Who are the <b> <i>Sābiqūn</i> </b>? From the Companions of the Tree to the <b> <i>Muhājirūn</i>:</b> The Story of a Controversy and its Implications for the <b> <i>Umma</i> </b> (1st–2nd/7th–8th Century)

Abstract The Sābiqa is a key concept in the early Islamic tradition, mainly referring to the precedence of the first converts to Islam, particularly those who migrated from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina. In this paper, I argue that the emergence of this discourse is rooted in a controversy regarding the identification of the Sābiqūn al-awwalūn mentioned in verse 100 of Sūra 9, al-Tawba . Alternative definitions of the Sābiqūn coexisted and vied with this discourse, progressively shaping the contours of the umma between the first/seventh and the second/eighth century. In the first/seventh century, the Sābiqūn were often identified with Companions who swore an oath of allegiance to Muḥammad at al-Ḥudaybiyya, or with Companions who first prayed toward Jerusalem, then toward Mecca. At the turn of the second/eighth century in Medina, the question was rather with whom identify the Muhājirūn al-awwalūn . The following century saw the gradual imposition of a major model for the founding of the first community of Believers centered on the emigration from Mecca to Yathrib/Medina. Locating these discourses posed the challenge of partially breaking away from the mold of the Islamic tradition to revisit the first/seventh century, before hadith became widespread among Muslim scholars. To achieve this, motifs, that is, coherent semantic units related to these discourses, were recorded in an SQL database and subsequently extracted to construct digital diagrams illustrating their transmissions.