Hegira

The Hegira or Hijrah (Arabic: هِجْرَة‎), also romanized as Hijra and Hejira, is the migration or journey of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Yathrib, later renamed by him to Medina, in the year 622 CE. In June 622 CE, after being warned of a plot to assassinate him, Muhammad secretly left his home in Mecca to emigrate to Yathrib, 320 km (200 mi) north of Mecca, along with his companion Abu Bakr. Yathrib was soon renamed Madīnat an-Nabī, literally "the City of the Prophet", but an-Nabī was soon dropped, so its name is "Medina", meaning "the city".

The Hijrah is also often identified erroneously with the start of the Hijri calendar which was set to Julian 16 July 622.

First Hijrah

The first Hijrah is dated to 615 or Rajab (September-October) 613 when a group of Muslims counseled by Muhammad to escape persecution in Mecca arrived at the court of a Christian king, the Negus in Ethiopia (who ruled Abyssinia at the time). Muhammad himself did not join this emigration. In that year, his followers fled Mecca's leading tribe, the Quraysh, who sent emissaries to Ethiopia to bring them back to Arabia. However Negus refused to send them back.

Islam

Islam (/ˈɪslɑːm/;Arabic: الإسلام‎, al-ʾIslām IPA: [alʔisˈlaːm]) is a monotheistic and Abrahamic religion articulated by the Qur'an, a religious text considered by its adherents to be the verbatim word of God (Allāh), and, for the vast majority of adherents, by the teachings and normative example (called the sunnah, composed of accounts called hadith) of Muhammad (c. 570–8 June 632 CE), considered by most of them to be the last prophet of God. An adherent of Islam is called a Muslim (sometimes spelled "Moslem").

Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable and that the purpose of existence is to worship God. Muslims also believe that Islam is the complete and universal version of a primordial faith that was revealed many times before through prophets including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Muslims maintain that the previous messages and revelations have been partially misinterpreted over time, they are nevertheless all obliged, according to the Qur'an, to treat the older scriptures with the utmost respect.

Shia Islam

Shia (/ˈʃiːə/; Arabic: شيعة‎ Shīʿah), an abbreviation of Shīʻatu ʻAlī (شيعة علي, "followers of Ali"), is a branch of Islam which holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad's proper successor as Caliph was his son-in-law and cousin Ali ibn Abi Talib. Shia Islam primarily contrasts with Sunni Islam, whose adherents believe that Muhammad's father-in-law Abu Bakr was his proper successor.

Adherents of Shia Islam are called Shias or the Shi'a as a collective or Shi'i individually. Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam: in 2009, Shia Muslims constituted 10–13% of the world's Muslim population.Twelver Shia (Ithnā'ashariyyah) is the largest branch of Shia Islam. In 2012 it was estimated that perhaps 85 percent of Shias were Twelvers.

Shia Islam is based on the Quran and the message of the Islamic prophet Muhammad attested in hadith recorded by the Shia, and certain books deemed sacred to the Shia (Nahj al-Balagha). Shia consider Ali to have been divinely appointed as the successor to Muhammad, and as the first Imam. The Shia also extend this "Imami" doctrine to Muhammad's family, the Ahl al-Bayt ("the People of the House"), and certain individuals among his descendants, known as Imams, who they believe possess special spiritual and political authority over the community, infallibility, and other divinely-ordained traits. Although there are myriad Shia subsects, modern Shia Islam has been divided into three main groupings: Twelvers, Ismailis and Zaidis, with Twelver Shia being the largest and most influential group among Shia.

Š-L-M

Shin-Lamedh-Mem is the triconsonantal root of many Semitic words, and many of those words are used as names. The root meaning translates to "whole, safe, intact". Its earliest known form is in the name of Shalim, the ancient God of Dusk of Ugarit. Derived from this are meanings of "to be safe, secure, at peace", hence "well-being, health" and passively "to be secured, pacified, submitted".

Arabic salām (سَلاَم‎), Maltese sliem, Hebrew Shalom (שָׁלוֹם), Ge'ez sälam (ሰላም), Syriac šlama (pronounced Shlama, or Shlomo in the Western Syriac dialect) (ܫܠܡܐ) are cognate Semitic terms for 'peace', deriving from a Proto-Semitic *šalām-.

Given names derived from the same root include Solomon (Süleyman), Selim, Salem, Salim, Salma, Salmah, Selimah, Shelimah, Salome, etc.

Arabic, Maltese, Hebrew and Aramaic have cognate expressions meaning 'peace be upon you' used as a greeting:

Hijra

Hijra or Hejira may refer to:

Arabic word for "migration"

Other uses

See also

Hijra (South Asia)

Hijra (for translations, see ) is a term used in South Asia – in particular, in India – to refer to transwomen (male-to-female transsexual or transgender individuals). In other areas of India, transgender people are also known as Aravani, Aruvani or Jagappa.

In Pakistan and Bangladesh, the hijras are officially recognized as third gender by the government, being neither completely male nor female. In India also, transgenders have been given the status of Third gender and are protected as per the law despite the social ostracism. The term more commonly advocated by social workers and transgender community members themselves is khwaaja sira (Urdu: خواجه سرا‎) and can identify the individual as a transsexual person, transgender person (khusras), cross-dresser (zenanas) or eunuch (narnbans).

Hijras have a recorded history in the Indian subcontinent from antiquity onwards as suggested by the Kama Sutra period. This history features a number of well-known roles within subcontinental cultures, part gender-liminal, part spiritual and part survival.

HIJRA

Humanitarian Initiative Just Relief Aid (HIJRA) is an African humanitarian organization focused on the implementation of emergency and resilience programming in the greater Horn of Africa; Somalia, Kenya and Uganda.

Background & Administration

The organization was founded two decades ago in Somalia, by a collective group of professionals and community members to response to the unprecedented crisis following the collapse of the Somalia state; taking the acronym HIJRA to represent the displaced in the region.

HIJRA is headed by an Executive Director and supported by line management in programs and program support. Collectively, these individuals represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise in program development, management, administration, human resources (HR), logistics, information technology (IT), finance, fundraising and communications.

The organization works through its head office in Nairobi, Kenya; supporting 3 country program offices, 126 staff members and over 371,000 beneficiaries.