe his followers: in addition to being described in terms of their faithfulness (īmān) to God and his messenger, they were also described in terms of their undivided attention—that is, as muslims, individuals who assumed the right relationship to God by surrendering (islām) to his will. Although the designation muslim, derived from islām, eventually became a proper name for a specific historical community, at this point it appears to have expressed commonality with other monotheists: like the others, muslims faced Jerusalem to pray; Muhammad was believed to have been transported from Jerusalem to the heavens to talk with God; and Abraham, Noah, Moses, David, and Jesus, as well as Muhammad, all were considered to be prophets (nabīs) and messengers of the same God. In Yathrib, however, conflicts between other monotheists and the muslims sharpened their distinctiveness.
