What are the reasons and circumstances behind the change of the name "Yathrib" to "Al-Madinah," and when did this happen and who carried it out? Was it by divine command or prophetic ijtihad? And why did the Quran not describe "Al-Madinah" as a village, as it described "Makkah"?
The city was called Yathrib in the pre-Islamic era (Jahiliyyah) after the first person who settled there after the dispersion, Yathrib ibn Qaynah. The Prophet, peace and blessings be upon him, named it Al-Madinah, Taybah, and Taba, out of dislike for the name Yathrib, which means change or corruption. Its naming as Al-Madinah has been affirmed in the Quran, such as in His, the Almighty's, saying: "It was not [fitting] for the people of Madinah and those around them of the Bedouins" (Surat At-: 120). Linguists hold that a word can become a proper noun through prevalence for one of its specific instances, such as Al-Madinah (the city of the Messenger), Al-Bayt (the Sacred House), and Al-Kitab (Sibawayh's book).
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