The Impact of Prophetic Hijrah on the Societies of Makkah and Madinah

The aim of Hijrah is philosophically viewed as a way to spread Islam wisely. This was by Allah’s guidance and directive amidst the very bitter atmosphere in Makkah at that time against the early followers of the Islamic religion brought by the Rasulullah (pbuh). The prophetic Hijrah observed from the way it impacted Makkah and Madinah’s societies can be construed as a very important event that provided us with a variety of messages. It also acts as a reflection of our contributions to da’wah and the roles we can assume as good Muslims, by looking at what the Rasulullah (pbuh) and his companions had themselves sacrificed in the Hijrah. In short, Al-Hijra is the time when the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and his followers moved from Makkah to Madinah, where they set up the first Islamic state. Islam needed to expand and spread in the world, so the migration resulted in the expansion and preservation of Islam and Muslims. The Rasulullah (pbuh) migrated to Madinah when his enemies in Makkah mistreated him and his followers. It is a fact that the early Muslims in Makkah were greatly troubled by the unbelievers of Quraisy, the tribe of the Prophet (pbuh). The Rasulullah’s (pbuh) popularity in his da'wah efforts to invite his people to Islam was seen as threatening by the people in power in Makkah. The context of Hijrah was seen as urgent and timely as the unbelievers in Makkah had escalated the persecution against Muhammad (pbuh) and his followers. This persecution and a directive from Allah were the main reasons for the migration.

from Negation to Assertion: A Post Feminist Discourse Analysis of Bernard Shaws Selected Plays

This study investigated the role of gender and the game of power structures in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion and Candida by focusing on the functional use of language, and it is conducted with the viewpoint that Shaw highlighted Postfeminist tendencies through the construction of gender in his plays. The study is revisionist or rereading of Bernard Shaw in the light of Structural Functional model, which is based on the models provided by Sinclair and Coulthard and Carter and Burton. It examined the conversation in which the principal characters were involved by analyzing their acts, moves, exchanges and transactions. The results obtained from the analysis of both plays are highly revealing. In Pygmalion, there is a role reversal and the acts, moves and exchanges which are quite peculiar to Professor Higgins are adopted by Eliza towards the end of the play: throwing the slippers as an act of liberation. The study shows that Eliza’s sex remains the same, but her gender changes towards the end of the play when she decides to marry Freddy. In Candida, the maternal aspect of women is emphasized and recommended which refers to Shaw’s ambivalent attitude towards feminism as he tries to uphold patriarchy. The present study is a contribution to the field of language and gender issues that begins with the frameworks of deficient to dominance and difference. But the study tends to move away from an essentialist framework that regards gender as a fixed entity to a constructionist one that considers gender as a fluid social construct residing in interaction. As a result, the study reinforces Butler’s concept of gender as performative, that is, gender is a process which is neither complete nor consummate. Thus, the study upholds libratory and postfeminist tendencies as it helps to identify unequal gender relationship and sheds light on the maternal role of the female. This research is complementary to other approaches of text and is useful for students and teachers because it provides an objective way to explore and construct a response to a text independently. In other words, it equips us with a tool through which we can verify the subjective interpretation of a text made through thematic studies.